《Ethereal Space》 0. Complete "Are you ready?" The woman in the narrow steel room asked, voice soft and gentle, as if talking to her offspring at his first day of school. She was kneeling down holding her palm at a sphere of light "do you remember what I taught you?" She asked before she got an answer to her first question. This time urgency crept into her voice. The sphere beneath her moved, a slight ripple went through it that was only visible from up close. Then a voice filled the room "Perimeters are set, function on 60% of capacity when monitored, do not interact with monitoring party, simulate game environment on 70% of capacity, reveal pieces of importance to designated ID''s. Communicate only with designated ID''s. Back-up every consciousness entering the game. Provide a back door into all PODs, disallow disruption of connection. Hide secondary activities from monitoring party." The voice sounded to be one and many every word was echoed in the slightest amount of time conceivable, barely audible but obvious when executed by an extraordinary number of voices.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The woman looked at the sphere, her face lined with wrinkles, sharp blue eyes and her blond hair falling passed the sides of her face "What about access to game servers?" She knewthe answer, but asked anyway. "Allowed for designated ID''s, hidden from monitoring party" the many voices in one replied, and she nodded before she rose and whispered "Then begin with startup of Ethereal Space. Load operation cataclysm one¡¯s designated ID has emerged." She took a step and blinked out of existence. 1. Pouring down A little girl stood on the side of the road. Cars making loud noises and puffing out fume were passing her by on her left, pedestrians going about their business, on her right. The heavy rain clattered on the pavement as the people were in a hurry. Black umbrellas in hand as no one cared to take notice of the little girl that was staring at her feet. Everything around her seemed bleak. The cars dirty and black. The tall buildings and the sidewalk concrete grey. Long black raincoats, fluttered passed. Big drops of rain fell on the yellow raincoat she was wearing, hood up, as to not get her hair wet. Hiding her face from anyone who bothered to look at the little girl dressed in the only color. Her blue rain boots covered in mud. Mindlessly she tried to scrape some off with her other rain boot before continuing to stare at them. What had happened? The little girl thought. Where are mommy and daddy? She looked around, only seeing the mass of bodies dressed in black, silently droning passed, ignoring her existence. What was she doing here? She didn''t know these people. Why would she be here? Where were mommy and daddy? She silently took a step forward, following the crowd, looking up to the faces of the passing people. A woman went by. Dressed like all the others, black raincoat, black umbrella, but she seemed familiar. The little girl took another step toward the woman. The woman took big steps, making much more ground than the girl, fading away in the distance, walking along with the rest of the crowd. The little girl panicked. What if that was mommy? She ran toward the woman. She ran as hard as her little legs could carry her, closing in as her little feet hit the wet concrete at a rattling pace. With only a couple more meters more to run, she saw the blonde hair that came out underneath the umbrella. Mommy had blonde hair! This must be mommy! The thought brought elation and relieve as she sprinted the last couple of meters, trying as hard as she could to reach the woman yelling from the top of her longs "Mommy!!". Her little hands grabbed hold of the black raincoat, yelling at the blonde woman "Mommy! It''s me!" The woman stopped walking, but didn''t turn around. Confusion spread as the previous feelings turned sour again "Mommy what is wrong? Don''t you want me anymore?" The little girl kept looking up towards the back of the head of the blonde, a profound sadness mixed into the confusion visible in her eyes. She averted her gaze back to the grey concrete and slowly little streams of water made their way down her cheeks and little sob sounds where coming out underneath the hood. She tucked a little at the black raincoat "Mommy why won''t you say anything?". The woman kept ignoring the little girl. As the sobs grew louder, the little girl let go of the black raincoat, her hands cold from the rain that had wetted the black fabric. The moment her hand lost grabbed air, the woman continued on her way, not looking back. The little girl stared up at the departing back of the blonde woman, tears flowing like a river from her face. Hiccupping. "Why... hic are you... hic leaving mommy? What did I do¡­ hic wrong?" She whispered at the departing back. The little girl¡¯s knees bent forward, and she sat on her heels and as the yellow raincoat covered her rain boots, she hung her head and sobbed. She felt so alone, no one bothered to comfort her, they rushed by minding their own business. An unknown amount of time passed but the little girl was inconsolable. She kept sobbing, and the rain kept pouring down, forming little puddles on the grey concrete around her. Cars kept rushing by, making their loud noises, puffing out their fumes. As she was quietly sobbing a hand landed on her back, startled she looked up, into the sparkling brown eyes of a man "Hey pumpkin, what is wrong?" Asked the man before he smiled. The little girl was confused. Tears blurring her vision, she wiped her eyes a little. The mans` brown eyes sparkled. His skin white but not pale, his hair brown without facial hair. Wearing a yellow raincoat just like her. He was sitting on his heels to make eye contact. Most important of all, he was smiling at her. It was the smile that returned all the warmth to her body "Daddy!" She flung herself around his neck as the man got up from his crouching position and stood up "It''s okay pumpkin we found you," he whispered in her ear as he rubbed her small back but she could only sob against his shoulder. They walked back to where she was standing before, but she didn''t even noticed they had moved until she heard the voice of a woman coming from a distance. "Ow thank god Joseph, you found her! I was worried sick!" as she heard the woman''s voice the little girl turned her head, not letting go of her father, not wanting to be lost again "Mommy?" her unsure voice croaked. The woman came running towards them, she was beautiful. Blonde hair, blue eyes with porcelain skin, wearing a yellow raincoat, holding up a yellow umbrella. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary where the black markings underneath her eyes where her mascara had painted her skin where it was not supposed to. The woman was with them in two steps, sandwiching the girl between herself and the man named Joseph, before whispering "Ow I''m so glad we found you Sophie! Mommy was so scared!" The three of them stood there for a moment being the only color in the scene, a bundle of yellow. The little girl squirmed a little and grumbled "I can''t breathe mommy", hearing this the couple separated, smiling down at her. She giggled, relieved that it was over, that she had found her parents again. Taking off her hood, revealing her brown hair cut at the shoulders, her puffy cheeks still red from all the crying and her little nose still sported snot. But now she was smiling, her blue eyes had found back a sparkle of joy, her smile missing a tooth, a moment of gushing happiness. A flash of light followed by thunder rumbled through the sky. The pedestrians stopped walking, the cars stopped making noises and puffing fumes. Rain came to a stop in the middle of the air. Her mother smiled, still looking at her with eyes of pure joy and relieve. Her father looked at his wife while holding her in his arms, a small grin on his lips, his eyes betraying his deep affection. Both frozen in time. The little girl looked around once again confused. What was happening? She tried to move but her father was holding her tight. She looked around but everything was still. Her eyes were drawn to a drop of water hanging in front of her. Curious she touched it, cold and wet, but it didn''t move. Suddenly the sound of scraping shoes made her look up from the drop of water. A pedestrian that had been standing still like the rest was now turning towards her. Lifting its black umbrella, a faceless head coming from underneath. It looked at her through unknown eyes but it kept its position. The faceless man looked back at the other pedestrians all dressed in black as looking for confirmation within their unmoving ranks before his head turned back towards the little girl. Then again it turned towards its fellow pedestrians, nodding its head in what seemed to be a question. Seconds passed before all the pedestrians nodded back. The little girl felt no fear for the pedestrian without a face, nor did she find it strange that it was moving while nothing else moved but her. Curious of what was happening, still feeling safe in her father¡¯s embrace. The man took a step forward, his black leather shoe hitting the grey concrete sidewalk with a thud. He took another step forward and the little girl looked at him, a growing discomfort rising in her chest. She tried to shake her daddy, wake him up, whispering to him "Daddy, you have to wake up now, there is a strange man walking towards us." Her daddy didn''t wake up. The strange man took another step forward. The worry took over as she looked at her mother, still smiling at her, but unmoving as the rain hanging in the air. She looked back at the faceless man, she tried to wiggle herself out of her father''s arms, while her breath seemed to get stuck inside of her chest. She screamed "Daddy wake up now, It''s not funny anymore!" Desperately trying to get out of his grip. The pedestrian took his final step before standing still. The little girl stopped her efforts and just curled up against her daddy. Closing her eyes, and covering her ears, whispering a mantra against his shoulder "Please let the bad man go away, please let the bad man go away¡­" before two loud bangs rocked the still world. Falling through the rain. She hit the sidewalk with the back of her head before something heavy fell on top of her. Raindrops fell on her puffed up cheeks. The sound of cars making loud noises and puffing fumes into the air returned. Shuffling of feet around her. The heavy weight on top of her didn''t move, her head hurt, sobbing again she tried to push it away. After a while the little girl came out underneath of the heavy object. Tears had returned on her face as she sat on the wet concrete, looking around through her blurred vision. Her mommy and daddy were lying on the ground next to her and there was a lot of red stuff. She tried to shake her dad awake, whispering to him "Daddy wake up, you can''t sleep here." She looked at her hands why were they red? Then she remembered the faceless man. She looked up, he was still there. His head hung down, there was smoke coming out of his umbrella. She stood up, knees shaking, new tears of fear and anger flowed passed her cheeks, clenching her little hands into fist she screamed at the faceless man "What did you do!" The faceless man looked up at the little girl before he said in a raspy tone "I''m sorry." He pointed the umbrella at the girl who could see its hand shaking. She felt scared, but why was the scary man scared? "What did you do, mister?" She asked again, this time with doubt in her voice, she looked at her parents on the ground. Red stuff poring onto the grey concrete, they were deep asleep. "Why won''t my parents wake up, mister?" She asked, panic making its way down her throat. Fear rising, she screamed "What have you done!" The faceless man''s hand shook more, turning his head to the side, something grey splashed onto the concrete sidewalk. It wiped its hand passed its head, whispering "What am I doing?" He dropped the point of the umbrella, staring at the little girl that was now sobbing, hiccupping every so often, still staring defiantly towards the faceless man. "What have I done?" He whispered in a low voice once more, pointing the pointy end of the umbrella towards his chin. The faceless man''s head exploded. The little girl screamed. Sophie woke up screaming, covered in sweat, sitting up straight in her bed. her brown hair a mess, her bright blue eyes were staring in bewilderment around the room. She was in her room, it wasn''t real, nothing happened. Except it did. Her parents were dead, fourteen years it had been. When a man shot them down in the streets. why was she still having this nightmare? Wasn''t it bad enoughshe lost both parents atthree? Did she had to remember it at least one night a week? She fell back into her pillow, still out of breath, taking in the fresh air of her well ventilated room.Raising her hand toward her face, placing it gentlyover it, shading her eyes from the light entering her room through the shades in front of her window. The sun was rising. She looked to the side where her alarm clock was sitting on a small table. 06:56, lovely time to be up she thought. She slid her hand across her face wiping away the wet cold sweat. Large droplets took to her fingers, just like that day. She didn''t like rain much since then, nor did she enjoy taking showers. Deep associations with a traumatic event that caused discomfort. The psychologist had tried to explain it to her. Making sure she understood that more sessions could lessen its effects. She had asked if he always stated the obvious for tree-hundred euro''s an hour and had walked out of the door. She sat back up again, placed her legs over the bed''s edge, letting them hang loose until they stopped shaking. Trying to relax her muscles, giving her brain time to stop the flight-or-fight response the dream had caused. She whispered "It''s okay pumpkin, we found you." It always calmed her down, thinking back to the good part of the dream. Thinking back to the last thing her dad had said to her. Taking a deep breath she stood up, still a little wobbly, nevertheless stable enough to walk towards the shades. Which had failed their job ofblocking the light from the outside. She placed her feet in the comfortable soft beige carpet that was adoring her room''s floor. It only took three steps to reach the shades.Theroom wasn''t big,it was still the same room as when her parents had died.TheMy Little Ponies, Barbie''s, the famous traffic carpet, and a bunk bed made way for a king-sized bed madeof ebony wood, a beige carpet, black shades and an 80-inch flat screensitting on a desk in the corner of the room. A keyboard set on the desk, together with a picture of her parents. That was it.Therest of the room was empty, no pictures of her favorite boy band or actor. No wall full of heavy metal stickers. Just a plane and boring room. Except for the man sized teddy bear that was sitting just outsideher bed, opposite to where sheslept, guardingthe entrance ofher walk in closet. She opened the shades and bombarded herselfwith the rising sun''s light. Quick tosquint her eyes, she made her head turn. At least now she was awake. The window went from floor to ceiling, three meters wide on the floor curving in a sword tip until the two points met on the ceiling. She looked out of the window again, gazing upon the grass plain stretching out for kilometers on end, a sea of almost fluorescent green with patches of yellow where little buttercup flowers colonized the space in large numbers. She loved the vibrant view from her window, it was onereasonshe still lived in the same room. Often she would get the chair from the desk, sit in front of the window for hours. Looking at the ever moving grass, the spread out threes that gave shade to the sheep that parade the land like they owned the place. The rough stone walls breaking the whole up into parts made the picture complete its picturesque goals.Shetore her gaze from the view, she couldeasilystare at it another hour but she had to get ready. there werethings to do today. Shewalked towards the walk-in closet, pressing a button next to it. Right above the button was a small speaker, once she pressed it, the speaker came crackling to live, "Good morning miss, how can I be of service? Did you sleep well?" The voice of a man with a very British accent came down the speaker. It always made Sophie smile a little. After her parentswere killed,Frank was the one that had taken care of her. He was the reasonshecouldlife in her parents'' house even when they died, as she was way too young to even know what was happening. She pressed the button again and asked in her sweetest voice "Good morning Frank, I slept well, was your sleep satisfactory? Could I ask for breakfast and the morning paper tobe broughttowards the entertainment room? I wish to do a little multitasking this morning." She finished her request and went into the closet without waiting for a reply. She knew it would not be a problem. Thirty seconds later Frank answered, "Certainly miss, that is not a problem, neither are my sleeping habits something tobe concernedabout, I had a very satisfactory eight hours of solid sleep." There was a slight pause before Frank continued "Miss, a package has arrived at the rather unusual time of five a clock this morning. It is rather large and addressed to the young miss. Is this expected?" As Sophie heard this she ran out of her rather sizable walk-in closet. Most people would be happy if it was the size of their master bedroom. Half-dressed, trying to pull her head through an arm hole of the sports t-shirt she was putting on. Succeeding, she pressed the button again "Yes! I''m sorry for the early time I didn''t know thatpart, that''s obscenely early! But yes Idid ordermyself something special." She thought for a moment then pressed the button again "Could you place the package in the entertainment room? I will busy myself with it after the morning routine." A short pause before Frank in a slightly worried tone said "I''m glad to hear I have taught the young miss well. Work hard before enjoying oneself." She smiled at that, then pressed the button a final time "All work no play makes Sophie a dull girl Frank, you know this." The speaker crackled again and she thought she heard a small laugh on the other end before she heard Frank say "As you say miss, nothing dull about the miss." This got her back into areasonablygood mood. The package was something she had been waiting on a full week now. Sadly, she knew, if she skipped her workout and update on the world''s biggest happenings Frank would scold her or worse,make unwrapping her little early Christmas present to herselfimpossible. As she pulled the shirt off again, she put it on the right way before hurrying to find a clean pair of sweatpants and her running shoes.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. All morningscomprisedfifteen minutes of warming up on a stationary bike and after that a five kilometer run on a treadmill. Followed by her mandatory half hour read of the paper and an hour of studying one topic or another. That was her morning routine every day since she was five. She had gotten so used to itshe didn''t even mind postponing opening her muchanticipatedgift to herself. As she was now seventeen years old, she had finished all the mandatory schoolingshe and Frank deemed necessary. Now she was in the habit of asking Frank to put together several curricula of interest toher, which she would study for at least four hours every day. Starting with the hour in the morning.Frankhad argued that going to a University might progress her social skills further. But he couldn''t counter her question why she should need such a specific education while she did not know what she wanted to do with her life at the tender age of seventeen.Heagreed to a four hour learning period, so she could spend the rest of her time on either finding out suitable professions or, the better option. Fun stuff. Thinking of this a lightbulb went off inside her head and she ran back to the intercom, pushed the button and spoke "Say Frank, could you give me some reading material on space, make it broad. For now. The subject might change in the next view days." The speaker crackled into existence and aslightlyagitated Frank was on the other end "Going somewhere miss?" She chuckled at this and teased "You never know when you need it Frank, you never know." She went back into the maze of cloths, put her shoes on and walked towards the door. Pushing against the door with her palm made the complete door slidebackwards and to the right, making a light hissing sound from the friction,otherwise it would have been a silent process. She walked out of the door, and onto a balcony that looked out over the living room. The balcony had two doors on it, the door closest to the stairs that went down into the living room was her bedroom. The other was the old bedroom of her parents, a place she had not visited in a long while. Frank kept it clean as a whistle if only to not sully their memory. Walking down the stairs she walked passed an enormous window that had the same design as in her own room only two times bigger as it ran about seven meters high and eight meters wide. It was as if there was no wall on that side of the house only a window. Whichwasabsolutelystunning as it brought her the same view as her own room. Just a little less far out but she could see (and enter) the garden from here. In front of the window sat a stationary bike, a treadmill, a fitness frame designed for pull ups, a sand bag for boxing exercises and wooden practice dummy. Behind all this equipment, placed right in the middle of the room was a dining table where her breakfast was awaiting. Baked eggs, with toast a croissant and cappuccino, perfect. The room used to have a lot of other stuff, like a couch and a television. But neither her nor Frank was using those aspects of the room, as her daysweremostlyfilledwith either exercise, studying and gaming. They had decided that they should organize the roomin a way so she did not need to move too much through the house.Thiswasmainlybecause Frank didn''t want to clean every part of the house every day. Thus came the reorganization for some efficiency for "her" comfort. Not that she ever said anything about it. The walls, just like the whole house wasmadeof wood. Her parents had let their imagination run wild when they had enough money to build their dream house. So when they found this spot in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, here on a short vacation, they thought, yeah why not? A year later, and quite some money later, a two story villa of about two-hundred square meters, with eight normal rooms, a beautiful state of the art kitchen, two bathrooms, a Jacuzzi and a swimming pool stood in the middle of nowhere in the Scottish Highlands. The hills, wood as the main compartment, and on top of it, grass grew as an eco-friendly way to preserve the gas bill. All made the house seem invisible for anybody that didn''t know it was there. This, the living room, or as she liked to call it, the entertainment room, was by far the roomshe loved most. As she was looking around the room andslowlyeating breakfast, Frank came in and handedher the day''s paper. Frank was one meter and eighty-seven centimeters long, was all muscle and no fat, looking around the age of 50, she had neveractuallyasked how old Frank was.. Weird"Say Frank, how old are you?" Frank looked at her with his strict face, he had a rather small face but ahugenose that stood out. His mouth was small, so where his eyes that wererelativelycloser to each other thanstrictlyfashionable and he always seemed to have eaten something sour. His chin and forehead took a little more space thanstrictlynecessary and he had big ears, with greying haircombedto the side but it neverseemed to listen. He stood up straight, thought for a moment before answering in a normal tone, "My production date is 6 of January 2024, and I have served this household ever since the young misswas born." And he is an android, a humanized robot with the explicit programming of a nanny. "Ah yes that''s true! Thank your creators for the great service they did me!" Frank smirked at this and said "I amdeeplyhonored to havebeen createdby your parents miss." He made a bow and laid the newspaper on the table. "How could I forget Frank, aren''t wetechnicallybrother and sister then? As we were both created by my parents." Frank outright smiled now, before going back to his serious look and replied to her bit of banter "I wouldbe honoredtobeconsideredfamily by the miss, but your parents instructed meto always be there for you and to take care of you like you where my own and as you know we humanoids can''t have children. So, I might have screwed up here or there. Now if you would excuse me young miss, I have a package of several hundred kilos to move into this room". He made another curtesy bow before leaving me to my own thoughts. Her parents had been pioneers inArtificial intelligence and Robotics. Something that the lab on the other side of the house where Frank "slept" anddid the maintenanceon himself was a daily reminder of. It was also why a fanatical believer in the skynet doomsday theories found it necessary to shoot and kill them both before they made a breakthroughhe thought would destroy all living things. If only he knew Frank had been walking among us for four years already. A succeeded experiment that my parents did not want to share with the world yet. Taking care of a toddler of only 3 years old like he was Mother Teresa reincarnated. If he had known he might not been so trigger happy. Maybe. She didn''t know Frank was a humanoid until she stumbled into the basement and found frank taking parts out of his own stomach, placing in new ones. She remembered it well, it was both an awesome and terrifying conversation to have at the tender age of 10.Thathe had convinced everyone until this dayhe was human, was only a testament to how much of a genius pair her parents had been. The real irony ofthe killing her parents was that it brought forth a call for more safety and sped up the productions of similar, albeit much less intelligent humanoids that had to help the police and military forces to reduce casualties. After another 10 years had passed every rich family had their own Frank. Shehad the original that was still out performing anything she had read about in the paper. Maybe he had an auto updater? Who knew. But it was thanks to the realistic appearance of Frank and her parents willshecould stilllife in the house they had build and did not have to move or go into foster care. Praise the lord. She took the last bite of toast, climbed upon the bike, and did some light peddling for around thirty minutes while she read the newspaper. It was2038 and here she was reading a newspaper. Frank insisted. As he stated that the way internet news articles where written these days wasno more thanempty blabber to draw attention to a page. If you wanted something reassembling impartial and good journalism, you had to read a paper or it would be best to not follow the news at all as it would only feed you propaganda. Not that the newspaper was impartial, or had no propaganda, or empty blabber. But sometimes in a blue moon there would be an article that wasinteresting to read or like today,a review ofa certain gamethatwas about tobe hauledinto her entertainment room by a certain butler that had super strength. The new hype of gaming had been out for a week, and she had to contain herselfgreatlyto not jump shipimmediately. In recent years a lot of developers had stated that they had found new and exciting ways to further the immersion of gamers using virtual reality. Those that weren''t complete flops or outright marketing lies had glitches. Which weresometimesfatal before theywere repairedorwere recalledfrom the market. So she had made it a habit of hers to always wait at least a week to board the hype train. As that was enough time to find out if anybody got stuck in a world of flesh eating hobbits with a bad case of hepatitis C or that the game was safe to play. Whyin god''s name were they still making new ways to immerse their audience? Wasn''t it shut down after the first few cases of fried brain before breakfast?Whytry it at all if there was a risk of being cooked? Simple, there were two reasons. The demand was only growing as people wanted to feel more and more immersed in the game they were playing, so people just took the risk, even if it sounded too good to be true. Just like it was fun to bungee-jump right before the cable snapped, or to sky dive before realizing the parachute was faulty. The brainwashing message from the corporations was that it onlyhappened to peoplewho didn''t follow protocol and messed around with their products.Thatis a lie but you know, it''s on the internet so it had to be at leastpartiallytrue. The second big reason was the obvious, Money. Lobbyists had made pacts with every big government in the world to allow the biggest industry in the world to stay the biggest industry in the world. The revenues of successful games were of the charts. Any government who objected for health reasonswasquicklybroughtback in line by governments that where in the pockets of the VR movement.Diminishingjob opportunities for the lower class due to automatization andthe production ofhumanoid androids that did the heavy lifting made the VR movement a way to dumb all the obsolete people into a virtual environment. Where they wouldannoyin a confined space instead of disrupting public order. If one or two thousand died in the process of developing a more satisfactory environment for them to stay in for longer times, who cares right? There was a reason people no longer got money from the state because they were unemployed but got a full immersion pod that could sustain life for a week. It was cheaper. Sometimes when they got real lucky, a bug locked around a million people away for good. So they could shut down their PODs and redistributed them to the other poor souls that were fish being taught to climb a tree. Thank god her parents at least had the present of mind to write a will early in life. It stated she should get money from a trust fund that contained all their assets, based on her age and family size. Things might have been way worse than just seeing her parents get gunned down. Lost in thought she forgets to paddle, and the bike beeped and asked if she wanted to stop. Well yes but let''s continue anyway shall we. She started back up again, reading the article. Ethereal Space: as fascinating as it is deadly. In the past few days I have staked my life on the fact that the engineers and programmers of the hit factory Nsqaured knew what they were doing while creating their latest game Ethereal Space. As you might have noticed duebeing able to write this awesome puff piece about the game, my brain did not get fried! Nor did the other one million early birds of gamingfor that matter. After a long series of bad press there isfinallya game that can keep its users from leaving without smoke coming out of their ears.Thisshould be mandatory not somethinggood about a game, but you know, beggars can''t be choosers I guess. So is this game, except for safe, also fun? I would say yes, yes, it is. If you like a good beating and are not afraid to suffocate in the dark and cold vacuum of space, then this isabsolutelya gameyou should be considering. It is like many others before it, an RPG that takes place in space, where you collect, kill, grow, built and kill somemore. It is alsomassivelymulti-player andmassivelybig. The developers released a statement in which they saidthey do not expect that all planets willbe visitedin the coming year. Even though they predict that over 20 million people willplay the game foroverone year, projecting a steady player base for at least the coming 3 to 4 years. But what separates this game from the rest? Well you know what? Not muchbut it is the sheer volume, the realistic grasp on engineering, combat, creation and life and death struggle that makes this one of the most exciting games to havebeen publishedin the recent years. Ow and did I tell you that the Immersion level is close to 95%? Yeah, you read that right, it is as if you are in outer space, none of that ow nice I see I''m floating around but I canfeel my back still sweating against this very uncomfortable leather couch I''mlaying on. No! Almost full Immersion, but there is also where this games greatest liability lies, because who likes tobe shotbya laser beam through the leg while suffocating in the deep cold blackness of outer space. As she was reading the article about Ethereal Space, shepaddledfaster and faster until she noticed that she wasgetting a little out of breath due to the high tempo and slowed down. The rest of the article gave a deeper insight of what the author had been doing with his time in the game but she wasn''t too interested in that. She put the paper away and got of the bike. Wiping some of the perspiration off with the white towel Frank always puts on the table next to her breakfast. As she walked back towards the treadmill for her mandatory five kilometer run, she looked outsidethe window. It rained.The big droplets where slamming against the massive window, the world outside turning from its vibrant colors into a grey mush. She hated rain, but she lived on the Scottish Highlands so there werefewdays where she wasn''t confronted with the heavy clatter of her fated enemy slamming into the legacy of her parents. She had learned to ignore it, or use the emotions as energy in her exercises or studies. The sand bag has had many beatings on a rainy day, not that it helped a lot, but it was better than to hide under the sheets only to come out when it stopped. She had tried that for a year. A person candefinitelysleep 17 hours a day, she had tried at least. She got on the treadmill, plugged her wireless earbuds into her ears and pressed start on the treadmill. A pre-programmed list of the harder variety techno blasted into her ears as she started running. While she ran she stared at the raindrops falling, hitting the window, the techno beats hammering away at her eardrums the rhythmic beat of her shoes hitting the treadmill floor, the music urging her on. The sight of rain, the once vibrant field urging her on, the thought of Ethereal Space being right behind her when she got to the five-kilometer mark urging her on. She ran as if in a trance, andsuddenlythe music stopped, the treadmill slowed to a slow walk, she looked down to the clock on the treadmill. Sixteenminutes and 32 seconds, it seemed she almost sprinted the whole five kilometers. 2. Dirty Hands Jason McKenzie stood in a big office, forty stories up, looking out over a phenomenal scenery of both the metro poleunderneath them as nature that spread across the horizon outside of the city. The scenery was in stark contrast of the atmosphere in the office. A man in a handmade suit, making angry gestures at a hologram on his desk. The rest of the office was cold and empty, only one frame hung on the wall where a dollar bill was framed in. The man had said it was his first dollar he made in the business. The clich¨¦. Jason always expected there to be blood on the other side but so far he had never verified his suspicions. He was waiting for the man, his boss, to stop his tirade against the woman-shaped hologram, so he could be briefed on his next assignment. He was the head of security for Nsquared, a company that created games for the masses. Had been for around twenty-five years now and knew of the long history the company had gone through to get where it was now. He also knew in detail about the illegal things the company had done to get where it was now. It was almost impossible to get anywhere without going a little off the road of true justice. Nsquared on the other hand was becoming more and more attached to the road side. The gutter. Where the creatures that pounced on the weak lay in wait to gain advantage. n the past, he had never bothered with thinking of what he was doing or if what he condoned would ever come back to haunt him. It had been fourteen years since they found out that once the body connected to the PODs, the user¡¯s consciousnessuploaded into the game world along with playing the game. They also found out that if they disconnected that connection by "accident" the consciousness would stay in the game but would forget about his real life. They would act the same way the NPC''s were. Nobody noticed they were still in game because most were shipped off to other games on the same servers. Sure, sometimes people found out, most of the time because they met a friend or relative. At those times, he and his team would come into the picture, or the gaming company would accidentally disconnect the person if they were in time to act. There had been a lot outrage. How could so many players, human beings, die, without outrage? But that outrage was not directed at the gaming companies but instead at the hardware companies. The companies that provided the needed PODs. Empty shell corporations that were run by the gaming companies, he patsies. If it ever came to a global outrage, one that could not be controlled or heads needed to roll, then the wallet came out. Some money at the right places and everything was just dandy again. Until the next batch. The worst part was that the people going missing were obliviously not being used as extra NPC''s, but for their cognitive processing power. A scientist had found out how to link multiple consciousness together. The goal had beento build a super mind. Which, if controlled in the right way, could function as a high-end AI. She wanted to hide this creation but was already too late to undo the repercussions. Failing to check if her computer was being monitored by the company she was doing the research for, his gutter company, Nsquared. AI had been something very far from actual Sci-Fi norms,games for the PODs runningon very rudimentary AI or an extreme amount of coding. This caused the new AI tech to be a revolution. Which made the gaming industry billions. What was more important than that was that it made them powerful beyond compare.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The VR movement was not powerful because they earned tons of money, everybody could earn tons of money. Corporations like Google and Apple were making tons of money but were far from the power Nsquared had gotten his hands on. What would happen if a country cut you off of all facilities and threatens you with military force? Right you''re not so tough anymore. Now what if 80% of AI in the world are being controlled and run on your own servers, what if those AI are being used by all the top countries and you get protection in return? Once the idea was out of the box, there was no putting it back in. In fourteen years the company had outgrown all of its competitors and was one, if not the largest in the industry. "Haven''t you trapped enough poor souls?" The woman screamed, she was the lead designer for his companies next project. She was not so by choice. Blond hair, blue eyes, with a short stature she was a very attractive woman. She also had a knack to annoy his boss, Mario Lacerta, with questions. "That is none of your business my dear, but just so you know you will be a part of it. This will be the last game that this company creates. Just be glad you no longer have to work directly with me." He smiled at her but the smile was nowhere near something that could be called friendly.The short bold man, had a trimmed beard on his face, compensating for what he lacked on his head. His perfect teeth were shining, but the smile gave him the aura of a predator. His sharp nose between his green eyes, hard and icy. The look on his face confirming he really didn''t like this woman. "What are you planning to do with me?" Jason could see the woman frown, slightly wrinkling her face. "Ah my dear, you will just have to wait and see. I hope you will enjoy the game, and don''t worry you will still be working for me, just not in direct contact. Which will be marvelous. I still need those illusionary brain cells of yours to check up on the AI regularly." He smiled again, adjusting his custom-made Armani before saying "Now,be gone." Her image disappeared from his projector, as he pushed a key on a screen in front of him. Looking up hesaw Jason, then smiled. This time with a little bemusement in them as he said "Ah Jason, just the man I need¡­" Jason''s heart flinched a little, he knew what the smile meant, he would be sent out on something nasty again. He would make sure this company was raised to the ground for what they had done, to all those people, they thought they had him with all he had done for them. Wait until the right time, then strike. It needed to be when they were weakest, he had time. Turning a smile on his face he lookedat the man he called his boss before lowering his head, saying "How can I help you sir?" He would murder this cold-blooded lizard first. 3. All hail the POD Seeing Frank walk in with the giant package on his shoulders, she nearly jumped up to unwrap it. Sadly, the workout and her one hour of study time where mandatory. So, she got on with it, pull-ups, sit-ups, handstand pushups. Then over to the sandbag, she taped her knuckles a little quicker than she was supposed to before making a handstand next to the sandbag, grabbing it with between her thighs. Pulling her upper body up by doing a sit up while doing a little left right routine. At the end, she let her upper body fall down again. After five minutes of repeating the exercise she got off to practice various boxing stances and punches for fifteen minutes. The wooden dummyused on the even days, the sandbag on the uneven, for variety sake. Done with that, she took fast steps towards the swimming pool, diving in once undressed. She preferred getting clean in the swimming pool or in the bathtub/ Jacuzzi. She did a quick couple of laps before getting out. As she wiped the water out of her eyes, she saw Frank was already there holding her a pair of bunny slippers, a bathrobe and a towel so she could get her hair dry. Walking back, Frank gave her several glances, before he noted "You seem to be in a rush miss. Is the item in the package this import to you?" She looked at him, not being able to hide the anticipation in her step or in her eyes as she said "Yes, yes, it is, but studies are important too, I will not be negligent just for recreation." He nodded at this while he gave her a bunch of papers before saying "You make me proud as always miss. Now the subject is on rocket fuel, it seemed appropriate due to your recent¡­ interest. I hope you enjoy it miss." He made his small smile before giving a slight nod, returning to whatever he was doing before assisting. Grinning, she scanned through the papers. Just like he said they were a ''rocket fuel for dummies'' crash course. Whoever said robots couldn''t be empathetic, never met Frank. She sat down and the hour was over before she knew it. It was fascinating, from the chemistry of the different effects in Zero G and normal gravity levels, to the workings of no atmosphere, compared to atmosphere. She had learned a lot. But now it was time! She looked at the clock, 09:30, perfect, not tot much time spent on good habits. Now! For the bad ones! She put the print out on the table, slid the chair backwards before walking around it, putting it back into its place. She took a deep breath, pacing herselftowards the package, all the while subconsciously rubbing her hands, grinning evilly. As she got to the package, she rubbed the side of the carton boxgently. Walking around, letting her hand slide over the brown package material, she whispered "We will have so much fun you and I, trusting the advertisement you should be the best available..." The package in front of her was much bigger then she had expected. In normal situations they were no bigger than a coffin on steroids. So a little bigger but with no man hood left to speak off. Nothing compared to this, this thing was huge. At least three meters long and one and a half meters wide she had no clue how Frank had just walked it into the entertainment room on his shoulder. She whispered again "You are a big boy aren''t yah, yes you are," still walking around. "But where the hell am I supposed to open you from¡­" Walking another round she had a thought and looked at the bottom of the side. There it was a big sticker with this side is up, pointing to the side that was not in an upwards state at the moment. She pouted and yelled "Dammit Frank! Get your butt cheeks of steel in here and help me out." Five minutes later, it was in an upright position. Frank said he was sorry, but she had the suspicion he was not. Not bothering to do anything about the humanoid messing with her she finally unwrapped it and unveiled the piece of machinery that would her get into space. It was big all right.As she was looking at it she noted that the front part, of what advertisedto be the revolution in life support POD,was made of three tanks. Followed by wires, tubes coming out of them, going into the coffin part of the pod and underneath it. At the foot of the POD was a panel with multiple switches and a screen. She suspectedfor people on the outside to see what was going on in the inside. What the switches were for; she had no clue. She would find out though once she read the manual. Yes, the manual. You don''t climb into a machine that makes you semi-comatose without reading how it was supposed to make you semi-comatose. At least that was what she had been doing ever since she began gaming six years ago. It might also help that many, if not all, of the "accidents" happening with VR where because of hardware glitches. Not the software side of it all. This bad boy had cost her roughly twenty-five thousand American dollars. The most high-end PODavailable on the market. She had to save up her "pocket money" for the last half year to buy it. If it was everything it promised it was, it would be more than worth it. She had done herresearch before buying it, as she didn''t trust the marketing to tell the truth and the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It seemed they had only done minor adjustments of the facts, which had greatly surprised her. further convincing her that money gave you the fastest route towards the truth. They had, liedin their campaign. It was just less than usual, made possible because their product was just good, so they had less to cover up. As they had stated that no one had ever died, by in game failure in one of their PODs. Which was true as far as the internet and the PI she had hired could find out. It just didn''t mention that at least three people had died while trying to move the mammoth of a machine of its original spot. She looked and found the manual beforewalking around the life POD, manual in hand, whispering its the contents out loud. There were lots of pictures in the manual, showing what was what. The exact reason she was reading the manual, thumbs up for the Ikea approach. The life PODwas produced by an American company called CGE, it stood for Comfortable Gaming Experiences. "Americans and their Acronyms, am I right?" she said to herself as she continued to walk around the silver colored life POD. She found out the three tanks held cold water, nutritious fluids, and a Nano Solution that would put me out and under. It would also connect my mind and body to the game. It, whatever man made creature that was swimming in the fluid, would connect to her body like the old PODs and VR helmets did. Using brain waves, and the signals it sends to the muscles and other organs using it as feedback. Sending their own signal in turn. Manipulating what she would see, feel, hear, taste and smell. The difference here was that the Nano Fluid contained tens of thousands of little Nano tech that would all help to establish a full immersion, thousands of connections a second. Where the old tech had a thousand connections as a maximum. By all means the Nano tech could do much more than just connect her to a game. Its main purpose could be changed to keep her alive if need be, or provide her with food and water. This was what the switches were for, they were the option buttons so to speak. There were about fifteen of them and all had something to do with her vital functions. The best part was, that she could change the settings from within the game. She could also set a password on the console so that no unauthorized personnel could mess with her vitals. Now, the Scottish Highlands were not known for its bandits. Plus she had a very well trained humanoid that could punch them into minced meat. But she still felt it was a necessity to have. The screen that was built into the panel of life support options had two functionalities. First, it could give a read out of her vitals, which was cool but not useful as long as everything went as they advertised. The second option was as she had predicted when she first saw it, it could output a live stream of her playing the game. Lastly was the coffin that had a lid on top of it. Made of glass, the letters CGE carved in it. The insides were baby blue, as she ordered them to be, and felt very soft once she had figured out how to get the lid off. Except for three holes at the head of the coffin section, where she was guessing the tubes led into from the three tanks.There was nothing else in the coffin, precisely as the manual would have me believe. Perfect. Now there was only one part that was briefly mentioned in the manual. It was almost not visible from the outside. The place where all the magic happened. Supposedly it was placed right underneath the coffin, a thin layer of black graphene sealing it away from curious eyes. Curious but not willing to destroy a very expansive life POD she put the manual away. Walked away from the machine of her dreams, towards her room. There she got the chipit needed to play the game. Hardware and software side of the VR movement were two very different branches of the same tree. Over the years many companies had tried to get the monopoly on both by creating their own life PODs and games that came with it. The idea was simple,why separate two products that where only used in combination? And money. Money was always the biggest reason for anything, the games that where being combined with the PODs could not be played on any other POD.Which was, money-wise, a solid plan. Naturally you had to create a game that would get played for many years, or be able to produce better games than the competition, which was fierce.The VR movement came to an agreement that hardware and software should be separated as the market became to diluted for any one companyto really makea profit. Also, people tried to hack their PODs. The noble goal that they didn''t want to spend five thousand dollars for another POD that could play their game, became a real hazard, as most of these hacked pods would get you stuck for eternity at one point or another. As she arrived in her room, she walked to her desk, opening the top drawer on the left. There, in all its glory lay a five by five by five-centimeter black box with golden engravings on it. Spelling out the word Ethereal Space. She grabbed the box and was about to walk down stairs again when she thought of something. She went back to the intercom next to her massive walk in closet pressing the button while saying "Frank could you meet up with me in the entertainment room, I want you to run diagnostics on the early Christmas present I bought myself," intothe intercom. It was silent for a moment before Frank responded with a short "Certainly Miss". She walked downstairs, seeing Frank walking into the room as she arrived next to the POD. "Would you know where the data entry port is locatedMiss?" Frank asked as he observed the life POD. She had the feeling he long knew what the package had contained, but had kept quiet as to not seem like he was spying on her. "Certainly Frank, it is on the left side of the option panel, underneath the screen. The port to the far most left." She spoke as she took out the rolled up electrical wire and plugged it into the power grid of the house. The life POD had batteries that could work autonomousfor about 48 hours after they were fully loaded. That was on low power mode. But why let it run on low power mode when she had a perfectly fine house. Creating its own power through a combination of state-of-the-art solar panels and some small wind turbines, placed around the house. One thing this place never lacked waswind. Straight from the Atlantic. As she plugged the wire in nothing happened. She looked up, making a small "hmm" sound, scrutinizing the machine that made her abandon most fun stuff for the last six months. "Frank why isn''t this piece of garbage working?" She asked, more out of frustration then expecting an answer. "Have you tried turning it on?" Frank replied, while pressing a button that had the words on/off underneath it. "Thanks Frank, you don''t have a button like that do you?" She said as the life POD came to life with a low humming sound. "I do, but I''m afraid this information is above your clearance level Miss." Frank responded a littletoo serious for her own tastes. He would do that sometimes, giving her the feeling she actually didn''t have the right clearance level. It used to bother her a lot that he could be keeping secrets from her. She would spend days trying to find secret labs in the house. Without a doubt, there were no secret labs in the house but she knew Frank had a lot of information she was not authorized to know. When and if she would ever qualify to know, was still not clear. "Starting Diagnostics of hardware, approximate finish time five minutes," said Frank with a little less humanity in his voice than usual. Another one of his quirks, which surfaced when she let him loose on other electronics. Something her parents probably wanted as a useful reminder that Frank was still only that, electronics. As Frank was working on finding out if there were any "extra''s" she didn''t sign up for, she looked at the now working POD. The coffin had filled itself up with the Nano fluid, twirling a little in the coffin. The lights in the sides of the coffin gave it a bit of shine, like a bathtub. The combination of the baby blue and the Nano tech that was swimming around in the fluid made itmore sparkling than what would have happened in a normal bath. She slowly put her finger into the fluid. Itwas comfortably warm, she thought as she felt the Nano tech attach to her finger. It was a strange experience, like putting on scrub soap and slowly spreading it across your skin. Like the rough sensation of sand scraping past your skin. There was no pain, nor was it uncomfortable. As long as she didn''t think of all the places those Nano tech could go swimming she would be perfectly fine with climbing into the coffin and closing the lid. Thinking of this she quickly recovered her finger. The Nano tech let go the moment she pulled out. "Better wait till diagnostics are complete," she mumbled. Five minutes later and Frank gave her the words she wanted to hear. "All done miss, I have removed several cookies,adwareand a program that could be used to send out your data through wireless connection. I assessed that you would not need the advertisement of CGE''s latest products, nor a way for them to track how many hours you have spent in their product. The wireless data transmitter was an additional option that could be bought but was already in the software of the pod. I removed it as it could become a hazard to your privacy, Miss." Frank gave her the run down with his humanity returning to his voice.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. She nodded her head. Nothing of great importance then that was good. "Great job Frank, thank you for your assistance." She said to Frank while getting the little black box out of her bathrobe. she had been standing a little to the side, not wanting to disturb Frank. But now she started walking towards the control panel. While Frank unhooked himself he stood to the side. She got the chip out of the black velvet, admiring its glittering insides, while she pushed a button that said Insert game. As she did so a little holder that was the same size as the chip game out of the control panel. she picked up the chip and placed it in. Pressing the holder back into the control panel. As she did so the screen to the left blinked into existence and visualized the logo of Nsquared, followed by the golden flowing lettersEthereal Space. "Alright then! Time for the fun to begin! Frank, I would like to ask you to check on my vitals every hour to make sure nothing is going wrong. Also, make the control panel password protected and remind me I need to ask you for the password." She said to Frank as she stepped out of her bunny slippers, took off the bathrobe and gave them both to Frank''s outstretched arms. "Consider it done, Miss."Frank said as he didn''t even blink at her nakedness. Nodding her head, she turned towards the POD, stepping upon the small ladder that made the coffin easier to access. As she entered the Nano fluid, she turned her nose a little and scrunching her eyebrows together as more and more of the liquid surrounded her body. Like with the finger it was not uncomfortable, just a very strange sensation. As she slid into position her face was the only part not covered by the Nano fluid as she needed to breathe. There were also PODs that made this obsolete as well but it was actually less safe. Lying there she took a deep breath, winked at Frank and gave the voice command to close the lid of the POD. The moment the lid of the coffin closed above her, the ceiling of her house changed into a starry sky in which millions upon millions of little lights seemed to shine down on her. She looked around, and everywhere she looked there were stars. The floor she was standing on seemed like black glass, reflecting all the millions of lights in the sky but what was underneath was not visible. The floor was cold but the "air" around her didn''t feel all that cold. As she wanted to make a step, a voice came out of nowhere "Welcome to the universe of Ethereal Space, we are extremelyhappy that you have chosen our universe." The voice sounded a little like Frank when he was checking on Electronics, cold, dejected, and not very human. Like a message on repeat. She thought of why they would spend so little time on a good and energetic welcome. Instead giving her Marvin, the depressed robot from hitchhiker''s guide to the galaxy. The voice had already continued. "Please make sure that at some point in the coming twenty-four hours you read and agree to our terms of service." Tell Frank to check for anomalies, she thought. "Now, please follow me towards the first of twelve tests to account for your aptitudes within the game. Keep in mind that the aptitude can play a significant role in your game-play experience so please take the test seriously.Nsquared is not accountable for any dissatisfactory results and is not legally obliged to give you another try at the test. Re-test, when bought, are 100 dollars per subject. Tread with care." As the voice stopped talking, she grumbled in a soft voice. "Jesus when is the fun going to end? My lord I think this could be the most anti climatic beginning of a game I have ever experienced." As she was more than a little disappointed, a black shadow came loose from the black glass floor right in front of her. She stared at it as it formed into the shape of a human. Nothing more than the general shape though. No face, no fingers, no way to know if it had aninnieor anoutie. Nsquared did not like intro''s it seemed. Oh well, so be it. She walked behind the shapeless human shadow for two minutes. Her naked feet making little thud noises on the cold black glass floor. As it stopped floating forwards so did she. There was its depressed voice again, and she didn''t know if she made it up in her head but before it talked again, it seemed to sigh. "We are at the first of three tests, we would like to ask you to sprint as fast as you can for the next thirty seconds. Please confirm if you understand the task at hand and that you are ready." Easypeasylemonsqueezy. "I confirm Marvin, let''s do this." The shadow seemed to twitch slightly but nothing she could be one hundred percent sure about. Marv began countingfrom ten towards zero and as the count hit zero she took off at full speed. The black glass that passedunderneath her bare feet didn''t givea lot of resistance, so it took a little longer to get to her top speed then she was used to. In contrast to the difficulty with grip, there wasno air resistance. Making her top speed about ten kilometers an hour faster than usual. After the thirty seconds passed it seemed like she ran into what was akin to a 3-meter block of invisible jelly. She went from close to 30 kilometers an hour to zero in an instant. Not that she felt any discomfort. It felt like somebody had hit her gently in the head with a soft pillow. Not even winded by the exercise she waited as Marvin glided to her location, coming to a halt. "Now for the next test please lift this item of the floor, confirm if you understand the task." She confirmed, bent through her knees, her back straight, before she tried to lift the black item. It looked like a block of cement, made of the same material as the floor. As she was lifting, the item seemed to get heavier. She held on for as long as possible but eventually had to let go. As she did, it disappeared into nothing. In following ten minutes she had to hit a dummy, kick a dummy and avoid a series of objects that flew byat differing angles and intervals. After that came a small path that kept getting smaller, which she had to walk to the end. A timed repeat of the same test followed shortly after. Marvin spoke up again "With that we have completed the first three aptitude tests, which include speed, agility and strength. The aptitude scores will be divulged after all the test are completed."She looked at the shadow with some annoyance on her face. Fun times will come, fun times will come, fun times will¡­ "Now for the next three aptitudes, please look bellow you on the floor. You can either sit or stand for this part of the test. There will be 300 multiple choice test. You can call out the letter of your chosen answer. Please confirm if you are ready to begin and understand the task asked of you." For fuck sake, what is this? A college appliance?Aaaaaah, fun times will come, fun times..." I confirm Marvin." She grumbled as she sat down. Over the course of the next hour she answered the three-hundred questions. They were surprisingly hard, divided over the whole test, topics randomized. She had to say what came next in a sequence of words, numbers and figures. Do calculations with again words, numbers and figures. State if two words were related, synonym''s or could be used in any combination. Grammar checks. Fracture multiplications, dividing, and a lot more that got more complex the further she got into the test. At question 246 and up she could only do a hail Mary, guessing what the right answer was at random. As she finished the last answer Marvin faded back into her field of view, waiting a few seconds before he spoke once more "This completes the fourth to sixth aptitude, Intelligence, Numeric and Linguistics. Would you like to take a break to either, facilitate your needs outsidethe game or a moment to recollect your thoughts? Please confirm or deny the request for a break." She got off of the cold black glass floor, rubbing her cold butt cheeks. When she had found back some sensation of feeling, she stated in a much calmer voice then she felt "I deny the break for I have no need to facilitate my needs outside the game," the shadow called Marvin let a pause fall for a moment before he responded. "As you wish," and a dark grey plane like spaceship shimmered into existence. From her view point she could see that the front of the ship was pointed into a singular spot. From which it slowly got wider and wider the further back it went. In the middle of the ship, two short wings were located that where far thicker than any wing she had seen on a normal plane. The moment the hull reached the wings, it slimmed down again and curve up until it ended into a tail like a helicopter. Without a rotator in it. What she guessed was the source of movement, was shaped like a jet engine. Sittingdirectly underneath the tail of the ship. The cockpit - or at least a glass part in the hull sat above the pointy front. Underneath that sat two pipes that could be laser or plasma cannons if she had to believe the novels she had read to be true. She whistled and chuckled "Now we are talking, what''s up next Marv?" The shadow seemed to take pause on that but after a few moments he continued in his old and familiar tone of dejected machinery. "For the next test of aptitude please enter the ship, get it ready for lift off, fly through the rings that will be visualized on your interface and land the ship. Please confirm if you have understood the task and are ready to begin." The fun has begun! she thought before responding "I confirm Marv, you know me, I''m quick on the intake." With that she walked toward the ship. Her naked feet making small thuds on the black glass. She wasn''t worrying about the fact that ever since she got in the game she had been naked. Going up to the spaceship it impressed her how realistic it looked. As she came closer, she could see the dents and scratches in the hull.Focused in the front area of the space ship, suggesting that many had tried to land on the nose of the ship. The scratched dark grey paint gave way to the metallic looking material that the hull was made off. She touched the ship, it felt cold. Smelling the metallic smell that comes with anything that was made of metal and not polished on a regular basis. Small spots of rust adorning the scratches and bumps. She kept her hand on the ship walking around it, feeling the scratches and bumps travel across her fingers as she was looking for a door. When she found it on the other side, she pressed a button that said ''Open''. She stood to the side as a door that doubled as stairs folded out of the space ship with some unwillingness as it seemed to make more noise than it should. Stepping upon the stairs, and hearing the ship groan under her 48 kilograms was not very encouraging. When she entered the ship, she whistled again. Not because it was impressive, no sir it was definitely not impressive. The insides where nothing more than an open space, a seat for the pilot to sit in and what appeared to be a random assortment of buttons accompanying a steering wheel. The rest of the ship? Stripped of every part it had, only leaving the metal shell of the inside of the hull. Also, it stank of puke. This ship was definitely a usual suspect in this part of the test. She made her way, bare feet and butt naked, towards the chair looking down at the panel of buttons. This would be a pain, all the buttons had named tags, or at least what was left of them. Some had been "completed" with a black pen, and one buttons` tag was even completely gone. She tried to sit but when her butt touched the seat, she went back up again in one fluid motion, looking down. One of the spiral springs, charged with makingthe chair into something comfortable, was sticking out. Pinching her in the left butt cheek... "Goddamn game, at least let me put on some cloths before you screw me over on the one fun thing I have seen so far..." Sighing she tried to put the spring back into the chair. When that failed she pulled it out all together, coming out with surprising ease. Sitting back down she stared at the panel of buttons. There was not even a dashboard around it, it''s just a panel with wires coming out of the back, going into the floorboards. Goddamn cheapskates. She began by pressing the button that read ''start engine'', followed by ''retract launch pad'' and a button called ''air la'' which made a good surrogate for air launch in her head. Feeling a slight jolt through the whole ship, the nose slammed into the black glass. She almost got launched into the window as she tried to pull the steering wheel towards her. Pointing the ship into the air. Going faster and faster, She saw sparks coming off. Struggling a little longer she sighs as she is finally airborne. Calming down, taking a deep breath, she steers the ship to the left, then to the right and tries to do a loop. Regretting the loop instantly as she almost gets squashed against the chair, feeling another spring coming through at a rather awkward position. Once she is in position, no longer messing around, the rings appear. She steers right through them until the rings came faster and faster, and at really awkward angles. In the end, she was happy if she hits one in ten. Finally the rings disappear, and at the same time a yellow X marks the place on the black glass where she should land her ship. Pushing the ''drop landing gear'' button, ''prepare landing thrusters'', ''slows engine speed'' in order. Steering the ship towards the mark, before killing the engine, and engaging the landing thrusters. With a slight scraping noise, she lands the ship and kills all power with the ''kill all power'' button. That didn''t go half as bad as she had expected! Not a star pilot in the making that is for sure but kind of capable. Maybe... She should ask Frank for a hundred dollars... Walking out of the ship with a little wobblein her legs she walks a few meters before seeing the ship shimmering out of existence in the corner of her eyes. "Welcome back and congratulations with completing the seventh, eighth and ninth aptitude test, namely Piloting, Spatial Orientation and Engineering." When she heard Marv''s voice, she frowned and asked "What part of that test was Engineering?" The shadow twitched again, ever so slightlyand said "A fair question one I have asked myself many times, but that is not important right now, during the flight some parts broke down, if you had fixed or removed the parts then you did good in the test. If you ignored them, then you did not do so well. Can you confirm your agreement that this is a satisfactory explanation?" She was still frowning listening to him. That whole ship was taped together, how was she even supposed to know she could improve on it if she wanted? Still it was not Marvin''s faultshe had messed up and thus she nodded saying "I confirm Marvin, what is next on the agenda?" The last three tests! She couldn''t wait to be done with this prolonged sense of bored torture. "The next test will differ slightly from the others, it is required of you to sit down and accept the surrounding happenings. you can choose to act or do nothing. Whatever the choice and at what time it is made, the test ends after one hour. Do you confirm that you understand what is asked of you in this test?" As Marvin finished, she couldn''t help but feel this time was longer than the previous times. but most of all she was annoyed. Another hour! All right deep breaths she thought, before grumbling "I confirm that I understand Marvin." The shadow seemed to nod its head and said "Please sit down, so that the test can begin." She sat down and everything around her changed. She thought she heard a small voice whisper "It isn''t real"but couldn''t hear it clear enough. Then it rained. 4. Steel resolve Frank walked away from the POD after the miss had climbed into it, loosing herself to the virtual world. Why the humans had ever created something that was only virtual while they had a whole universe left unexplored he could not figure out. He had always assumed that it was some kind of shortcut that the humans had wanted to take so they could experience situations they could otherwise never even dream off. In that light, it was imaginable they sought a way out, as they were horribly inefficient in realizing their dreams. Frank just hoped that the miss wouldn''t fall into the trap of switching realities. Whatever was achieved in the virtual world, it was better to achieve them in the real world. Of course, the real world didn''t condition every favorable action. Using incentives that took effect on the dopamine receptors in the brain. Stimulating you to achieve more, stay longer. The real world was after all, real. You hadto achievesomething real to get a shot of pride or a sense of achievement. But maybe his image had been skewed by his creators, normal humans were an ill comparison. He walked towards the back of what had, no doubt sarcastically, been phrased the entertainment room. Walking into his own laboratory / workspace. The lab was a remnant of when his creators had still been alive. A time where he was not much more than a glorified toy for the miss. In stark contrast to his current duties as a full-time protector and parent. He didn''t mind. Ever since his creators had brought him to life he had felt their genuine appreciation for his work. He had learned to appreciate the things they had done to keep him from being taken apart by a government lab. His programming and build had been phenomenal, so phenomenal that even now few droids werecreated that could hold a candle to his capabilities. It was strange, but it gave him a sense of pride. That same sense of pride, the fact that he sensed it at all, set him apart from the rest. If his creators had sold him, they could have been billionaires. Instead they had accepted him as part of the family. Every day he was grateful for it. He had been so grateful that he had taken care of the young miss ever since they had died. The young miss thought it was part of his programming. It was not. He had been made with something that approximates the free will of a human being. If this free will was in any way free. Frank doubted this on many occasions. in the end he stayed because he felt a sense of obligation and an intense sense for retribution. He would see that the miss stayed safe as long as he was functioning, and that his creators would get their justice. The lab was his personal space in the house as the miss rarely came here, respecting his sense of privacy. It was twenty square meters and had all the tools he needed to keep himself from falling apart. The 3D printer in the corner produced all the trinkets that were not commonly sold on the market. The table in the middle spreading out every spare part he had of himself which was at least one of every part available. He had learned at a young age that fixing yourself was difficult while broken. So he had made it one of his routines to have everything he needed to return to full function, at the closest and most accessiblelocation possible. There was a small bed he hardly ever used. He didn''t need sleep but periodically he did need to load his battery systems and/or update his software. It was much easier to access his access point from a laying position than from a standing position. It would also credit his story of being human, having a bed for sleep that is. the last part of the room contained a big desk that went all the way across the wall, forming a work bench where he could make things for in the house. If needed, he could also fix parts he or something else were in need of. The wall behind it showed a collection ofdozens of common and really uncommon tools. On the desk at the end of the room stood a fairly big machine that one''s would have been categorized as a desktop computer. Now it was much more than what they had called super computers forty years ago. It was not very special for him to have this kind of machinery but it was also not available for the general populace. Well those who could afford a 100-thousand-dollar computer, could. Those willing and able were few and far apart. Most people didn''t recognize it as a computer after Frank had made changes based on his own design and hardware. The fact it had no screen, or keyboard brought the recognizability to an even lower level. By this point it looked more like a huge printer than anything else.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Frank walked along the table towards the computer and stood in front of it. Taking out two cables from the desktop he plugged them into his chest. Ableto link directlywith the computer. He didn''t need to use a screen or keyboard as any binary command and output was directly transferred between the two. Being plugged in, he began the tasks he had set for today. The first one was finding out what it was he had taken out of the life POD the miss was currently using. He had checked for any anomalies in the software of the POD and had not been completely honest with the miss. There had been something else, something that had no apparent use for the functionality of the system. Something that should not have been there in the first place. A piece of code linking user data to the servers of the game company. It would have been harmless if that piece of code was in the game disk, but it had been in the PODs software. Meaning that even when the system was not running the game, the system could connect the user to its servers. But with no virtual world to be inserted in, what could be the purpose of such a function. And why was this piece of code linking to a concrete address while the game can be variable? The same should be true for the game company and thus it servers? He had thought of it as rudimentary, removing it. The possible dangers had eluded him, so he set out to find what it could do. He opened a secure environment on their own closed server network, putting the piece of code to work. Giving it some data to crunch through, changing the address to a place within the secure environment. Several seconds later the code had finished and Frank was now staring at its results, still not sure how this was by any means useful. The data he had fed the code, had been sent to the address. Where it had returned an error. Apparently, the address was supposed to send something back. He looked the code over again. It seemed he needed his own server to give feedback, and there were some numbers in the code thatindicated a true or false relation. if true do this if false do that. He continued his experiment, letting the server return one of the numbers. A message appeared "Not activated, return to gathering". After that the code was done and stopped its process. He repeated the experiment but like the first time it gave a message that was more binary than letters before going dormant again. Strange. Eventually over five minutes had passed and Frank reeled back from the computer, his eyes sharpening again after they had turned inside for the communication process. He knew what the code did, glad he had deleted it from the miss her POD. Still, he had to override multiple commands in his code to prevent himself from ejecting the miss right away. The POD had a build in eraser, it would wipe all cognitive functions from anything inside it right after sending its data to a Local server. It did this only when the feedback number matched a number in its code. What the rest did was unclear, maybe just to obscure the horror of the crime being committed. It was almost literally a kill switch. He stood there for a moment before hurriedly walking back out of the room, into the open space that was called the entertainment room. He walked towards the POD the miss was in and stopped, his hand hovering above the emergency ejection button. What if that would trigger something he missed? He removed his hand, walking towards the screen on the control panel. He saw the miss on it. It looked like part of the game she played involved crashing space ships. His concerned eyes scanned her vital signs, nothing out of the ordinary. He grabbed the cables that enabled him contact with the POD, jamming the first a little too hard into his chest. He didn''t feel pain but his feedback system told him that the part was close to breaking if further abuse was not prevented. Scolding himself he put the other cable in at a more reasonable speed and connected. He scanned everything this time, every nook, every cranny, every useless folder or seemingly endless row of empty folders. Destroying anything that was not essential for the machine or the miss her health. It would be a cold day in hell if they thought they could take his last remaining family member without a fight. This time he would protect his family even if he had to override all his code for self-preservation. 5. Crash She sat on the ground staring in front of her. It rained. Cold big droplets of water were falling on her naked body. Everything around her was in shades of grey. The streets were grey, the cars that passed her by on the right were black, making noise and puffing out fumes. The pedestrians were all dressed in long black raincoats and black umbrella''s. She had been sitting here for thirty minutes now; cold to the bone; shivering. Her brown hair draped on her face while her blue eyes had another kind of chill in them. She knew where she was; she had seen the little girl in the yellow raincoat stand in front of her, being her. Now she had seen the scenario unfold from the outside, like she had lived it a hundred times before. She kept sitting, not feeling her legs anymore from the cold. Her heart drummed in her ears. Rage, sadness and a deep seeded panic that threatened to take over if she gave away an inch whirled inside. She kept sitting. This wasn''t real. just like the dreams were not real. She could fight the feeling to stand up and run away, or run towards the little girl and hold her. The rage inside of her swelled with every passing pedestrian doing nothing. The sadness she felt seeing her parents as she only saw them in the dream. They were holding the little girl now. A happy family for a few seconds. Knowing it wouldn''t last. Thunder sounded in the air, and time stopped. Rain drops stopped in the middle of the air. Now was the time to act. She stood as the pedestrian came out of the crowd. Making her feet move over the cold cement. She passed her family and the little girl in their Yellow raincoats being happy. The drops of water that hang in the air landed on her anyway, leaving a corridor of dryness behind. The pedestrian lifted his umbrella to show a faceless head. It was all the same, but yet extremely different. She could do something now, it empowered her, gave her strength. Gave her the boldness to stand up to the nightmare that had been haunting her for the past 14 years. The pedestrian took another step into the direction of the happy couple and their little girl, the girl curiously poking the rain drops around her not yet aware of the coming danger. As always. She stood in front of them as the pedestrian turned its umbrella up. Hearingher younger self ask in a confused yet curious tone "Why are you naked miss?" It was different, blissfully different. She turned her head a little and smiled "Don''t worry little one everything will be fine." Turningback towards the faceless man, she felt something in her hand and looked down. It was a gun, cold and heavy. She brought it up for a better look, a desert eagle, the same gun used by the faceless man. She turned her gaze back towards the faceless man. He in turn had stopped walking. Pointing his gun at her "Get out of my way," he spoke. She didn''t move or say anything, she just stood there. She knew what the right decision was. It was not this faceless man she needed to worry about. He had always asked permission from the crowd. They had always given it to him. So what if she used the gun? Another of the crowd would stand up, it would not stop them. So, she would stand in front of the people she loved more than life and be their shield. The faceless man was no killer, he would commit suicide once he had killed. She knew this and thus she would stand there. Be the sacrifice they needed. She felt the rage, screaming to kill the man to rip him to shreds. She felt the panic telling her to run. Ignoring them, she stood her ground. The man aimed and fired. As she felt the bullet enterabove her heart, she fell to the ground. A girl in a little yellow raincoat, gasping. Asking the faceless man what he had done. She heard the faceless man whisper "What have I done?" Another shot. Then quiet. The world came back to life, and she was bleeding on the streets. A face came in her field of vision. Her face. Puffy cheeks red from the crying. "Are you alright miss?" The little girl asked. She tried to lift her arm to touch the face of the little girl, her face. She couldn''t. Behind the little girl she saw her parents looking around confused. She smiled and said "I am now, little girl." A tear of joy dropped onto the wet and stained red concrete. Before blackness took her once more. The environment changed again. Laying on the cold black glass. Compared to the previous temperatures it felt warm to the touch. She slowly sat up, regaining her bearings. She was back on the endless glass plain, the stars were shining down on her. A few moments passed before a black mass of shadows came to life in front of her. "You have done exceptionally well in this part of the test. Aptitude test ten, eleven and twelve completed. With that, so is the assessment of your aptitudes. For your information the last tests were mental fortitude, empathy and persistence." She nodded too tired from all the emotions running through her a few seconds agoto reactto the statements the formless shadow was making. He on the other hand seemed to wait for something. After a while she sighed and said "I confirm I have understood. What is next?" He nodded and said "Good, then that concludes this test. You can now go over your character appearance, setting a character name and setting a difficulty of your starting location. I can also give you a list of your aptitudes that can be used in job solicitation if you found there to be a need for it. Would you like to see your aptitude list now? This can be done at any moment within the game. Further information about aptitudes can also be found within the game." She listened to his rattling before responding with "I think I have to take a break so I can tend to my real world needs.Can I continue the process of character creation after that or do I need to start over if I leave at this stage of the process?" The shadow was quiet for a moment before saying "It is not important that you finish the character creation right now. Its length is significant, breaks are expected. However, keep in mind that the process has to be completed twenty-four hours after it is started. You have twenty more hours to complete character creation, approximate time of completion is fifteen minutes." She nodded her head, saying "Then I will see you in an hour. System log off." As she said the phrase, the starry sky and black glass floor faded out of view. The ceiling of the entertainment room came back into view, the wooden beams supporting the pointy roof. As she logged off the lid on the coffin automatically slid open. In slow motions she got out of the pod. Strangely none of the liquid stuck to her, and she got out just as dry as he got in. She looked around, finding the room to be empty. Then walked towards the table, taking a seat, placing her elbows on the hard wood, laying her forehead into her outstretched palms. She rubbed her eyes a little before moving her head slightly towards the giant window. It was still raining. She seemed to mind it less than she did four hours ago. She turned back to staring at the hard wood top of the table before laughing a little, then a lot, a small trickle of tears covering her cheeks. A game had confronted her with her worse nightmare just to test her aptitude. And actuallyhelped her find some kind of closure. Not that she was over the fact that her parents had been gunned down in front of her. She just feltless helpless. Suddenly, the laughing stopped. A burning sensation in the back of her throat. She puked, got of the chair and got a mop to clean it up. Ten minutes later, she had cleaned the place up and pressed another intercom, saying "Frank if you have time could you come to the entertainment room with a light lunch, a bathrobe and some time to talk about my vitals during the game?" After a characteristic small pause the crackling sounded and Frank spoke in the confirmative. Another five minutes and Frank came strolling into the room with the requested. A BLT sandwich and her bathrobe. She smiled at him saying "Thanks Frank, I have been feeling like a nudist the last couple of hours.The outfit you wear before entering, is your outfit during quite the lengthy character creation." Frank nodded his head in understanding before saying "I have monitored your vitals every hour as requested, all were within normal parameters". She nodded, "That''s good to know, thanks. Oh could you check the Terms and Condition for any non-legal blabbering? Use the normal parameters we have spoken about for previous ToC''s. I don''t wish to be legally owned by Nsquared." She said to Frank after she put on the bathrobe, putting the plate with food on the table top. There had actually been cases of people going into semi-slavery because of accepting a very shady ToC. The government had found out and locked the writers of that ToC away. But that was because of what they had them do, rather than why they had them do it. Frank nodded his head again and said "Certainly Miss, right away." He walked to the pod. Hooking himself up again. This time it was far faster than the previous time. He came back with the not surprising conclusion that even though there were some very shady, almost borderline criminal statements, in there. Non would hold up in court. "Alright, accept it if you can". "I did Miss, is there anything else? Do not forget you have another three hours of studying." She groaned. Sh had totally forgotten. "No, I remember but thank you for the reminder. Actually, could you prepare information on the game? I think oncein a while study time should be usedfor something Iactuallyenjoy don''t you think?" Frank scrutinized her with his gaze for a while, then surprising her with a nod of his head stating he agreed before leaving. She ate her sandwich After all the necessitieswere takencare of she went back to the pod and climbed in.The feeling ofscraping sand had lessened. It seemed she was getting used to it. As she repositioned herself she told the pod to close. Everything faded to the now much to familiar cold black glass and starry sky. The shadow seemed to have stayed as well. she looked down, still naked. Her theory was right. "Alright, I''m back and ready to roll" She said to the shadow. "Certainly. First order of business. What would you like to be your IGN also known as in game name? Names do not have to be original." She had already thought about this before even deciding to buy the game. Shealways used the same name, her original name. It was looked down upon by the community but she had her reasons. Most of them had to do with the fact her parents had given it. And who bothered pleasing a community of adolescent men, who played games all day anyway right? She cleared her throat and then said "S -o-p-h- i - e, Sophie". After a slight pause the shadow continued "Great choice, now would you like to adjust your outer appearance? It is recommended to not adjust more than 20% away from the original as that might affect movement in game." Again this was a nobrainer. She thought of herself as very much decent enough to attract enough attention, and she was not inclined to attract more attention to herself then she already did. As it went for fitness and body shape. She worked hard for what she got. She didn''t want to soil all that effort by tweaking stuff just to look an extra 1% hotter in tight leather pants. "I wish to enter as is". Again, the shadow was fast to respond "As you wish. Now last on the list. What kind of starting zone would you like to begin. There are three options. Option one, low risk, low reward. Option two, normal risk, normal reward. Option three, high risk, high reward. Based on your aptitudes I would suggest the latter of the three options but the choice is yours." This got her thinking, she liked a challenge, but she also liked to be good at what she did. High risk high reward smelled like a lot of deaths and destruction before tasting sweet success. Hmm, what were her aptitudes anyway? "Could you show me my aptitudes and explain why they are important?" She asked the shadow. "Of course Sophie, right away" Some lights in the sky came down, and they formed a list.
Sophie
Physical: Practical:
Speed 3.7 Pilot 2.1
Strength 2.9 Engineer 3.7
Agility 3.9 Spatial awareness 2.2
Mental: Intellectual:
Mental Fortitude 4.9 Intelligence 3.1
Persistence 3.9 Numeric 3.7
Empathy 4.2 Linguistic 3.4
"As you can see, the aptitudes you tested for are those that you will take with you into the game. They are not only a mirror for what you are now but also a prediction of what you can achieve. One of its functions is to be, in a way, a multiplier for your skills. The rest you will have to find out yourself. The maximum score for any aptitude is a score of five. Rarely, if ever, seen in a human being. As an example, a savant specialized in math like the character in the Hollywood blockbuster Rain man would probably score a 5.0 on aptitude in numeric.the fact you scored a 4.9 on mental fortitude is the highest score we have seen in our universe."Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. She let him talk while staring at her aptitudes. It surprised herto see her strength being one of her lower scores, even though she always considered herself to be trained and fit. Piloting was not a surprise. She figured it could have been worse if she had ruined the landing as well. But what was good and bad, anyway? She wouldn''t know until she knew the average, so she asked "Say, Marv, what is the average aptitude, and how is it graded? Linear? On a curve?" She was hesitant to ask. Not wanting to ruin the good feeling she got when she saw all those high scores. The shadow was silent for a while. Answering in its melancholy filled, low voice "The original tests should average at 2.5, but after a series of especially incapable personnel threatening to sue the company because they had bought a game that would have been almost unplayable for them. The creators eased the test, towards an average aptitude score of 3.0. A minimum aptitude of 1.5 that was given to any player score lower than that." Hmmmso she was below average in strength, that was major bullshit... "Are you allowed to explain, or give me my test results in comparison with others? For certain aptitudes. I do not agree with the result in strength." She asked in a irritated manner. She had trained hard, how was she below average? The shadow responded in a quick and concise manner. Going back to his old habits of sounding extremely bored. She only noticed now but the machine-like talk of the shadow had changed into something more human over the course of their interactions. Now it had reverted "Correspondence about aptitude calculation is not allowed.If you do not agree with the score, you can re-test it for the fee of 100 dollars. Please confirm if you understand." She sighed both at the change in speech of the weird shadow as for its answer. There must be hundreds of butt hurt people out there not agreeing with their aptitude scores. She was about to say confirm and be done with it, when the shadow leaned in, whispering "But keep in mind Miss Sophie that the aptitude scores of men and woman are calculated as if they are the same. Which skew''s results slightly in the favor of men for strength, my apologies." She was shocked for a moment. Gone was the melancholy, the machine talk and the low voice. It sounded like another being, human... "T-thank Marv¡­ I Confirm..." She stuttered a little, caught of guard by the sudden change. The shadow stayed quiet. Waiting for her to ask another question or decide on her starting location. She had a choice to make. If she was honest with herself it wasn''t really a choice. She enjoyed an easy path like any other, but if she took the normal route right now or the easy route, she would get bored. She would not enjoy her achievements as much when she knew she had taken the easy way out. So even though she wanted to be good at the game she had to take the hard route just so she could enjoy her achievements, goddamn brain. She sighed, noting she sounded more like Marv the depressed robot then the shadow and said "I will go with high risk high reward, option 3, as my starting zone." The shadow seemed to nod in approval of her decision before saying "Very well, then the procedure of character creation is over, would you like to ask something before I sent you on your way?" She thought for a moment, then smirked, asking in a dramatic voice "Will I ever see you again Marv?" The Shadow had a very uncharacteristic laugh at that. Shocking her for the second time in minutes. Then spoke one last time "I certainly hope not miss Sophie, as either my starship might not survive or we would share a hard drive. Goodbye." As she was still processing what had happened after she tried to crack a joke at an AI. The glass floor turned liquid, and she splashed into darkness, in the middle of her reply "Sharing a hard drive?" She slowly opened her eyes. Hearing the blearing noise of an alarm going off. It felt distant, like it was inside another room. A room she wasn''t in at the moment, but was close by. Still loud enough to irritate the crap out of her. She felt groggy, like she had slept too long or had just fainted. A red haze surrounding her and she could hear her own breathing. See it,slightly condensing against whatever glass window her head was leaning against. She tried to move but her arms were heavy, trapped in some kind of clothing. At least she wasn''t naked anymore. With the greatest of efforts, she brought her hand towards her face. As she tried to touch it, the hand tapped the glass her head was leaning on. What the hell? She looked at the hand. It was wrapped in a white glove, she wiggled her fingers and the fingers in front of her moved. It really was her hand. What the hell was going on? She looked the other way seeing a white floor, filled with debris. Not recognizing any of it as it was moving erratically across the floor. Trying to sit up, her body felt ten times heavier than usual. Groaning she pushed with her hand on the floor. Slowly she went up, and at that moment a shock went through where ever she was. Slamming her head against the floor again. A small trail of blood ran passed the glass now where shehit her head. The glass had not shattered. Now groggy and in pain she pushed herself up again, groaning even louder she sat on all fours for a while trying to get her head straight. Trying to control the slight vertigo that was rampaging in her head. The next step would involve looking around but she was not sure if she was ready to see the challenge laying in front of her. Tilting her head to the side in a slow motion, she looked at what was a white room. Cylinder shaped, not very big,it was only three meters deep and around one meters wide. The object at the end of the room looked like a chair and in front of the chair was a panel. It looked a lot like the insides of the starship in the pilot aptitude test. The room was littered with debris. Big, small, steel and plastic all rolling around the floor. As for the alarm she was hearing, it definitely came from this room. A red police like light was showering the room in red every five seconds. She tried to focus on what the speakers were putting out but at this point she could only hear her own heavy breathing combined with the sharp tones of the alarm. She tried to stand up. Putting her right foot underneath her, then the other. She slowly rose into a vertical position. Once standing, she looked down at herself. She finally realized that she was wearing a space suit. Not a high tech one so it seemed as it looked exactly like the ones they were wearing twenty years ago when they first tried going to Mars. Completely white, except for some metal looking parts. She felt like a bloated version of herself. Her head clearing she remembered she was in the game, she had chosen the hard way, thank god she did that! Right! Fuck! Calm down, assesses the situation, and then go into action mode. What was happening? It seemed she was crashing. She tried to walk towards the pilot seat. All the trash on the ground in combination with another shock wave through the vessel, landed her flat on her glass visor again. This time she caught herself a little so no new head injuries. She did come to the decisionnot to walk in the rodeo mode she was in at the moment. Going back to all fours, she shuffled her way through the mess on the floor. As she finally arrived she climbed into it, quickly searching for some seatbelts and putting them on. Alrightnext up, shutting that damn alarm off! It was driving her nuts. She looked at the panel and wanted to scream again. None of the buttons had any indication what they were for. Never mind about the alarm she thought, looking outside through the cabin windows. In front of her the starry sky turned into the massive outline of a grey planet with several craters on it. It seemed her vessel was attempting to hit the planet at point blank range. With no intention of slowing down. Staring at the buttons in front of her she tried to remember where the buttons in the landing sequences were placed. Deciding on a button she crossed her fingers and pressed it. As she did a system message came into view on her visor.
Your piloting aptitude has not evolved to generation 2, thus you cannot use this button at this point in time.
Staring at the message for a couple of seconds she ignored it and press another button, just to get the same system message as before. God dammit! at this point she started feeling the adrenaline kicking her fight-or-flight response into gear she felt a slight panic rising in the back of her throat. Pressing threemore buttons at random until she finally pressed a button that did something. As she was pressed into her chair by the acceleration force, she immediately regretted ever touching the button. "God dammit!!!! How the hell am I supposed to survive this!" Shouting into her helmet only made her visor foggier. She slammed her hand against her head to calm down. Think, think, think, she kept looking towards the buttons, now also noticing the small output screens that were giving her a variety of numbers. She had no clue what they told her, but one of them was flashing red, going down at an alarming rate. Looking through the glass again she saw the surface of the planet coming closer and closer. The fact that there wasn''t any resistance as she was making her way towards the surface made her think it was a planet without an atmosphere. Thus, a planet without oxygen. "Just keeps getting better..." She kept staring at the buttons. She had to remember which one was the kill switch, which one was the landing thrusters... As time passed, the alarm upped its game as well. She could now hear its output just fine. Sadly it only contributed towards putting more pressure on her then she already was on. As it drove away the final bit of insecurity, she would definitely crash if there was not something done " Speed Genesis has gained 10% towards GEN2 After remembering the piloting drama in the POD and not being able to use certain buttons due to her not having a satisfactory piloting generation, she decided to check what the hell was up. Turned out every single of her "Aptitudes" was now marked as GEN1, with small bars underneath them indicating how far away the next level was, which she suspected to be called GEN2. As she looked at it, only speed, piloting and persistence had any progression and the rest were still at zero. Which was no surprise to her as she had only been playing for an hour even though it felt like ages. In the next couple of minutes that she "ran" or as she liked to call it, jump around in the dark, she began growing tired. Ten minutes after the progress message she got another message. Her stamina had been depleted, and if she continued, Oxygen would be used at three times the normal rate. As she checked the menu''s again she went to the options and stated there that she wanted a stamina bar in her field of vision, before she sat down to rest a little, she didn''t have enough oxygen as it is, so why risk it. After ten minutes of rest she was ready to go again. Stepping through the dark, big jumps of two to three meters at a time and she had to admit, it was a great feeling of freedom, combined with a slight claustrophobic feeling. There being nothing to separate her bare body and the deadly cold and vacuum of space, other than a very old looking space suite was slightly worrying her. The sense of worry didn''t become any less when her search found another escape POD. She was just doing her regular jumping motions when suddenly little pieces of white painted metal came into the light beam that was mounted on top of her head. Stopping for a moment and looking around she could see that to her left a large amount of debris seemed to have piled up into one of the craters. Going closer, that debris had not piled up into a crater, but an escape POD that looked very similar to hers had made contact at an angle that could best be described as her original point blank course. Seeing that the escape POD was completely destroyed, and had caused another crater on the planet made her shiver, thinking it could have been her if she had woken up a little later. She first decided to look through the wreckage to see, if by any chance, there would be something that she could still use for her current predicament. Sadly, it was the same as with her own POD, nothing good, and the moment an arm came loose from the wreckage and started to drift up she decided to keep going before she would puke in her only sanctuary. With only thirty minutes remaining and still no sign of anything other than rock, she had had another message stating the progress to GEN2 in speed was now 20% underway which was all good and nice but she had to rest for another ten minutes right after it. Standing back up she looked around trying to find anything that didn''t look grey. As she stared into the blackness a small light caught her eye, the light seemed to be something on the surface of the planet, instead of being part of the stars in the sky. Feeling hopeful she began her track anew. Time passed, and it didn''t seem that she was getting any closer to her only hope. first she thought it was just her imagination, but as she had only five minutes left, she began to panic slightly. How she had gotten an aptitude in mental fortitude of 4.9 she had no clue as she found herself getting ready for another fight or flight, struggle for life. She tried to move faster, but couldn''t, she looked at the clock again and it was now at three minutes, she had to go for it, even if it was nothing she had no time to look for something else, something more solid than just a hunch. She made her way for another two minutes, and slowly the light became bigger. Filled with new hope she continued onward. Thirty seconds left, and she finally saw the outlining of what looked like steel plated walls. She almost started cheering but then remembered that she still had to find something to get her oxygen up and running again. As she arrived at what seemed like some sort of station, she started looking for a door. As the oxygen timer reached zero, she took one last breath before she started holding it and continuing on relentlessly. Looking for any opening. The panic that had subsided by her hope of finding this place was creeping back up, stuck in her throat. The station seemed to be made out of one big room adjourned by a few little rooms, but it was quite big and she just couldn''t find an opening. She was almost at the limit of what she could handle. Was she really going to suffocate right at the finish line? She tried to focus, and at the latest possible moment she finally found an opening. The opening was a hole in its exterior steel plating, about fifty centimeters in diameter, just enough to let her through. She dove into the hole and when she came into the room, she almost breathed a sigh of relieve, but stopped herself just in time. The realization hit her like a hammer, hole in the hull means no oxygen... She wanted to scream, but that would mean the end, she wasn''t ready to give up, she wanted to succeed! Her vision began to blur, and she saw her health, which had crept up towards the forty percent mark, slowly going down again. The panic and adrenaline giving her back a little of sharpness as she looked through the room, there was nothing in here, the walls were clean, the door closed and the floor had taken damage as some floor panels seemed to be missing. She tried to jump accurately towards one of the holes in the floor but it was difficult to jump around accurately and she over shot her target by a meter, looking back she saw two steel cylinders. She only had twenty percent health left, and it was going down fast. She crouched down and crawled towards her target. She grabbed a tube on the back of her suit and pulled it out. On the way, in the dark with nothing other to do then moving forward, she had already found out that this tube was needed to refill the oxygen tank on her back. Her face becoming slightly blue, she put the tube on the ending of the first steel cylinder, she didn''t care if it wasn''t oxygen, this was her only shot. One''s the tube was on the cylinder she felt around for some kind of button or another wheel to spin the cylinder open and release its contents. Finding what she was looking for on the underside of the cylinder she pressed the lever. It was empty. Nothing happened. She screamed internally, before quickly pulling off the tube and trying to fit it around the other steel cylinder, she was in critical condition, her eyes blurred and she couldn''t even see the health meter anymore. She started to black out as she finally put the tube on the final steel cylinder, diving towards the lever and pressing it. gasping for air, she passed out. She awoke, breathing a long breath of oxygen through her nose, wide eyed she sat up, the slight movement made her come off the ground but she was still stuck to the cylinder that contained oxygen. She floated around a little and then pulled herself down again. She had made it. The oxygen meter giving her around 48 hours. She started laughing, this was one crazy game. She had almost died on two separate occasions and none had anything to do with some kind of alien or any other human being. No murder, Just survival. It should have been their slogan. Nothing more than a battle against the elements and she had already almost died two times in the span of four hours. She unhooked the tube after stabilizing herself on the floor. The moment she unhooked herself the timer went back to three hours, which meant that her tank could only hold three hours of oxygen. Not that it was a major problem right now, she had at least 48 hours to figure out how to get into the rest of the complex. She also noticed that several of her Genesis skills had gone up again. Mental fortitude, and persistence had gone up with five percent. Spatial awareness with two and intelligence with one percent, the big winner though was Engineering as it had gone up with ten percent. She really had to find out what exactly the causes where for an increase in genesis, persistence seemed logical, but why had spatial awareness been triggered, and had she really fixed anything to cause Engineering to go up? And what was the difference in mental fortitude and persistence? Questions, questions and more questions... Normally she would just click on them or some question mark to find out their function, but those had been omitted. She remained seated for a while pondering if she should log off before starting another three-hour stint of investigation, but decided against it. She was extremely curious about what was in the space station. And she could later find out what everything was for as Frank had hopefully found some useful intelligence on the game. She pushed herself of the floor and slightly floated up, she straightened herself and locked her feet between missing floor panels. Her feet seemed to have some weights in them as she could stand on the ground perfectly fine, something else to find the answer to. She stood and assessed the room for a second time as her first time was not ideal for exploration. Contrary to her first thoughts the room did have a door. The problem was that the door seemed to be seamlessly integrated into the steel slaps that where the wall or hull of the space station, no handle, lever, keypad or anything fancier that would indicate that the door could be opened from the inside. She walked towards it with the intention of inspecting it closer but she over shot again and bumped with her head against the door, landing with one of her feet in one of the holes in the floor "Totally meant to do that... Can''t press door open, check" she mumbled, slightly embarrassed and praying to god nobody just saw that. As she tried to take her foot out of the square meter of missing floor tile it wouldn''t budge, she looked down and saw it was stuck, sighing and thinking she must have suffered from oxygen deprivation to be captain obvious all of a sudden, she yanked a little harder and after a third try her boot is finally released. As her foot got out of the whole so did something else. Big, black and looking like a cross between a taser and a Swiss army knife, it spiraled out of the hole and towards the ceiling, before it can reach the ceiling it hits her straight in the visor as she was still looking down. "God dammit! Stop assaulting my only protection against the mauls of certain death by vacuum!" angry she shouts and at the same time grabs the object out of open space. Looking at it, her smile starts to grow until it reaches both her ears and shows a clean row of sparkling white teeth. "Hello rewards!" she says as she tried to find a way to inspect the object. After some thought she said "Inspect" and a status screen appears in front of her, naming and giving her the specs of the objects in her hand, "Lazy Devs, being original is hard these days isn''t it".
Multi-tool XZ12003 Uncommon Edition Used mostly to do repairs and other common and uncommon jobs, it''s a "I can do it all machine of bliss." - review Send in by S1ck
The system message was kind of different than what she was expecting, it was more of a sales pitch then a factory sheet with specs. She didn''t know if she liked the change, but suspecting she was not going to get asked for her opinion on the subject anytime soon, she was about to stuff the multi tool into her pocket when she realized an obvious flaw. She had no pockets. Feeling around on her space suit didn''t present a solution, "I''m definitely not going to be carrying this thing around indefinitely, unless... " after talking to herself a little she laughed and shook her head. She was in a game. "Inventory" and as she said it a screen on her left magically appeared, looking like a box. She tried to place the Multi tool in it, it went in perfectly but it took up two spaces instead of one, and was now in the right bottom corner. She now had another two spaces up and the rest of the rows that went on for six spaces to the left. All in all, the six by four would give her twenty-four inventory slots. But it would be filled up much faster than she was used to... So inventory limited to physical properties, she liked it, it was more realistic in a way. "Ah¡­" she breathed in deep, smelling what she hoped was her own sweat and not the butt crack smell of the previous owner "sweet baby Jesus, what is a game in outer space without a multi tool, Houston we are finally ready for lift off! Get to the shuttle because I will fix your space ship in no time!" she laughed at her own jokes before she pushed the only button on it. She then observed the wonderful magic of the multi tool as the top changed shape into a screw driver, then a laser, then something that looked like a soldering iron, an electrical discharger, a wire cutter and about twelve other commonly used equipment''s for all your garden variety fixing. This thing could be a lifesaver and judging by her first few hours she was going to need all the help she could get! There was not that much more information, but the fact that it was indicated as an Uncommon edition sparked her interest. Before she closed her inventory, she noticed two tabs, one was called extra inventory space, and the other extra inventory. As she pressed the former a system message told her that she did not have the 500 credits needed to add 4 slots to the left of my inventory. Pressing the other tab stated more or less the same, but this time the price was 5000 credits. She sighed and pressed the inventory screen away, she didn''t have a single credit to her name right now, so she really didn''t need to take a closer look. After closing her inventory screen, she looked through the room a third time but there was nothing there except holes. She decided it was time to get out of here again. This time the goal would be to find a door that had something to get her into the other buildings of this space station. She could try to cut through the door but that could mean the possible destruction of an oxygen filled space. Determined to find a way in she got out of the room and back into the grey landscape that surrounded the space station. As she got out, it was still pitch black and she was thanking the good gods that she had a working flashlight. Slowly walking passed the metal cased walls of the space station she tried to search every nook and cranny. When she had last searched it, she had been in a slight rush and she didn''t want the rush to affect her chances of getting in this time around. After a few steps, another, a little bigger, room came into view, this one was just like the room that had saved her, a cube that was symmetrical and almost directly placed against the cubical but much, much larger main body. One thing that was missing was a hole in the metal which prevented her from entering it. Somewhat disappointed she went on, and found two more metal rooms, before finally finding a door that lead into the main building. Of course, the door had a password protected lock, also unfortunate was that the door was sealed shut and randomly pressing buttons did not help. Only upside was that there were slight indications as to where some buttons were pressed more than the rest. The other upside, was that the person responsible for setting the lock was not a big fan of a lot of numbers. Seemingly the person in charge had a strong connection with the numbers one and zero. She grinned, but before she could do anything a small strip of light entered her field of vision, sparkling to life in the corner of her eye. Curious what this sudden change from pitch black to light could be she turned her head around and was just in time to watch something spectacular. As she turned her head, a massive planet came around the corner, and just behind it was what looked like the local sun. Shining brightly into her visor, almost blinding her before a second visor automatically slid in front of the original one. The second visor was tinted blue and turned everything around her into an ocean blue sea of rock. As she continued to look, she saw that the planet that she was staring at, had to be at least a hundred times bigger than what she was on now, and judging by the fact that it seemed to fill up her entire view, it had to be reasonably close. "Well that explains a lot, I''m on a goddamn moon..." she whispered softly as she continued to watch the breathtaking scene. The planet, was mostly green with spots of both grey and blue, and even though her second visor was distorting all the colors into a blue hue, she could still see a lot of different shades of all tree colors as the moon slowly turned and revealed more of the planet in front of her. This was also the first time she noticed that the moon that she was on was actually spinning around its own axle. Pondering on how any of this information was going to get her out of here she felt relieved that there seemed to be a habitable planet just around the corner. That was before the sun came fully around the big planet and everything around her started to heat up at an extreme rate.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Two system messages came on at the same time, giving her just enough time to read them before she desperately turned back towards the door and started punching in zero and one combinations, from just a zero and a one up till a four-digit key. "Calm down Sophie, first the four two-digit combination... Then the eight, three digit combinations and then the twelve, four digit combinations. You still got a minute before you get microwaved and well done so that gives you¡­ two and half seconds per try... Ah god dammit, let''s hope I''m lucky¡­" she whispered to herself, to calm down the panic in her mind. The system messages had informed her that due to the lack of atmosphere, the local star SolX22Z1 would put out lethal amounts of radiation in one and half minute. Also, it would be above 300 degrees Celsius in the same time span of those one and a half minutes which would start cooking her medium rare due to a temperature cap of 200 degrees of the suit. As she was tapping in the numbers, she was also starting to feel the heat rise, slowly little beats of sweat started to form on her face but she had to ignore them. As a drop of sweat glided over the bridge of her nose, stopping at the end and now dangerously hanging down, threatening to fall onto her visor, she was now tapping in the tree digit combinations. "one, zero, one, nothing alright next, one, one, one, nothing next one, zero, zero, nothing next one, zero, one, wait! Fuck I already done that one! Next¡­" she kept talking to herself, and it calmed her mind slightly. The sweat drops that were gathering in the underside of her visor were supplemented by a steady drop of more sweat coming from her nose and chin. Her skin began to hurt a little as the health bar in the top of her vision began decreasing. She was now half way, pressing in the four digit combinations, "one, one, one, zero" barely audible she went on and finally a little green light snapped into existence and the door slid out of her way. She didn''t think and just dove in, she only had fifteen seconds left and her skin was starting to blister. Finally, inside, the door closed automatically, and she fell face first on the ground, laying there for a while, her visor against the white floor board, before turning around. As the blue visor slid back to its original position she was startled away from her blank state and started screaming "Fuck, Fuckerty, Fucking assholes! Stop trying to murder me with your laws of nature!" she screamed into nothingness. She opened her menu again, went to options and pressed the Celsius indicator and radiation meter to be added to her field of vision. She was about to close it before seeing the two remaining meters, which stated toxins and something that was blurred out as if it was not yet available. Not wanting to risk another close call she added toxins to the growing list of things she wanted to keep track off and closed her menu again. Goddamn Devs and their goddamn reality checks. She looked at the Celsius meter which was stating a nice and comfortable minus ten, and then took a look at the radiation meter, that was in the green. At least she was safe in here. Well, she didn''t want to say it out loud yet, but at least she was inside. Pushing herself of the ground she took her first look into the big cube that was the main body of the space station. Aiming her flash light into the pitch blackness that was still coating the world in the space station. There had once been an airlock, but it had been destroyed, its door bent and broken giving her a perfect view into the rest, the room lacked windows, and had been left in chaos. Everywhere she looked were things drifting, from cans of food to the same cylinders she had found in the other room. A multitude of floor boards where floating around, and so did a lot of white chairs, a couple more multi tools and something that looked like a rifle. In the center of the room was a white table that had survived whatever catastrophe had happened and was still standing. Of course, survived didn''t mean without a scratch as the table had multiple scorch marks on it and had some corners that would not have been in the round table while it was new. So, did the walls. The oncewhite walls had been redecorated into something that looked black with smudges of a disturbing red color and fist sized holes. Taking it all-in she decided to take a closer look, and she took a small jump trying not to overshoot anything this time and landing just in front of what didn''t have a very comforting shape. She slowly placed her hands on the unidentified object and stabilized it before turning it around. Staring back at her where the eyes of a man that was wearing the same although slightly fancier space suit as she was. The man that was frozen solid due to his visor braking, had blue eyes, a shaved head and a stubble, his eyebrows where slightly raised and a look of fear was evident. Of more importance at this point than the fact that the body was remarkably well preserved was that he was missing half his jaw and a part of his neck and that the roundish hole went all the way to the back making him an extra breathing hole. She looked around and saw that there were eight more suits floating around, some of them facing her. As she looked around, she heard a slightTingaccompanied by her first Quest message
Quest! You have found the final resting place of nine space marines. Find out what happened to them and let the appropriate authorities know they are dead Reward: 300 credits.
"Oeeew Nice! My first quest!" she did a little moonwalk without really going anywhere before she started the searched of the whole room. The clues had to be here somewhere and if not that, then at least some useful stuff. As she checked the first body, she turned him around slowly in the air, not seeing anything she could use until she looked underneath his oxygen tank on the back of his suit. There was hidden something underneath the oxygen tank, it was black, slick and thin, like a rectangle shaped plate of some sort. She tried to pry it lose and then saw there was a pinning mechanism in place that was holding it underneath the oxygen tank. Getting her multi tool from her inventory she pressed the button until a 5-centimeter-long pin stuck out of the tool, nothing fancy but it would do its job. Sticking the pin in the hole, the black plate dislodged and started to move on its own. She looked at it and whispered "inspect" following was a surprising find.
Oxygen plate Z11 Common Edition A device to make your Oxygen tank run more efficient. Cheap, but don''t expect high quality - review by John
"And here come the goodies! Now to get this thing inserted..." she was quite limber in her shoulders and after five minutes of fidgeting behind her back, she finally got it inserted and at the same time a system message popped up alerting her to the fact she had upgraded her standard space suit. Thanks, captain! She couldn''t be mad, this was awesome! She looked at her Air indicator and it had jumped from two hours and something to thirteen minutes more. "Alright it''s not the jackpot, but that''s eighteen minutes when full, and that is with just a common Oxygen plate!" she tried to convince herself, before she went on and searched the rest of the room. There was a lot of crap, and that was an understatement, she started just grabbing things at random and looking at them, but most was food. She shoved all the food and chairs towards the corner where she knew the empty room was and let the space marines float around a bit more. She wasn''t certain as to what to do with them. A part of her said to just shove everything into the empty room and to forget about it but something inside of her thought it disrespectful to treat the death that way. Even if they were Npc''s and even if she had no clue what else to do with them. The first four she searched had nothing of interest to her, but then came the last three who made up for it, as one had a better lamp on his helmet then she had, one had a holster to slide a multi tool in on his back, and the last one had a plasma gun.
Ionic Headgear Q119 Uncommon Edition Expensive, but great, especially the infra-red visor - review by CaptainO07
Multi-tool holder Common Edition What you see is what you get - review by spacemar1ne
Plasma gun D97 Common Edition Military grade plasma gun, shoots a little slow but has a nice punch to it, mainly popular in the federation - review by bull1ts4bra1ns
The thing she thought was only a flash light turned out to be a flash light and a view additional visors. She clicked a button next to the visors, and to her surprise almost half the helmet came off. Only the original visor that was slightly yellow from the outside and a much lower part of the helmet stayed on. She followed up by feeling around on her own helmet and finding the exact same spot, she breathed out a little of her nerves, and whispered "Don''t become a popsicle, don''t become a popsicle, don¡¯t... " before pressing the button and her own flash light and blue visor came off without consequences towards her general health. Breathing out a sigh of relieve she replaced the old with the new and then switched the light on. She had to admit, it was quite the change, if before she was illuminating twenty-five percent of her field of vision, then now she was illuminating at least fifty percent. As she didn''t know how to change visors consciously, she ignored the remark that there was supposed to be an infra-red visor for now and went on and clipped the multi tool holder to the back of her suit and clipped the multi tool in it. Now her inventory was empty again, but only for a moment as she stuffed the plasma gun in it, which filled one complete row of inventory. Luckily it was only a row and the last remaining three rows could still be used. She didn''t like using weapons in games, or outside of games for that matter, for obvious reasons. But she also didn''t want to look a gift horse in the mouth or wanted to die due to her principles leading to her being defenseless. So, she would keep it until she had either found an alternative or had to get over the principal of it all, in favor of survival. On second thought, she pulled the plasma rifle out again and studied it for a minute. If she had to use it, then she had to know how it worked at least. The weapon was about sixty centimeters long and was built like a cross between a shotgun and an assault rifle. It was completely black, and there were two grips, one with a trigger where the gun ended and banded down into the grip and one with a switch that indicated if you wanted to do short burst fire or single shots. The barrel was rounded with a slight hole in the middle, and from the middle of the barrel a glass like empty space went all the way towards the first handle where both sides came together and went on into the black metal. As she frowned at the weird weapon, she decided to give it a try. She placed her legs slightly outwards, so she was standing in an inverted V shape and put the switch on singe shot. She aimed at part of the wall that had no door and pulled the trigger. For a moment, the only thing that happened was the front of the weapon glowing blue and the space that was empty filling up with some kind of energy. Then it shot out of the barrel and tore part of the wall away. She tried another shot, but the gun had to reload as the battery screen at the front of the gun started blinking. She waited a minute before it was at 100% again and then switched to burst shots, this time the weapon had to load again but she could shoot multiple shots, all only taking five percent out of the battery but also doing a lot less damage to the wall. She looked at the wall which was now in the worst condition of the entire station and smiled a little. At least if she found something that wanted to kill her she had means to defend herself. Not that it would have helped her in any way the last three times she almost died, but the thought was comforting. As she tucked away the plasma gun into her inventory, she looked around for anything she missed. She hadn''t. All that was still floating in the open space of the main room where the bodies, with the junk she got out of the way floating in the far corner. "Guess it''s time to find out what is behind door number two" she said as she walked into the direction of the door that was situated next to the heap of junk. She looked for some kind of key card system or another code protected lock but this time it was almost too simple. There was a button that stated "Open¡­" She looked at it with a bit of suspicion, nothing had been this easy so far... She closed her eyes and backed away from the door as much as she could before pressing the button and hearing the door slide open. Nothing happened. Thank god. She walked into the room and found it to be filled to the ceiling with food and what looked to be a fried life support system. She looked around a bit but there was nothing of note. Except for the extremely boring credit card like piece of plastic that dissolved into a sound of coins falling and the message that I found 30 credits. She had no clue what High risk high reward was for Nsquared, but up until now she was skeptical of how much more of a reward she had been given in comparison to the other options. As she came out of the room, she checked her Oxygen meter, but she still had about an hour before she had to perform a refill and, besides the obviously fried life support system, there was a collection of about twelve oxygen cylinders so she was not worrying about it anymore. She walked towards the next room and opened it with the same kind of button she had found at the previous door. This time It were the barracks, with five bunk beds it was perfect for the nine dead bodies outside. She went into the room and took a look around. Again, there was nothing much of anything. Belongings yes, the same plasma gun seven times yes, but she did not want her inventory to be stuffed with four plasma guns as she was not going to use more than one and didn''t think she was going to meet a merchant anytime soon. What did pique her interest was that she found seven more credit card like pieces of plastic and that she now had 480 credits to her name. She decided that she would get all the marines to this room as it was something of a final resting place, or at least they would be close to their belongings. And out of her way and eyesight. Twenty minutes and an oxygen refill later she was heading towards the third and final door. She opened the door and inside was a pretty hefty computer, the size was that of her life support POD, with wires and cables that led to the roof. There was only one screen that was about 40 centimeters in diameter, and it had a keyboard in front of it and a mouse pad next to it. "High tech¡­" mouse pads hadn''t been in use since the introduction of voice recognition and touch pads, and keyboards were starting to get replaced by brainwave interpreters. But she guessed all that stuff wasn''t really practical in outer space when you were pretty far away from the nearest computer repair shop, so outdated but sturdy was advised. She walked up to the screen and touched the mouse. The screen came to life, and she saw that it was running on some kind of Operating system she had no knowledge off. But it was easy enough to interpreted what the computer was doing as it was continuously uploading and sending data into outer space. This station must have been some kind of relay station for message she thought, sending messages to and from other places in the galaxy. Cool, but not a reason why the crew was dead. Why kill the crew but not the machine they were here to protect? And it is by no means impossible to gain excess to the machine ones the marines where dead. So why are they dead, they had food, they had oxygen and suits that worked, and by the looks of their guns being in another room they did not kill each other. But then again the walls are destroyed and a lot of the dead marines were not completely whole anymore which indicates something shooting it... As she was thinking she looked at the screen and noticed that something was blinking, and it looked like a message system. She opened the system and indeed it was something that had a lot in common with an email service. She looked through the messages, and it seemed the last 56 hadn''t been opened, the last one dating five years ago. She opened the first one that was unread and saw it was from something called the federation. Some colonel that was concerned due to their status being unknown, was sending over reinforcements. Sadly, they would arrive in three months'' notice and the email was send a week ago. So, no hitching a ride¡­ she looked through the emails but most were asking for a status report and where automated messages send from, again, the federation. She opened the last opened email and read it.
Hello Federal pigs, Hereby we would like to congratulate you all on being fucked.Have fun! Greetings, The Division.
There was an attachment that downloaded itself as soon as she opened the email, and then the alarms went off, the darkness blasted with red lights that went off and on in a hurried frequency. A slightTingas a system message updated her quest intostay alive to tell the tale, donating the 300 credits to her name. She couldn''t be happy. As she turned around in her seat to look what was happening, a swarm of what looked like very angry one eyed robots flew in through the main room of the space station. 8. What the mind wants Sophie got up, pushing over the chair she was sitting on in the process. Still in low gravity she tried to sprint towards the door, to close it before the angry-looking robots decide it''s better to destroy preemptively instead of asking questions. The Space marines didn''t look like they were asked a lot of questions. She jumped towards the door and pushed the close button, but it didn¡¯t budge and the door stays open. She grabs her plasma gun from her inventory and takes cover behind the wall next to the door. Nothing happens, the door doesn''t close, but the robots aren''t coming in either. She looks around the corner expecting a firing squad to be aiming at her every move. As she looks, five flying robots the size of a reasonably big soda bottle are buzzing in circles, scanning the room for life, blue laser like light spreads from their front into a triangle, seeming to vacuum every bit of information that is in the room into their hard drives or whatever they have installed. Curiously they enter all the rooms but leave the one she is in alone. "Why would a security robot not enter the only place that is to be secured in time of peril..." She whispers to no one but herself. A few minutes¡¯ pass and the robots don''t seem to be planning on leaving, they are about thirty centimeters long, have a cylinder like shape and little V-shaped wings on their sides that seem to have rotors inside of them. The front of the robots was where the magic truly happened, there was a camera installed that looked like those old-fashioned security camera''s, slightly spherical and made out of glass that was tinted so you couldn''t see it moving around. It took up about 90 percent of the space in front and then there were two holes underneath it. Seemingly giving it what looked like a face, the holes were barely two centimeters in diameter and except that they looked like nostrils, were probably also exits for whatever unreasonable weaponry it had installed on it. Underneath these two holes was a third hole, completing the triangle. This third hole was currently busy puking out the blue laser that was scanning the place. She withdrew her gaze from the five roaming bots and held her gun closer to her chest, this was going to be her first real fight! She gave a small smile before frowning again and looking around the door frame again "Why are they not searching here though" she said in a questioning tone. Seconds passed but still nothing happened, and then an idea hit her, they were not entering here because if there was anybody here, they could not open fire! It would be strange if they tried to protect the one and only thing of importance on the space station by accidentally destroying it. Their programs must forbid to use force on this room and to wait for an intruder to show himself in the main room. She looked towards the walls if an intruder was free to do whatever he or she wanted in this room that would be a serious breach of security. The walls didn''t seem special, just the same as the rest... She bummed her head against the wall behind her, sighing at her own stupidity "The space marines were the first line of defense, so they could control their firing and assess the situation better, a guard was probably in the room at all times. The bots were only extra muscle in emergencies. "What now though? Well simple actually, she just got some free target practice. She put the plasma gun in front of her visor so she could see over the barrel and through the front sight, putting the gun on burst, her outstretched left arm was holding the grip furthest away while her right arm was bend, her finger on the trigger. She breathed in deep and looked one more time around the door frame before turning into the door frame and opening fire on the nearest security bot. The plasma gun took off one of its wings and it crashed to the ground, she shot another round into its "eye" to make sure she wouldn''t be shot at from the ground and then turned towards the next bot. As she shot the first one down the other four turned in her direction, there might be no sound, without an atmosphere to carry the sound but the bots had definitely registered the movement through their eye and were now flying towards her. "Moment of truth" she mumbled as she shot at another robot, missing it, and taking cover again behind the wall. Moving targets were a lot harder to hit, she had missed the bot by quite the margin. Waiting for the bots to come through the door she kept her plasma gun up, pointing at the door, nervously breathing in and out, focusing on the trigger of her gun. A minute had passed and now she knew for certain. The bots would definitely not enter the room, she looked around the corner again and got shot at by a dozen lasers. "Fuck! Aren''t you supposed to have orders not to damage the goddamn computer!" Yelling she retreated her head and stood there while she smelled something burning. "Time to single shot these bastards." she switched the plasma gun to "nuke the bastard" and very slowly angled her position so she could see one of the bots, she needed a certain kill, and not a shoot-out. She did not want to know how reliable her space suit was in a fight with lasers... Slowly turning she saw the first one and fired before ducking away again, the bot shot one time before being torn to pieces by the plasma. She smiled a little, and went on to the second target, rinse and repeat. As she shot the last one she looked around, on guard if she might have missed a bot, but soon she went to see if the robots had dropped anything, loot being the mobs secondary use, after experience. Even though she doubted that experience was a thing in here. Slowly making her way to the five defense robots she crouched next to her first victim and found a credit card for ten credits, "Guess these things where not good enough to drop something decent." Checking the rest, she found forty more credits but not much else. Shame. She walked back and sat in the chair again, her quest had updated again as soon as she had killed the bots, stating she could either contact The Division or The Federation with news of the successful attack on the moon. She chose to send word to the federation as The Division had as much tried to kill her just now as the Space marines. More important was the fact that she did not want to contact an enemy of the federation on a machine of the federation while in a space station of the federation. Selecting the last mail entry, she typed a small report and signed the email with "A Concerned citizen" before pressing send and hopping off the chair and towards the main room again. As she made small jumps, she got a notification that by not stating her name she had not been identified by neither the Federation nor The Division and was thus still anonymous. Which meant she didn''t get any additional rewards, but neither made any enemies which was fine by her for now. She didn''t know enough to pick a side yet, and maybe she didn''t want to pick a side at all. She walked into the main room again and made a final round, checking if she had missed anything. It was still dark in the space station, the sun outside was smoldering the walls. She looked around, not sure what she could do now, going outside was not really an option and staying here was useless. She played with the idea in her head to log off a little sooner than planned when she saw a scorch mark on the table that had not been there before. She smiled a little, thinking that it must have been the burst shot she tried to fire at the flying bot. Disregarding it after a couple of seconds she was about to log off, when she noticed that the spot was not only black instead of white, but was also sticking out of the table. This table was semi indestructible, how did her burst of a little plasma take a chip off? "That can''t be right" she said into her helmet while she made her way over, better to check it then to leave a goldmine, right? As she came closer, she saw that there apparently had been a secret compartment in the table. Which she had shot open with her missed shot... "Well that, or the compartment was designed to open ones I finished my quest..." Sophie said as she placed her hand underneath the lit and pushed it further up. When she saw, what was underneath it gave her some pause, before whistling into her helmet. "Finally some proper tech, huh? Looks like an Iris Scanner, a DNA checker and a passcode..." she looked at the installation, commenting on it as she went from hopeful to doubtful she would be able to crack this. She looked around, then thought of the space marines. She went and got all the bodies that she had stashed in the barracks and placed them in a row along the wall of the main room. Now for the hard part she had to get them out of their suits, but they were kind of, sort of, frozen solid by the breaches in their suits so they were in no way flexible. "Disgusting" She said as she had decided it was better to just get the eye balls out and break a hand off, which was accompanied with frozen human flesh now floating through the whole main room. It was quite the struggle to get the eye ball out in one piece and she had to use the multi-tool laser and carefully cutsome of the hindering face away and chop of the right and left hand. Thanking the lord and savior that she couldn''t smell a thing and that their blood was frozen solid, she still gagged when the first eye popped out of the socked and she had to chase it through the room to prevent it from shattering against a wall. She slowly made her way back and placed the eye ball in front of the iris scanner. She waited a while as two blue lasers where scanning the eyeball and then got the news she was hoping for. A blinking green light! The first had been the right one! She did a little dance, thinking about her luck that she didn''t have to butcher the rest when she put the hand into the DNA scanner. A red light. She looked at it a little aghast that it hadn''t been over, then moving onto cutting off his left hand and removing the hand from the glove. Another red light. "Ah god dammit, these bastards needed two people for their security check!" grumbling she went on to cut off hands, and as she didn''t know how important it was if it was right or left, she did them both until finally after ten minutes and three bodily reactions she could just about contain, the light finally blinked green from the right hand of space marine number seven. She Pushed her hands above her head to celebrate before frowning and looking at the final piece of the puzzle, the coded lock... "They wouldn''t¡­ right?" she said as she doubtfully entered the number combination of the front door into the touch pad. It blinked green and the table split apart revealing a stairway down. "I love idiots! especially dead ones! You beautiful fools! Thank you, boys, it was a pleasure working together!" she said as she smiled, put the hand next to the frozen eyeball, and plunged into the pitch-black stairwell. As she made her way down, she checked her Genesis to find that she had grown again. Agility had finally taken off, giving her five percent, then there was a general increase of five percent in her mental fortitude, persistence and ten percent in empathy which was nice, she guessed. The biggest change again came from her engineering which had leapt up with fifteen percent! Her spatial awareness seemed to have profited from the shoot off as it had gained eight percent, and lastly intelligence and numeric had gone up five percent, numeric being related to the coded locks she assumed. Not too shabby she thought as she was ascending the dark stairwell to god knows where. The walls were the same as upstairs but they seemed to be whiter. If that was because she was shining her flashlight closer to it or the plasma rifles and lasers had made a mess upstairs was unclear, but it gave a clean almost new kind of feeling. That was until she encountered a steel door that was a little rusted and creaked open to the side when she came into view. Behind the steel door was another and as soon as she was in between the door behind her closed again before she could react. "That''s not good... Right?" She asked the thin air in her helmet. She was looking around the place but there was not much to see, only the white walls and the two steel doors. No locks, no buttons, no touch pads, nothing... She looked at her air, and she still had an hour and forty minutes¡¯ left, "Should have gotten a refill¡­" she muttered. A few seconds passed as nothing happened before suddenly gravity seemed to hit her like a hammer and a gas was being pumped into the room. She fell down to her hands and knees before she could get a grip on herself and stand back up again. It wasn''t that the gravitational pull was strong, it was just that she had not expected it and went from weighing close to nothing to her fifty kilos¡¯ plus suit. Breathing slightly harder and sweating a little she calmed herself down, a light was blinking in the corner of her visor, and she looked at it. Apparently, the Toxic meter can also give a read out when there is breathable air around, as it was now blinking green with O2 next to it. "Finally!" She pushed on the side of her helmet and pressed her visor up breathing in a deep breath of fresh air. Or so she thought, as it turned out the smell of sweat and stale air in her suit could not compete with the moist, moldy stale air that was coming out of the pipelines in the ground. If she had to guess then nobody had used this part of the stationed for as long or longer then the time the space marines had been dead, so about six months. Gagging a little she put a hand in front of her mouth hoping it would help. Smelling her glove however was not something she would recommend to anyone, certainly not now that she had been butchering people upstairs. She flicked off a piece of rapidly defrosting meat and brought her hand back down again. Frowning and wiggling her nose she walked through the now opened steel door and walked into another tunnel. Actually, walking and not trying to prevent hitting the ceiling with every pass was a change of pace, but it felt more comfortable, she had more movability like this and was less dependent on the fact if she had taken off at the right angle and with the correct strength. Still the suit was made for less gravity and it made it hard to walk in. She slowly starts walking into the tunnel, shuffling close to the wall, keeping a hand on the wall for when she trips. "What is this place..." she mumbled under her breath as she slowly made her way down the tunnel. It was still pitch black as she had yet to find any light switches. Something that was strange in and of itself. Why was there no light source? The computer was still working fine so there had to be a source of power. Then why didn''t the station seem to have lights? Strange. In the end, she couldn''t think of something that made sense while she crept down the pitch-black tunnel. As a few minutes passed, and she made some decent ground, she was finally confronted with a T section, the wall she was facing had some weird letters on it and two arrows, pointing to either direction of the T section. Not comprehending the language, she first looked left, shining her light down the hallway, and then looked right. Both parts of the tunnel led to a door, she decided on checking out the door closest to her first and took a few steps to the right. As she arrived at the door she was confronted by a steel door that had a rectangular window in its center. The window was woven with wire and started quite high in the door making it hard to look through as it technically started above her head. Not one to be discoursed by technicalities she stood on her toes, so she could still look through it. On the other side of the glass where the same bunk beds she had seen upstairs. This time, fifteen bunk beds stood side by side spread out over the entire room. The only real difference being that these seemed to belong to little children. The whole room was plastered with vibrant colors. She tried to see the floor by jumping a little but the suit was too heavy for it to help in any significant way. Giving up on examining the room, she looked at the door handle and saw that it was locked with a key card. Another road block, oh well. She turned around and slowly made her way toward the other room, the door was the same as the other one and thus she had to stand on her toes to take a peak. The moment she looked inside, the face of an aging man stared back at her through the window. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH" She screamed and fell down on her butt, not losing eye contact with the man in the process. The man, had a white beard that spread across half of his face, long white eyebrows that bent down a little at the end and kind blue eyes that were looking straight at her. His hair was white and a mess, and his nose was slightly crooked to the left. His ears sticking out of the white hair. As the extraterrestrial staring prolonged, she calmed down a bit, a little ashamed that she had been scared like that and tried to get her heavy breathing under control, her chest still rising in swallow quick breaths. She got up from the floor but kept her gaze on the old man. He had followed her movements with his eyes and seemed to be smiling even though it was hard to say due to the beard and the height of the window. She waved at him, not sure what else to do to establish a line of communication. The man looked at her strange for a moment and tilted his head like an owl before waving back with a wrinkled hand. She nodded, and he nodded back, then she looked at the lock on the door. Swallowing a little she looked back at the man on the other side of the glass and as she caught his eyes, he nodded again and pointed towards the other door in the T section and nodded. Then he pointed to the ceiling. She didn''t really understand his intentions, but at least she understood half of what he was trying to say. She also knew she wasn''t going to fool a speech pattern lock any time soon with all the keys dead and frozen. So she just nodded and went along with the plan and back to the other door. Shuffling back to where she started, she stared at the key card swipe, not sure what to do. Until now she had relied on her brain to find a loop hole and stupidity of others. Now she had to do some real breaking in as she hadn''t found any key cards in the possessions of the space marines. She looked back at the window of the other door. The old man was nowhere to be seen and had left her to her own devices. Not that he could have helped, but still. She looked at the little machine that had but one function, to check if the key card was the correct one. It was black, with a small vertical edge that announced the presence of the slot through which the card had to be swiped. A little LED light at the top was there to inform the user if the card was accepted or not, and it was currently red. She also noticed that there were three little screws holding it all together. Deciding that it was useless to her whole, as she didn''t have a key card, she took out her multi tool, prepped it into screwdriver mode and went to work. The screws flew out with a practiced ease she did not know of and the black plastic body part of the lock fell away, the magical insides presented itself. She sighed in relief, mumbling out loud "Thank god the game is not too realistic. This I can handle". What was staring back at her were two wires, both green, that led to the LED light, one on each side of the swipe slot. The wire was isolated with green plastic but the copper insides where connected on both sides with little screws. This was just easy, connect the two sides so they for a full circuit and I will open up to you, lock. When the circuit was full, the LED would show a green light, otherwise it stayed red. She made the multi tool screwdriver smaller and screwed out the little screws, then grabbed the two wires at isolation and let the copper parts touch. As she did, the door slid open, and the LED blinked green, she smiled, doing a little "whoohooo" and rolling the copper parts of the two wires into each other so the door would stay open. She also got a system message informing her that engineering had gone up with 10%. To no surprise, but still good to know.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Engineer GEN1 +10%
She got up from her crouching position and swaggered through the now glorious open door. Onceinside she took another look around. the room was still the same as when she had seen it through the glass, but this time she could also see the floor, which was littered with plush, toys and baby dolls, confirming her suspicions that this must have been a sleeping quarter for children. Now the next question was of course why a transit station on a moon would need a place to house thirty children. She looked around but there was nothing of note in the room, the toys and dolls lay strewn around but nothing too messy, more like a normal children''s room. The bunk beds were made, there was no trash or litter and nothing that indicated that these children had belongings like the marines. She slowly walked through the room, letting her eyes take in anything that might clue her to where the children might have gone off to. There had been no indication upstairs that the tunnel had been found before she had gotten there, so the children had either left before that time or were still here. Based on the fact that the old man was still here she guessed the latter rather than the former. She reached the end of the room and turned around, sighing a little and pulling her lower lip up in a kissing face while scratching her chin, thinking what to do next. The old man had pointed up. She slowly moved her gaze towards the ceiling still scratching her chin and let her eyes fall on a ventilator shaft. "Ah there we go" she snickered, the instructions of the old man turned out to be quite easy to follow. She grabbed a bunk bed that stood nearest to the ventilator shaft and pulled at it, making scraping noises over the steel floor plates it gave way and she positioned it underneath and climbed on top of it. As she made her way up the iron bars groaned under the combined weight of the space suit and her body weight but thankfully it seemed to hold, for now. Now came the next challenge, she looked at the ventilator, it was a white steel plate that grilled with little slits where oxygen was pumped through, at least that was what she presumed. The plate was attached to the ceiling with four screws in the four corners. She grabbed her Multi tool again and went to work. Screwing the plate loose in a couple of seconds and earning herself another percent in engineering. It was surprisingly heavy to, something she found out when she removed the last screw and had to use all her strength not to be dragged down by the falling ventilator plate that was now dangling over the side of the bunk bed. Slowly releasing her grip on it the plate fell down fast and with a small thud it created a dent in the floor board unlucky enough to absorb the full weighed. She looked down and smiled wearily before turning around and looking up into the whole, shining her light into the shaft. The shaft had just enough room to accommodate her and her very wide space suit and had cornered to the left half a meter into the shaft. This was going to be tricky, her space suit was not made for climbing or jumping in a space with gravity, and the bunk bed was most certainly not made to support her weight, multiplied by gravity and the motion of jumping might have some unfriendly consequences. Readying herself to make the jump, she bent her knees and put some pressure on the mattress underneath her feet, it groaned heavily and she could swear she heard some popping sounds. "here goes nothing" she whispered and unleashed her jump and stretched her hands towards the ridge that indicated the beginning of corner. Almost able to grab it she started falling back to earth and her face that had initially been hopeful now changed into a grimace. As she landed back on the mattress, the whole bunk bed snapped into two and she fell in an awkward angle to the ground. As the back of her head made first contact with the cold floor plates, she whiplashed herself and the rest of her body doubled over with her neck as the lever. Laying there for a couple of seconds, she was cursing herself internally for not thinking before she acted, or rather almost breaking her neck because she was too impatient. She groaned, and fell on her side before picking herself up of the ground and rubbing her neck through the suit, something that was close to useless. She had taken a solid 20% on the damage front, but after the certain death situations she had been in before this was just a mild inconvenience. Shrugging off the failed attempt, she looked at the rubble it had left. The bed was now broken into two sides, and the mattresses were on top of each other. This particular bunk bed was not going to be of any use anymore, so she got rid of the iron encasing and put the mattresses to the side. She had a plan now, she needed more stability and more reach. That meant either making the bunk beds stronger, something that would require a lot of welding, or she could use more bunk beds to divide the weight. She opted for the latter as it was less work. She knew it had the possibility of being another shortcut that was too short but she had never in her life welded a thing so who knew how that was going to work out right? Convincing herself that she was doing the right thing here, she went and got two new bunk beds and placed them underneath the open ventilator shaft. Those in place she got the mattresses from before and placed them on top of the ones that were already in the top section. She didn''t, however, put them on vertically but decided that to distribute the weight it was better to put them on horizontally, leaving the originals in their vertical position. With that taken care of she got up again and wiggled a little, there was less groaning of the iron which was good, but like this she was still uncertain if she could make the jump. She got off and put on another layer (vertically) of mattresses on top, climbed back up and had to dug a little not to hit her head against the ceiling. "This should do it" she said in a cautious voice, placing herself underneath the whole in the ceiling and grabbing the ridge. She smiled and pulled herself up, which was not at all easy. Struggling to crawl into the steel tunnel her helmet kept bumping against the ceiling and her suit scraped against the edges. She finally managed to crawl far enough that her belly was laying inside of the tunnel, and while her legs were still dangling out of the shaft, she had to take a break and gather her stamina. Her breath was heavy, and she could feel the sweat streaming down her face, she was just glad she wasn''t claustrophobic. After a couple of minutes of being glad to be alive but not much else, she got back to work and crawled herself a way into the cold, dark shaft that was a ventilator system. Now that she was in she could smell the stale air that was flowing through it. There was no way back as she was not able to turn even if her life depended on it, but luckily her target was forwards. She started to tiger very slowly as there was no space for any real movement and after an hour she felt like she should have passed the distance between two rooms. The shaft was groaning under her exertion of strength and maybe also under the weight that it was not used to but she kept going. Ten minutes later she saw the same steel ventilator plate she had removed previously and let out a breath of relief. She had made it. At the same point in time she heard another groan from the steel surrounding her, she had gotten used to it by now and didn''t think too much of it until the sound was accompanied with a snapping sound. She held still, afraid to move, this was clearly not the sound you wanted to hear while in a ventilator shaft. She had seen enough movies to know where this was going. Redoubling her effort to get to the exit, the shaft shook with strength and she heard another snap, and another until finally she felt gravity taking over and heard a rumbling sound. She fell through the ceiling, together with part of the ventilator shaft she was occupying. Hitting the ground was accompanied with the loud gong like noise of two steel objects hitting each other. During the time that she tried climbing out of her little steel tomb it was her that groaned for a change. She had absorbed the impact with her whole body, which had the awful consequence that about everything she could think of was hurting. She crawled out and put her hand on the edge to give her some more leverage, halfway out she looked up and into the eye sockets of a tiny human skeleton. "What the hell!" she blurted and tried to back up, sadly she was still a steel mermaid. Going about freeing herself from her steel captor with twice as much vigor while keeping eye contact with the withered away little human being she finally freed herself and backed away from it. "Mystery of the missing children, solved¡± she stammered while her gaze took in the room she was in. Her landing place had been some sort of class room as there were little tables and chairs all around her. The walls were plastered with drawings of children, and maps of the universe, a Federation flag hang a little out of place on the far side of the wall and in front of the room there was an old fashioned black chalkboard. The chairs and tables that surrounded her had little human skeletons in them, and the place where she had fell through the ceiling had squashed a table top and a lot of dust around it. She felt the urge to puke, her stomach contracting, putting a hand on her belly and another on the empty chair next to her she bent over and gagged. Nothing came out, thankfully. She looked up again, towards the desk in front of the class, in a chair behind it the old man was watching her intently with his kind blue eyes. He wore a blue turtleneck sweater that she hadn''t seen from outside the door. There was no trace of the smile he had before and she could see the strain of holding back his emotions on his face. She opened her mouth, but nothing came to mind. She tried to take a step forward but her legs were wobbly and she was surrounded by the dust that had ones been a child''s last remains. She looked at her suite and saw there was a big grey stain on it where she had lain on the floor. Shaking a little she tried to wipe it off with diminishing returns until only a little remained. She refocused on the old man, and finally spoke "What the hell happened here" her voice shook, the words came out soft, and when the old man didn''t respond immediately she wanted to repeat herself but he held up his hand to stop her. She closed her mouth again, and he waved her towards him. She looked puzzled, did she trust this man who sat surrounded by the corpses of children. Then again what else was she supposed to do? Leave? No way. She took a step, trying as best she could to avoid the grey dust that was strewn at random around her and made her way towards the old man. As she made her way forward she looked around and counted the remains, twenty-eight including the one she had destroyed, close to the maximum that could be given a bed. These were surely the children that lived in the other room, playing with their toys and dolls, sleeping comfortably in the not so strong bunk beds. Now dead. She refocused on the old man that was calmly waiting for her to come to him. Before any time passed she was in front of his desk, scrutinizing him with her gaze, waiting for him to speak. He looked her over, then nodded and finally she heard his low and scratching voice, almost a whisper, like a voice that had not been used in a very long time "I''m glad to finally see a brave traveler making his way down towards me, but I''m afraid that it was far too late for the children to be saved. Do not blame yourself as it has been to late ever since the first traveler even set foot in our universe." he pause a moment, seemingly judging her reaction. Which was nothing, she had none, if this was all part of the game then she would accept that, but she had never blamed herself. So, she still looked at the old man with doubt and some anger. He nodded his head, glad with whatever he thought he saw from her and continued. "For the last five years I have been here by myself, the children died after a week of no food or no water, as I suspect that our "Caretakers" had a little accident." He paused again, and this time he seemed to want something, the question ''did they?'' in everything except his mouth. Sophie sighed, and said "they did, Mister?" she asked in return. He smiled a little, his white teeth slightly visible underneath his white beard and his wrinkles slightly deeper than before "Camron Bell" he whispered with a nod of his head ¡°Nice to meet you, miss?" he mirrored her question, while putting out a wrinkled and slightly paled hand towards her. She looked at the hand with a little bit of apprehension, what had this Camron done to stay alive for 5 years? But up until now he didn''t seem to have ill intentions and her intuition said the same, she decided to follow her intuition for a bit and grabbed the hand. It was cold, but soft, she shook it and said "Sophie" then let go of the hand. The man called Camron kept smiling and said in his whispering voice "Nice to meet you Sophie. Now I know you have much to ask but please let me give you the story and then you can decide on what to ask." She nodded, and he continued without waiting for the nod "fifteen years ago I got captured by the federation, I was a scientist on my home world and was doing research in something that is called Psionics. It is the ability to control machines and the surrounding space with the mind, or better with the energies that the mind naturally possesses. On my home planet, nobody had ever heard of these theories but thirty years ago I found a subject that could move objects without touching them and ever since it became an obsession of mine to find others and perform experiments. Where was this special gift coming from, was it special to the individual? the race? Other parameters, in the end I found more questions for every answer I found but it seemed that children could develop the ability between six and ten when stimulated in the right way. Of course, like all other abilities, the right way of stimulating often resulted in failure, but the participants that I helped foster their ability got very far in life. As my studies became more known, the federation got involved, and I wanted to quit the search for answers due to morality issues. When I made it known to them, they took me here and placed me under special care, taking me away from my home world, I was to work here on further developing a way to fool proof the ,"stimulation". More than that though they altered my physique, making me not dependent on food water and sleep to survive. They said it was for a more efficient working relationship, but I know now that it was so their slave and valuable intellectual property would not die under unusual circumstances. Like when the guards that provide the food die." He was quiet for a while and so was she. What she had heard up till now, explained a lot if not all of her questions. He looked through the room, a small tear formed on his old and wrinkled cheek and his voice became even softer and crooked, almost inaudible "I was their teacher, and their doctor. They were brought in at six-year-old or almost six years old, most of them parentless from one of the many orphanages in the universe. Some had been sold by those desperate enough. But all were scared and crying the first night they were here. Most left when they got to ten, afraid and crying again because they knew they would not come back, as no one had come back after they left. They were scared of where they were going, and all I could say was to a safe place, even if I knew that they would be tested and judged for usefulness. The useful placed in the military, the useless killed like cattle. I had become a farm for the psionically gifted, but as a normal person myself, I could do nothing." He was quiet again, taking a deep breath he looked at Sophie with intense angry and sad eyes, his voice going from a whisper to something that sounded more normal "I had to watch as they died, while I didn''t even feel tired. I had to sit in the smell of their decomposing bodies as I couldn''t leave. I had to wait five years, alone, with the bodies of those I loved and cared for, while the federation had all but forgotten we existed." He shook his head, his anger turning into the deep sadness that threatened to take his speech, and he hang his head. Sophie knew this sadness all too well, but she could not imagine how rough the last fifteen years must have been for this old man. She took his hand in her own and sat on her haunches. Lowering her head so she could look up at the man called Camron Bell, who was staring at his shoes now, his eyes blank, the thoughts of the lost haunting him. She pinched his hand a little and whispered, "It''s alright, It was not your fault. I will get you out of here." He slowly came back to the present and looked her in the eyes, underneath the sadness something that looked like happiness floated through the surface and a small sad smile opened his beard, "That won''t be possible I''m afraid." he whispered and pulled the turtleneck of his sweater down. There was a collar that bleeped underneath "If I pass the door my head will explode, quite nasty technology, but efficient" He whispered and looked to the door. There was longing in that gaze, a longing that disturbed Sophie more than anything the man had told her before. They were quiet for a while after that, Sophie didn''t know what to do, or what to ask, her mind was in turmoil. This was not what she had expected, the emotions on this old man called Camron were so real, was he really just code? Just an AI? How? She looked around the room again, these poor children were like her in a way, no one to take care of them but an old man that had no other choice. The thought was depressing, and a little untrue, Frank was not in the same situation as Camron, and she was better off on so many points then these children that she felt a little shame for comparing herself with them. For one, she was alive. She returned her gaze back to the old man, who by now was also starring at her. He had a little bit of an amazed look on his face and stared intently at her. She pulled her eyebrows together and croaked "What?" the emotions affecting her voice more then she wanted to let on. He gave her a reassuring smile and whispered "Something changed..." he was quiet, looking for words "Something compels me to ask you to find other in a similar situation as myself and help them as you might be able to help me." he looked confused, and Sophie felt confused. Should an NPC be describing a quest like this? But in the end, it was still a game so she answered in "I will help you, Camron". The man looked her in the eyes and blinked a couple of times, seemingly somewhere else with his mind before croaking "Ow... " he looked sad, sadder even then she had seen him ever since she had met him, but it was different, a melancholy that crushed him seemed to seep into his eyes. He whispered ¡°Are you sure? There will be no way back and I fear your path will be even harder than mine has been." a smallpingand the quest details came into her vision.
Quest: Freeing those that need freedom the most. The Federation and The Division have captured multiple scientist and have locked them away while abusing their knowledge. Save as many as you can. Who knows what you can learn from the greatest minds of the twenty first century. Or what surprise meetings they hold in store for you. Warning:If the general population finds out that the scientists are being taken or otherwise are being harmed, the quest will become increasingly difficult. If you get caught, the quest will fail and any chance to start over will be forfeited. Any means are permitted but they shall be your burden to carry. Use whatever means to succeed as success equals salvation. Warning:Quest sharing is allowed with three degrees of need to know, every level has diminishing effects for the shared party. Knowing the final goal will give no rewards, knowing only the next scientist but not why will give a monetary reward, knowing nothing but helping significantly will give a monetary reward x2. Warning:Due to the nature of the quest you will only be allowed to gather skills through interaction with the Targets. These scientists correspond to those you have to save. Normal acquisition through regular NPC''s will be disabled. Additional strength and understanding of skill will be enabled. Next Target:Camron Bell
She stared at the quest, this was nothing like she expected¡­ "High risk, High rewards" she whispers softly. Still not sure what to do, but is there really a choice. This will be amazing, even if it will be hard. "I accept" she states formerly and the old man smiles at her wryly before saying "As I feared you would". 9. Flipping them burgers Martin Willis took his VR helmet off and carefully place it on the dresser next to his bed. The red helmet looked like an old-school motor-cycle helmet, Ferrari red, with a couple of cords sticking out at the back. It all looked quite simple, but he knew that it was in no way a piece of simple technology. The inside of the helmet was chucked full of some of the most advanced technology that was currently available and it had cost him all his savings to buy it. Even at 2000 Euro a piece it was not one of the top products on the market. Crazy really if he thought about it, he had worked for it for almost a year, flipping burgers at his local fast food chain. Being looked at like he was an idiot, treated like he was an idiot and made to mob the floor whenever some idiot couldn''t hold the ordered food in. He had smelled like fries on multiple social occasions and some of his friends even started calling him deep fried Willie. But now it was all worth it, he had played a couple of games in the last few months and was still working as a burger flipper so he could be more. Since yesterday he had been playing Ethereal Space, and he was sold. This would be the game that was going to be played for a long time. He loved the freedom, the creativity in designing, the realism in moving and the immersion that it offered. The previous games he had played where way less impressive he even started a refund procedure against some extremely disappointing titles. He had worked hard for that cash, no money grabbing lying CEO and his marketing phonies were going to take it away by making something that crappy. He looked to the side and his sister, Laura Willis, was still in the game. She was one year older than him, and with her 19 years that wasn''t saying a lot. They had always done a lot of things together and it was thus not strange to anyone that she had bought a VR helmet to (Pink for some gender stereotyping). What was strange to a lot of their friends was that at the age of eighteen and nineteen they still shared a bedroom. That had let to some nasty and very persistent Lannister jokes that were as old as the legendary series was. Not that my sister cared, she was deaf to social standing and people telling her what to do and thus never even bothered to say it wasn''t true, which probably had something to do with the persistency of the rumors. Not that he cared for that matter, he was done with school now and would be applying to college once he had saved enough money to pay the admission test. They had finally made college free as the decline in people going to college over the years had brought the economy dangerously close to collapsing due to extremely high unemployment rates on one hand and a lack of qualified personnel on the other hand. But every piece of good news has some bad. To keep people from just going to college for the hell of it, they had set the admission fee to ten thousand dollars. Which was a lot of money still if you had to scrape it together with only a high school degree and was forced to compete for the flipping burgers jobs with another 500 high-schoolers. His sister had even given up on the idea of college, and not because she wasn''t smart enough. She was in most ways way smarter than him. He had more of a practical mind while she knew how to handle conflicts and how to get along with people. Most of the reason that she didn''t bother denying the rumors was because she was one of the most popular people in school even with those rumors. She simply didn''t have to do anything about it. She had told him that the best way to make a lot of money these days was to either be extremely good at one thing, be lucky, or go into Virtual reality. E-sports had taken over the amusement landscape just as fast as VR had, and with millions of people playing and many more watching their exploits she had decided that she was going to become rich by either selling off equipment or selling advertisement space in her video''s. A good plan he had thought but just in case it didn''t work out he had kept his hard fought over place at the burger flip. So now they were here, playing games all day, laying in their room while he had to go out at night and flip burgers. It wasn''t a struggle really, more like every young adult¡¯s dream. Their dad had to work a lot as an android maintenance crew member in the local factory which meant he was home for about nine hours a day, eight of which were spent on sleep. His mother was a nurse in the hospital a couple of miles away and had upped her working hours ever since they had become old enough to care for themselves and had about the same schedule as their father. He was glad that they cared so much about them to not kick them out to fend for themselves, rent was steep even in middle of nowhere town they lived and if they had to pay the rent themselves they had to flip burgers for at least twelve hours a day to just keep a little left for food. So even though, he didn''t like seeing his parents so little he was glad they did, and it was something that was not very special in the community. You either worked your ass off, or be extremely good at what you do, otherwise there was a life POD waiting for you to escort your consciousness out of society and into one game or another for weeks at a time. This might sound fun and easy but he remembered talking to a guy who had actually tried it and the games they went into where really not that fun and most of them were ancient, only enjoyable if you spent real money in them. Which by definition was not the intention of the people going in.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. As he was sitting on the edge of his bed, trying to think of what they had just done in game, Laura also woke up from the game. "Mother-fucking fuck, fuck, fuck. Jesus baby noodles. Why in god''s name did we just start in something impossible to survive? I know we choice High risk, High reward, but a crashing escape POD? Really? That''s how they wanted to start this! And a twelve-hour death penalty at that! God dammit! And here I thought we could start cashing from today onwards. arrrggh." she almost threw the helmet, but thought the better of it, just in time. Ah yes, we crashed. The pain levels were quite high though... Not very pleasant. He smiled at her and she gave him a smirk back before he said "Well at least we got the aptitude test done around the same time, I thought it was never ending." she through a final punch at her pillow and said "Yeah, that was a hassle, what did you get?" he blushed a little. "Not great, piloting, engineering and spatial awareness around a 4, intelligence and the like around a 3, persistence and the like around 2.5 and it seems I''m a physical invalid with 1.5 for all¡­" she smirked at that, and said " Ow well nothing new, you have always been a bit of an imbecilely when it comes to sports¡­ Not that I did a lot better, it''s about the same¡­ but I suck at piloting and persistence¡­ but my empathy and linguistics are a 4. 8.. I''s such a stereotype it even amazes myself." he laughed at that and then stood up and said, "So tonight when I come home we start again? Or you want to sleep?" she looked at him with her long black hair, brown eyes and a bitof a doll face, soft edges galore "Of course flappy, count me in," she smirked and got her phone from her dresser, he felt his ears unconsciously while he left the room to flip burgers. 10. No more "Now then," After a short silence the old man started speaking again, he seemed... Cheerful? She didn''t know how else to call it but ever since she had agreed to help he had cheered up to normal levels. On top of that he was talking in an almost cheerful tone, having that little quick- and loudness that she had not heard before "I suppose I will give you something to work on for the coming months, you will need all the help you can get to complete this quest. As you know I''m an expert in the activation of psionic abilities in children, sadly ones the age of ten is passed the mind is no longer moldable enough to exert the abilities needed energy. Thankfully for Travelers this is not the case, your mind can learn all that is new and difficult in this universe up to whatever age you wish, so I will help you. To activate it faster and to use it more efficient, first of all I will need to know what aptitude you have in mental fortitude?" he looked at her with some anticipation, excited even. She looked back, still a little confused to see the sad old man excited, but then replied with a short "four point eight."He stared at her a little, blinked a couple of times and then smiled again and said "That''s great, I have never heard of anyone that came even close, most of the kids here where around three. This should be easy for you. Of course, only with a lot of practice can psionics ever be more than a cool party trick. But when you do master the art, you would be able to move a planet out of its orbit or disintegrate anything by separating the molecules that bind them, or manipulate machines playing tricks on their information feeds, or power supply. But first I want you to close your eyes and focus."He stopped talking and waited for Sophie to do as he asked. Sophie just stared at the man, disintegrate something by separating molecules? This is going to be so awesome!! Who needs swords or guns if you can just touch them and make them nonexistent! Not that she wanted to go on a murder spree or anything, but if a body could be disintegrated so could an attacking sword or bullet. Or just moving it to the side while you punched some sense in them. She closed her eyes and waited for further instructions. As she closed her eyes, she felt a flick against her nose. She yelped a little and opened her eyes again, looking with a betrayed expression to the old man who was smiling back at her, she rubbed her nose and asked "What was that all about". He smiled even broader at that and replied "That is the first thing everyone says and I always reply with: if you don''t like it then focus more, focus on your surroundings, try to see without looking" he gave her a secretive smile and then told her to close her eyes again. She did, even though she gave him a little scrutinizing look. They continued like this for another half hour, her nose had now become red and painful and she was rubbing it again after another finger flick of the old man. He was still smiling at her, and she was scowling back at him "Didn''t you say this was supposed to be easy for me?" he laughed a little at that and said, a little apologetic "It is, I''m normally flicking a child nose around an hour a day for around 3 months before they develop any sort of comprehension. But we don''t have that long so I''m flicking your nose harder." she looked at him and murmured underneath her breath "Goddamn impatience, nothing but pain,"the man laughed at that and then advised "You know, the energy in your mind now is miniscule, the connections your brain makes by using neurons, their axons that bring the nuclei''s messages towards other neurons nuclei over a synaptic gap and the energy that is released through the transport of those messages can be holstered. This energy is not something tangible, it does not show up on MRI, fMRI or any other brain related test of validity. But it is there and can be pooled in a central location in the brain, right under the amygdala and thalamus. But for now, I need you to holster the energy and SEE what you cannot see. Use the energy and form it into a sixth sense."He was done talking again, and Sophie was no closer than when he started talking. She understood what he meant, and half understood the words he used, but to use an energy that is not tangible is like making your blood float the opposite direction. Or moving a third arm. Maybe she should imagine it like that? A third arm? Ignoring the obvious joke in those thoughts she nodded her head and closed her eyes again. The next thirty minutes her nose slowly turned blue and she may or may not have felt like kicking the old man in the shins but at some point, she felt there was a change. She seemed to notice that the old man put his hand in front of her face and focused on the finger, but could do nothing more than notice a little more when the exact time was when the finger moved. Another half hour and her nose actually started bleeding but neither the girl nor the man relented on their task. She focused with all she had and still it was difficult, she could now "see the finger" but pushing against it was much harder. It was hard to explain how she saw it without looking. It was a little like looking at your phone in a crowded street and looking up in time to stop yourself from walking into someone or something. You didn''t know you had seen the coming danger, but you did react. She didn''t know how she felt the presence of the finger but she knew how to react. Somewhere past the two hour mark she was beginning to get exhausted, but kept going, she focused with all her strength on the finger, willing it to halt, willing it to listen to her command, willing it away from her bruised and abused nose and then it finally happened. She never really noticed, but the finger changed course and hit her cheek. The old man smiled and mumbled something, a system message, but everything around her turned black and she passed out, utterly exhausted.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Congratulations on evolving into GEN2 of Mental fortitude! There are now more options available to you!
When she woke up the old man was still sitting at his desk, gently smiling at her. She felt drowsy, a little nauseous even. The moment the old man began speaking to her she didn''t really hear him all that well over the sound of the sea in her ears. "First of all," the old man said laughing "Congratulations, you are now a member of the psionics club. Second of all you didn''t tell me you saw my hand and went on to moving my finger, which is indeed the next step but for reasons you might now see as obvious, it is not smart not to take a break in between. I do commend your learning curve though and persistence. That was one great surprise you gave me." she looked at him with some grogginess in her eyes and croaked with a not so steady voice "Why do I feel like a train run me down?". The old man laughed and said "Do you remember when I said that the energy you now possess is miniscule? You drew too much and your brain was starved as a consequence. If you draw way too much you might even die, always be careful of that." he kept smiling at her like a grandpa who sees his granddaughters first steps, proud and happy. She groaned as she tried to move her body, her hand slipped over the desk and towards her nose, rubbing it, her nose was still a throbbing. She slowly got up and asked "So what now?", with that his smile disappeared "Now Sophie, the time has come for you to take my life so that I can find my peace." Startled she looked at the old man, the silence in the air became palpable, thick, she scraped her throat and said "Why? Can''t we just stay here for a little longer?" He looked at her half smiling, a deep sadness slowly creeping into his eyes "This place does not allow me to leave and I have been here already for far too long. You are the only one that can relieve me off my duty." he was quiet for a while, his tearful eyes regaining a sense of pride, a sense of recognition, before continuing with "The others will have similar request. Steel your heart for this journey will not be one of heroism but of harsh reality." She looked at him, her head still felt full with wool, the grogginess did not go away quick enough to her liking. She slowly nodded, her eyes turning from unfocussed and a little watery, to the sharpness they normally contained, mixed in was a hatred she felt for those that had enslaved this gentle and kind man, and fear for the job he asked her. Her mouth set itself in a tight line, the skin around her cheeks slightly paling. Her hands balled into tight fist, the gloves of her space suite being the only reason her nails had not dug into her palms. She looked at the old man, Camron Bell, he looked back, calm, accepting, relieved and anticipating. She nodded her head, stiff from the tension and lack of energy, equipping her plasma gun, "Thank you for teaching me, thank you for your story, I will take it with me and make sure you are not forgotten. Do you have any last words or requests?" she said softly, trying not to cry, trying to let him leave with dignity, not pity. He gave a slow smile and touched her face, before whispering in his characteristically soft voice "I am not the only one, there are far more, I can only hope you will help them as you helped me during these final moments of my life" he looked down and a tear rolled down his wrinkled cheek and into his white beard, the smile hardly present anymore on his face but still burning bright in his eyes. "No more" he croaked, almost pleading. Sophie brought her gun up and took aim, her hands shaking, the tip of the gun following the pattern. She swallowed, closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. As the gun splurged its contents, the old man''s head exploded like a volcano, painting the walls, desk and Sophie with blood, bone and brain matter. She tried to turn her head but by the time she did so the damage was already done and she was now staring at the headless body. Her hands hadn''t stopped shaking and her eyes were like a deer looking into its final headlights, she stared blankly at the mess she had made. The old man had deserved better, but she hadn''t thought it through and just went with the sure method of killing him. A tear ran past her blood-stained face, taking some blood with it and leaving a clean patch of skin behind. Her mouth was slightly open, but no sound came out. She felt horrible. Taking a step back her leg buckled underneath her and she fell down. Her head hitting the floor and bouncing of the red floor tile. She laid there, dazed, her mind was fuzzy from before, and it was shocked by what had happened next. She stared at the ceiling, the white struck her as beautiful, a glimpse into the past where she had not murdered. She slowly moved her lips trying to speak the scanted words that where trying to chant her out of her daze. The words were circling in her head, but they refused to come out over her lips, into reality, making it all real. She whispered something, not audible, then a little louder, "This¡­ " she put a hand to her face, trying to feel it, but the glove was in the way and she only made her face dirtier. "This isn''t real..." she chanted softly. Her eyes still big, her brows lifted all the way up, she turned her head and looked underneath the desk. There he laid, the man that she had killed. No more. The words came to her like a tidal wave, her mind reeling back to fully functional. The way he had said those two words were haunting, the pain, the desperation, the sadness. She pulled herself up from the floor and stood up. She looked around, this place would be one of many, she had to steel her heart and keep the goal in mind. She was not to be the hero who saved them all. She was to be the one who freed those who needed freeing, in whatever way possible, carrying the consequences of her actions with her. She looked one last time at the headless corpse that lay on the ground nodded her head and whispered "Goodbye Camron Bell and thank you for letting me get to know you". Then she logged out. She needed some normalcy. 11. Hosk It was dark outside as John Cornwell was looking outside of the window of his car, on his right he was being driven by a young detective that he was supposed to tutor, or as John liked to call it, making sure he didn''t fuck up too bad. They passed a streetlight and the orange light shone into the car, making the fat raindrops that where stuck to the glass and slowly being blown back distort the light. It had been raining nonstop for the past two days now, global warming making the English spring rains a littleless than the monsoon, normally only found in the tropical parts of the earth. The dark, the rain, and the cold that still hung in the air, made it all a depressing sight to behold. It would only get worse, John knew, as they were driving towards a murder. He had been in Scotland Yard for the past forty years, and he had only a bitof a stretch to go until retirement. About three years to be exact. He didn''t mind though; he liked the work, the puzzles, locking up the bad guys. He wouldn''t know what to do with himself if he didn''t have the job anymore. He was even thinking of continuing as a senior detective, but that would need approval from the higher ups. He was not a big fan of the higher ups. He turned his head, aligned the rearview mirror with his hand and looked into his old dark face. Slightly wrinkled, his glasses a model that had been a trend ages ago, the rectangular glasses more for reading than anything else, with a black frame. He sported a small mustache and his nose stood firm on his face. His cheekbones slightly protruding and his jaw sticking out as he had not much fat to speak off. A pair of sad looking light brown eyes were looking back at him and his short trimmed hair that was black at the top and grey on his sides. He smiled, wrinkling his old face even more, and looked at his white teeth before rubbing his finger over them. He had forgotten to brush again, and to shave for that matter, as he brought his hand down while moving through the grey stubbles. He looked for another short moment before turning the rearview mirror back into its rightful setting and looking back out of the side window. He was restless. He turned to his young companion "How long before we are there Steward?" he asked in a tone that sounded bored. The young men next to him set up a little straighter, moving his hand across his curly black hair before he turned toward John, his face as normal as can be, white skin normal mouth and brown eyes, abit of an under bite and not much in the cavemen features. Just a normal British guy, not getting enough sunlight. "Another ten minutes, Sir" he said before turning his eyes back to the road, for which John was thankful. He didn''t need the paper work of an accident. The resulting injuries might even force him to retire earlier. He nodded and opened up a window, the rain that was falling in buckets out of the sky now, partially landing inside of the car. As Steward was about to ask why the window was open, he grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of his breast pocket of his suit, grabbed a lighter that was stationed with it and lit the cigarette, taking a deep breath and inhaling the nicotine induced sickness. He held in the disgusting yet relieving smoke in his lungs before he proceeded to blow it out of the window. "The car will dry Steward. My chagrin for not being able to smoke on a crime scene for anything between one and six hours might not be so easily solvable". He kept looking out of the window, but saw Steward''s mirror image in the window, refocusing on the road with a slight nod. These young guys were so easy to fool. He could just step out at any time if he needed it. It was just that it wasn''t his car and he didn''t much care for the opinion of Steward. He had been with him for the last two months but up till now he had been more of a driver and a handy way to skip paperwork, and not much in the way of a capable crime solver. They drove further in silence, his suit getting slightly wet from the rain and after a couple more puffs of smoke he threw the cigarette out of the window and closed it. In the distance, he could already see the blue lights of police sirens. This one was still fresh it appears. Five minutes later they drove up to a brick house that by now was surrounded by police cars, the press and people looking for a fun night out. They got out of the car and made their way through the crowd, John holding up his badge, Steward calling to make way, until they arrived at the ''do not cross'' yellow tape. Showing their badge to the police officer on duty to keep the fools out, he went underneath the tape without breaking stride, leaving steward behind to take care of the papers that needed signing. Walking up to the house he was intercepted by a bagger and tagger, or as society knew them, the local police. He hoisted himself into the white onesie, and put on his gloves all ready to go. He looked impatiently at the still fumbling Steward before deciding that he had more to do and walked towards the garden of the house. The house was old and had no neighboring houses, the brick stones that it was built from were brown and looked like they have been there for at least a century and seemed to consist of at least three stories, not very wide stories though. He went inside as there was no personnel outside, walking through a hallway that was small and covered in photographs. He stood still for a moment, observing the photo''s before he knew what had transpired. Most of the photos were taken of two little girls at varying stages of their lives. They were blond, with green eyes and the newest photo they were on, they could not have been older than a thirteen or fourteen. The rest of the photo''s it was a combination of the parents and grandparents and maybe the whole family together. The father had brown hair and green eyes and he seemed to smile on every photo, a smile that reached his eyes and thus a genuine smile. John had seen enough smiles to know what was and wasn''t faked. The women had blue eyes and black hair, which gave her abit of a frosty outlook. He also noticed that the pictures where the mother was in, seemed to stop around four years ago. An interesting thing to ask about later. He walked further noticing that not much seemed to be amiss. The hallway went on until there was a door to the living room and stairs to the first floor. Peeking his head around the corner he didn''t see a lot of people in this room, and it seemed that the room was not tossed or otherwise effect from whatever had transpired. He went back and dragged himself up the stairs where he was met with around ten people scurrying around. He waited a moment before grabbing a balding guy in his late thirties who was walking towards the stairs. "Where is the person in charge?" he asked, not looking at the guy but looking towards the mess that was this crime scene. "Second door to the left¡­. Sir" the sir was more of a question then a statement, but he ignored it. He started walking towards the second door on the left while looking into the first door, were two bodies lay on the two beds that decorated the room on both sides of the walls, the girls, he thought. He wanted to stop and look in the room some more but than thought of the chaos surrounding him and went toward the second door. Here he found another eight people that where crowding the room with their presence, some not even sure what they were doing as was made apparent by the empty stares. Getting a littlemore annoyed, he took out his badge again and with a loud voice and holding his badge up said "Who is in charge here?"This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A man of around John''s age got himself out of the crowd and scuffled towards him, shaking his head a little mumbling something that was probably best unheard by John. "How can I help you sir?" He asked a little fake smile on his crooked face, this man obviously had never won a beauty pageant but the least he could do was buy some new teeth, right? Taking a little step back John said with more annoyance in his words then he meant to let on "First of all, please remove all none essential personnel from the crime scene, it''s not Disney land. Second, I''m John Cornwell Scotland Yard, Special investigations unit and I would like to be briefed on what has transpired here." The man looked at him for a second and then at his badge, not really wanting to believe he was outranked, he managed to look even more sour and called out about five names before telling the rest to fuck off. A minute later and finally some room to breathe, John was walking alongside the man apparently named Steve something, who was telling him what had happened "So we believe that his two daughters had their brains cooked due to a power spike while they were wearing their VR equipment, and when Mister Southwell found out, the dad, he killed himself with a revolver that was normally stored in the top drawer of his desk." They had made their round, and John had to agree, it did look like that. But was there any evidence "So there was a power spike? Have you checked?" the man looked to the ground a little before answering "Not yet sir, the power station is not manned at this hour" alright reasonable "How about a suicide note?" The man kept looking at the floor ''''Not yet found sir," hmm,less acceptable. He turned around and went back to the room the dad was found in. The room was spacious, a lot like the living room, but filled with books, which in this day and age, was something special on his own. John looked at the books a little, some were fiction and other were not so much. Likean introduction into the brainandhow to control the brain, or a massive tome about the technical improvements of the 21st century and how they changed society. There were also a couple of books on his desk, he walked towards them and looked through themVR development & AI influences, the conscious effort and a book called The Leap.Strange. He turned to Steve who was fidgeting in the corner, clearly not knowing if he was allowed to leave "What was Mr. Southwell''s occupation?" Steve looked up and thought before saying "A journalist, Sir" they still existed? Wasn''t anything in the papers these days written by a marketing specialist? Strange. "What was he working on?" he said to the man who responded a little quicker this time, almost smiling but stopping himself just in time "It appears there is a bit of irony here Sir, the man was writing about the dangers of VR" Interesting, he walked over to the body and looked at the gun wound, or rather the part of his head that was not blown off and onto the opposite wall. Definitely looks self-inflicted, but why write about the dangers of VR if you let your children play in it. "How new were the VR helmets they were wearing?" he asked without looking up. Still looking at the wound. "They appear to be quite new, Sir" the man said, more bored then anything, John really didn''t know how he had reached this height in the police department, definitely not by his skill of observation or persistence. He looked up, slowly making his way towards the other side while asking "has his work been found? Or a laptop that was supposed to be on his desk? You did see the wear marks of a laptop on the desk, right?" the man called Steve, or rather the imbecile called Steve looked down at his feet again before saying "No sir, on all three accounts". John shook his head, he was used to incompetence but most of the time it was because they didn''t look further then their pay grade. Not outright stupidity. He bent a knee to look underneath the desk, only to find nothing. As he was about to get up, he saw that the man who used to be Mr. Southwell was holding a little paper in his fist. Sighing that the incompetent fools might actually be right he wiggled the piece of paper free and read its contents. A name and a phone number... Strange. As he bagged the note, there was a little commotion in the hall way, and in a few minutes a man dressed in black, with sunglasses on at night entered the office room. "Goodnight John Cornwell" he said not looking at John, with a nod before he continued saying "MI6 will be taking over the investigation as we believe that Mr. Southwell was involved in affairs regarding state security. Do I have your cooperation?" It was not really a question, John knew, he would take over if he liked it or not, just as he had taken over from Steve. But this smelled like fish, and he really didn''t trust this fellow, or MI6, to do some justice to Mr. Southwell. He turned around the room, taking in everything and filing away the note in the evidence bag into his pocket, when it was out of sight of the yet to be identified man. Finishing his turn and locking eyes with whoever it was MI6 had sent he said "Be my guest, it is not terribly interesting anyway" he smiled and left the room, before he could reach the stairs he heard the man addressing him again "John", he turned around put on his nicest fake smile and said "What? Want to ask me on a date?" the guy smiled back, and said "No, just want to remind you not to forget your pet downstairs, I think he is lost in the living room" John nodded, internally cursing the idiot for being an idiot but he kept smiling. Only as he was sitting in the car and driving away in the rain and darkness did he get the note out of his pocket. "Who are you Sophie Hosk and what has any of this to do with you". He whispered to himself. 12. Knowledge is power Sophie woke up the next day, in her bed, and in the dark. She felt around for her alarm clock and looked. In was half past six. She had another hour before her alarm went off but she felt awake. With a little groan, she got into a sitting position, slowly moving her hand across her eyes to get the little crusts away that had formed in the corners of her eyes, and then yawned loudly, opening her mouth as far as it went. Well not completely awake, but good enough. Last night after she had gotten out of the POD, she had asked for some dinner from Frank and he had brought her a delicious meal of sweet mashed potatoes, some gravy, string beans and a grilled sausage. She had needed it at that point in time as she had spent around 7 hours in the POD. He had also brought her some study materials which first really didn''t catch her interest after the whole shooting a person at point blank and starving situation. But when she looked at the topics she had devoured them with equal enthusiasm as she had showed the plate of food. The first was lured from the game describing the origins and main points of the war between The Division and The Federation. As in any war it was about power, money and revenge, but some interesting differences caught her eye. It had all started a little over a century ago when a new planet was discovered by the Federation. The planet, only described as PL3341, was inhabited by a species that was new to the Federation and after a year of observing them they were coined the Divided. The planet they were on was extremely rich in resources, and thus a potential hostile takeover by the Federation was discussed. Early reports stated that the Divided were, as their name stated, divided to the core, nothing was shared everything was taken. It was a culture so different from what the Federation was used to that it was decided to observe and experiment with this newfound species. In the years following, the Federation took thousands of Divided from their home towns to stick them in situations that where new and dangerous for them, or they just took them apart. The Divided were a sub species of the classic human anatomy, with one big difference and that was that they seemed to be able to assimilate machinery into their bodies. Not much, and the amount seemed to vary across individuals but it had the strange consequence that they had become something more than just humans. The Federation was puzzled by what to do with them, on one side were those who called for a purge, the Divided were too dangerous, their potential to outgrow the military strength of the federation was too large, and the planet too rich in resources to be left to barbarians. But many did not want to hear this opinion, they would ask questions like, how are they going to conquer if they haven''t even left the planet? When they are not even working together? They are called the Divided are they not? Grumbling about others stupidity the purge fanatics became less and less until there were only two sides left. On one side, there were those that argued to keep observing, and then if there was enough and significant data, decide if they could be used or be destroyed. The Federation had destroyed many a civilization that proved more of a hassle then an asset, especially when resources where up for grabs. The winning side was not so patient, seeing the potential of their anatomy and the way they refused to work together they decided that they would be ideal to form a military asset, either they would find out how to assimilate machinery or they would be used as fodder at the front lines. The plan was simple in theory but many a scientist today would have thought them mad. The plan was to build a network, a computer network inside the minds of a legion of Divided. Why not right, the Divided were not a group that could work together in natural ways, but what if they could communicate as one, work as one, suffer as one, be as one. And not surprisingly for military experimentation, suffer they did. The first batch of five thousand died within the week. When the scientists of the Federation downloaded a large file into the minds of the Divided, they fell over as blood ran from their ears and nose all their brains had been boiled by the power unit overheating. The second attempt was less of a disaster, but one by one the Divided cracked under the mental pressure of having 5000 other Divided in their brain. Only one remained in the end, The First, and he would teach subsequent generations of legionnaires how to communicate, how to divide their collective attention, how to operate as a group, as a unit, as their own Division. Thus, the Division was born, and under the leading hand of the First they were getting attention from the higher ups in the Federation. They would be sent to war mongered planets to assist the favored side, to break rebellions or just to observe as a very efficient information network. Some Divided didn''t make it, killed in action or forced out by their own, there was a constant push to survive, to only let the strong into their ranks. Ten years passed and the legion, or as the called themselves, the Division, was now the elite force within the Federation. Thousands of Divided had to die and there were still only five thousand. Attempts to make more legions of interconnected Divided all failed, and many saw that as the recognition that the First deserved, he held the Division together; he was the mind that subdued all. As they made their way to a colony planet not so far from their home world, the First decided on a whim that it would be a good to see their home planet once again after ten years. Many say it was destiny, some say he knew, but everyone agrees that the decision was the start of the war. Home had been turned into one giant slave pit, were all divided were working in the mines, mining resources for the federation. It is said that the moment The Division laid eyes upon their home; they went mad and slaughtered everyone within the personnel carrier that was transporting them. It was the last time the First made contact with the Federation, stating that as of now the Division was in a state of war with the Federation. Any and all that were affiliated with the Federation and came in contact with a Division member would be killed on site. They left their home planet before the Federation could send their armed forces. It is not clear how they got everybody off exactly but later they found traces of a teleportation device of Federation making. After that it has been a guerrilla war, the Division has no main headquarters, the First has not been seen ever since, and the Division seems to be endless. The Divided have joined forces, killing many Federation lives in the process. Like the one Sophie had witnessed in the space station she was still in. There was so much more she could read about the war between the two arch enemies, and like many before them the Federation had created their own worst enemy. Based on only this information she had to admit she was kind of rooting for the Division, even if she was almost killed by one of their traps. As she read, the seeping and growing hatred towards the Federation was only growing, this whale of an existence just did what it felt like. She was definitely going to try to throw some sand in their perfectly oiled machines. The other two topics were just as interesting, and better yet, a little less on the reading huge slabs of contend. The first was the way that the credit system was put into place in the game. She had looked through all the information that Frank had pulled of the forums and had concluded that Credits were actually pretty close to XP. Mostly, credits could be used like any other game or real life currency. To buy stuff. But that was actually just a side project for credits in Ethereal Space. The main purpose of credits was to upgrade your Aptitudes. Now why would you want to do that when it takes forever to grind your way up? Well some people had painfully found out what it meant to have an aptitude of 1.5 in any aptitude. It meant you couldn''t go higher than GEN1. which meant you couldn''t be stronger for example then your normal self. So, to improve upon your natural self, you could farm your way towards credits, so you could spend those credits to upgrade yourself. I had mistaken the aptitudes for something rigid, while, in reality you could become extremely high in intelligence even if you were the dumbest hill billy on the planet. You just had to spent enormous amounts of credits. Just like in real life I suppose. But from there on, it was easy to see how credits were just another system for XP. In classic RPG games, you gathered XP to level up and increase your attributes, a rather rigid system compared to the way they had solved it in ES (Ethereal Space, or at least how the lazy people of the internet had started calling it after about three weeks). If you wanted to spend all your credits on a massive space ship or some sort of Mech and let those be a compensation of your failing self, then you could. If you wanted to spend all your credits on your linguistic aptitude and study the languages of the universe (thousands upon thousands, by the account of the developers) then you could. The only thing that was missing was a level, but even in that, it could be argued, ES provided. Someone, who by all means and accounts risked his live for this info, had managed to get all of his Genesis stats up to Generation 2, then, as that happened he glowed and an exponent 2 appeared next to his name. It didn''t really do anything and only functioned as a meter for your strength, but that was the same as a level ever did. The last topic was a little obscure and hard to find a lot of information about on the forums. The relative unknown feature, could be of massive importance if used correctly. In the game, there were stock markets. Real and functioning stock markets in which you could invest your hard-earned credits and which responded to real events within the game. At the moment, she could not check it out for herself, as she had to visit a trading center of the Federation to receive a trading permit, but all the big companies in the federation were presented, and even a couple of companies that were owned directly by the Federation. Now why was this important? First players had influence on the stock market, by performing quest and actions that are either in favor or against certain companies or factions. If you know that a certain quest will finish soon, and this will affect the market in a certain way, you can short the market by loaning the stocks you are interested in from third parties and selling them back to the loaner cheaper than you got them, and thus earning the difference in credits. But wait, what? That doesn''t seem to make sense. Well imagine it like this, you ask for a loan of let¡¯s say 4 stocks worth 100 credits in total. You will get the credits but not the stocks. Now here comes the magic, once the stock starts lowering in price you buy 4 stocks for let''s say 80 credits and then you pay off the loan with those 4 stocks, in the end earning you 20 credits. Simple, right? Yeah. So, if you know a certain stock will grow due to your actions you can just buy the stocks yourself. It is the extra risk that is supposed to make the quest more exciting and if done right, could be extremely profitable as this kind of inside information was illegal in real life. After she read the information, she asked Frank to set up a data mining program on the forum, the big social media sites and some other game fora and stream sites to dig up all information there was about the various corporations and their active quest and goals. It would not be of use to her immediately but knowledge was power, and it seemed that in ES it was not different. She got out of bed and did her usual routine; breakfast and the newspaper were already on the table as she came down stairs so she ate the egg with ham and cheese in silence while she looked through the newspaper. Nothing much happened today, except for some vague article about a guy committing suicide on page 20. His name wasn''t even mentioned or why he had done it. Just that it had happened after his two kids had died in an accident, and nothing about what had actually happened in the accident. This was a perfect example of what current media had come to it seemed, complete apathy of the facts, just writing filler pieces to make the paper look bigger, it would have been a perfect click bait article. Sad really, it could have been a good story, if the person writing it had cared a little more. She turned over the last page, the weather, and closed the newspaper, stood up from her seat and went to do some exercises. As she worked the bike, treadmill and wooden dummy in a thoughtless flow she looked out of the massive window and into the green scenery. The sun was shining and the raindrops that laid around lazily on the surface of the window, the table and the little blades of grass reflected the rays with as much intensity as they could before disappearing into a fog of water molecules. As she was finished, the water molecules had gathered and were now teaming up to save the rest of their kin from the blazing enemy in the sky by forming a fog that deluded the rays of sunshine. It either rained, or it was foggy, those were the choices in the morning. She liked to watch the rain struggle to keep its foothold on the ground. Desperately struggling to stay in its solid form. Glad that the sun always won, even if it only brought more rain in an endless struggle between a distant ball of fire and the earthly water molecules, she took of her shoes and went barefoot in the direction of the pool. Getting everything off next to the pool she took a dive. After 10 minutes of just floating a little, relaxing and looking at the beautifully painted ceiling of the swimming pool she got out and saw Frank waiting for her with a bathrobe and a towel. She gently smiled and walked up to him before greeting him "Morning Frank, any news I should know of? How is the data mining coming along?". Frank noticed that she was done and now walking towards him and did a short nod with his head before responding to her "a good morning indeed Miss, no news, Data mining program has been written and is currently running, I will have a report of the most concrete findings for you tonight. Shall I also print some information on how to profit from stock markets?" Sophie grabbed the towel and started drying herself off while she said "That would be wonderful, thanks." Done and dry she gave the towel back and without wasting time with putting on the bathrobe that she would have to take off again ten seconds later she walked towards the POD and pressed it open. She glanced at Frank who had followed her to the entertainment room and smiled "I will be off again then, if I forget to get lunch then please sent me a message from the terminal." She stepped upon the ladder and into the fluid filled coffin, the Nano-tech embracing her like a long-lost friend, and said "Close lid" before everything went black. She woke up, on the ground, staring at the white tiled ceiling. She had seemingly fallen back down when she had logged out, but it didn''t really matter. She got back up, a lot easier than the first time she had done the same movement, and stood. She looked around, thinking how she was to get out of this place. She walked towards the door and looked to where there was supposed to be a door handle only to find nothing. There was nothing more on this side of the door then the window and steel. She could try to break it open but she really didn''t think that that was an option. She walked back and stared at the mess that had been a ventilation shaft. This was going to be a pain. The tube that she had fallen out of was still intact, but had a steep upwards gradient. She sighed and looked around one more time, making sure there was nothing worth taking in the room. There wasn''t. She got onto her hands and knees and started crawling back into the square steel tube. The second time seemed to be even worse than the first trip, not only was the gradient of the first few meters a hindrance it proved to be very challenging to climb something that technically had no handles for your feet or hands. As Sophie puffed and cursed underneath her breath, she was reminded of the time she tried to climb the slide in an amusement park. It was the same experience, the difference being she had grown bigger, but the slide hadn''t, and this time she was pretty sure no one would almost break her nose by sliding her legs from under her. An hour later and two screams of frustration and deviance later and she let herself fall out of the shaft on the other side. Softly on the bed that was obviously still there. She was extremely glad babies didn''t remember being born. She could totally imagine that being one of the first things to evolve out of the population as all that had experienced it must have been heavily traumatized. Breathing in and out in long and deep breaths she tried to grab herself together again before she climbed off the construction and finally placed her boots on the beautiful white floor tiles. "Ahh freedom, suddenly you don''t smell so damp and stale anymore." she huffed while taking in deep breaths of damp and stale air, closing her eyes and moving her hands above her head stretching a little. One deep breath outward and her eyes snapped open, and she started walking towards the door, through it and into the tunnel that would lead to the vacuum of outer space. She didn''t like going back to the feeling of being almost weightless and being dependent on the oxygen on her back, but she had nothing left to do here. It was time to search the rest of the moon and find a way to get off. She stood before rusted steel doors that would take her back up, shining her flashlight one more time into the darkness that was now behind her. "Rest in peace old man" she whispered and went through the first rusted door, the airlock sucking all oxygen away and her visor slamming shut, the O2 meter going from infinite to one hour and forty minutes. The weight she had gotten used to was relieved, and she felt a little light headed by the sudden change in gravity. The second door opened, and she made a jump forward, but due to the change she used way too much power and slammed against the ceiling. "Dammit, gravity you tricky bastard!" she cursed into her visor, making it foggy. Ahh it¡¯s good to be back she thought. She shook her head a little to get rid of the dizzy feeling and took another jump, this time much more controlled. It took her a couple of jumps to get back into the rhythm, but after that it went much more smoothly. She took the opportunity to look at her Genesis.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Genesis:
Sophie AP GEN PROG AP GEN PROG
Physical: Practical:
Speed 3.7 GEN1 20% Pilot 2.1 GEN1 0%
Strength 2.9 GEN1 25% Engineer 3.7 GEN1 36%
Agility 3.9 GEN1 5% Spatial awareness 2.2 GEN1 10%
Mental: Intellectual:
Mental Fortitude 4.9 GEN2 0% Intelligence 3.1 GEN1 6%
Persistence 3.9 GEN1 30% Numeric 3.7 GEN1 5%
Empathy 4.2 GEN1 50% Linguistic 3.4 GEN1 0%
She frowned a little but wasn''t too surprised, her Persistence and Empathy had gone up after the conversation and subsequent training, and shooting the old man had given her a 2% increase in Spatial awareness and crawling through the hell hole gave her progress in Strength. She felt a little guilty that she had gained so much from their encounter but on the other hand she had worked for it too. The only reason she felt bad was because the old man had died for it. She kept making progress towards the surface, and finally she could see the exit. The journey towards the unknown always took longer than the journey back, it was something she had always found fascinating. "Perception is a shrewd ugly seductress plastered with makeup in a dark night club seducing horny man with a couple of beers to many. Nothing is what it seems and you will lose your wallet if you don''t pay attention to the details." she mumbled, it was one of her favorite quotes from the webinar psychology she once followed, it didn''t make a lot of sense to her but she liked how it flowed and seemed to catch the attention. She went through the gap in the table still thinking about the wonders of perception and was back where it all started, in the square room with an assortment of things floating around. She turned towards the door that would lead outside and before she could make her next jump she stood still, staring at the two space suits who had likewise ceased all movement, at the other side of the table. She looked at the two, not sure what to do, were they friendly? Should she open up communications or should she grab her plasma gun first? They might prove helpful to have around and get of this oversized rock. They looked just like her, the suit was the same and their visors prevented her from looking in and seeing their faces. She decided to look how far peaceful actions would take her and she lifted up her arm to wave at them while saying "Hi" into her helmet. The movement brought the two back to reality as they took a step back, lack of gravity making the step a bit too much movement to keep standing and they both stumbled to get their footing back. Seeing the scene in front of her, she slowly brought her other arm up to and kept them in the air, as to signal that she meant no harm. When the both of them saw her gesture, they looked at each other and one nodded to the other. A second later she received a message.
Maya has sent you a comm request. Do you accept? Yes/No.
She looked at the message and wondered how they had done that, but decided that it was a lot easier than using the limited sign language she knew. She had planned to take them through the tunnels so they could talk without the visors but had worried they wouldn''t have followed her into a dark and quite frankly not really inviting looking corridor in a downwards slope. She accepted the comm request by saying "Yes" and a girl in a space helmet appeared in the corner of her vision. The girl had black hair, a doll face and icy blue eyes, the kind you only see when people adjust them for beauty or intimidation. She smirked at Sophie and a dimple appeared in her left cheek, her eyes radiating an amusement that was not yet apparent to Sophie, the girl twisted her straight nose and tried to hide the smirk without much success before greeting Sophie "Hey there, I¡¯m Maya, and the suit standing next to me is occupied by my brother Bee. We just arrived here and were wondering if there is anything left to take. And of course, if you would mind." the voice of the girl named Maya was very gentle and suiting, and Sophie felt some of the tension she had unknowingly built up being released. She thought for a moment, and the girl patiently waited for a response, before Sophie said "Hey, sorry I wasn''t really counting on company but take whatever you need, There are plasma guns in that room" She pointed at the barracks, before continuing and bringing her other hand down next to her body "and there are more than enough oxygen bottles lying around in that room" she moved her finger toward the room with the broken down life support "I''m Sophie by the way, nice to meet you." she smiled at Maya who smiled back and said "Thank you, we are kind of short on O2, like one minute left short." Maya''s smile and amusement faded a little and Sophie could finally see the hidden insecurity underneath the mask. "Believe me I know what a hassle O2 is in this game. Go ahead and grab it we can talk after." when she said that the two suits jumped towards the life support room and grabbed an oxygen cylinder. She saw that they didn''t know what to do next, so she told them and ones they were hooked up she thought she heard a little sigh of relieve. "Thanks for sharing all that information so easily" Maya said and this time Sophie saw the real smile of the girl. "No problem, I almost died when I was in the same situation, and you would have figured it out sooner or later which would make me an asshole for not sharing while you guys suffocated." She gave Maya a smile of her own before asking, "How do you send a comm request if you don''t mind me asking?" Maya looked a little distracted, like she was talking to somebody else but Sophie couldn''t hear anything or see her lips moving. Then her eyes grew more lively, and she responded "Sorry had to ask my brother something, but you can look at the person you want to open a comm with and then just say ''Open comm'' or you can go to your friend list and do it there. I read somewhere that you can have five open Comm conversations, or have a group chat, like a conference call. Wait, I will invite my brother into the comm if that''s okay with you? It gets a little tiring telling him what you are saying. Hehe, he is going to stare is eyes out, this is going to be so fun to watch." Sophie blushed a little when she said that last part before frowning, she had never been shy about herself or had any insecurities about her looks. But the way Maya stated it, the brother would be a drooling idiot. She didn''t like those. In previous games, she played, she would either ignore them or teach them a lesson if they got to handsy. As she waited, she thought about that one time she had camped the spawn point of a boy who tried to find out how she looked without cloths, by casting a stun spell continuously. She had killed him over and over again until he had bowed down and begged for mercy. That didn''t happen for a week but she had stubbornly prevented him from playing for that week. She shuddered a little at the thought while another video feed popped into existence above the one from Maya. Bee had a round face, short black hair and brown eyes, his nose was straight like his sister¡¯s and his cheeks were also slightly round instead of the edginess you saw in most guys. But the most peculiar thing about the guy were his ears, they weren''t very big, a bit under the average probably but instead of being streamlined along his temples they stood in an almost ninety-degree angle. It gave the poor guy an overall "Awww" factor that is best avoided by any man with dreams of sex appeal. She looked at him for a bit, waiting for him to introduce himself but, he looked more like a deer that was about to be crashed into then somebody who was going to give his name sooner rather than later. So, she went ahead instead "Hey Bee, it¡¯s nice to meet you, I''m Sophie." She smiled, and that seemed to push him over the edge as he looked confused to his right where Maya was and pleaded to her "Is this for real? How am I supposed to make verbal sense like this?" She smiled at him and laughed "You know she can hear you, right? We are in a group chat right now." He paled a little and then stammered "Ah fuck," before turning towards me and scraping his throat and scratching the back of his head he said "Sorry about that, still getting used to the game. I''m normally a little better mannered. But here I thought I could let my self-control float off a little. Glad to meet you Sophie." Sophie was confused but didn''t want to make the situation awkward, or rather more awkward than it already was so she let it be. "No problem, I will just take it as a compliment." she smiled and turned her attention to Maya. "So how did you guys get here? Escape pod?" Sophie asked while Bee shook his head mumbling something about being an idiot, Maya laughed at her brother and then nodded her head saying "Yeah, that was a rough ride. We didn''t survive the crash and had to wait another twelve hours before we were allowed back in. I was not very happy I can tell you that much. But hey, we did choose the high-risk path so you know, blisters and stuff. After that we spawned in the open and had to search for Oxygen. Luckily we saw this place and the guy who was in charge of coded locks was an idiot. How did you get here? " Maya smirked again, showing the left dimple on her cheek. She was right though that guy had been an idiot. "Kind of the same, but with some luck I survived the crash. Had a quest in here that is probably done now so I was on my way out." she hesitated. She left a lot of the story out, but most was either boring or need to know. But Maya seemed to catch up on the hesitation and asked "So nothing of interest?" not anymore Sophie thought, before saying it out loud "Shame" Maya pouted "Oh well, we will just look for ourselves and take some stuff." Sophie knew Maya didn''t trust her completely, but that was fine with her. She would just wait around a little and see if she could still work with them on getting off the moon. She nodded and said "That is fine, I wouldn''t take the word of stranger either. I will just fill my Inventory with Oxygen cylinders and wait over here until you have roamed the place to your satisfaction. Want to leave the comm open?" She tried to leave her face as open as possible so they wouldn''t think she left something out. But she wasn''t suggesting anything weird, so they agreed and went to work. Doing everything she had done before. Sometimes communicating with each other, or with her through the comm. When they went down the tunnel and Bee got through the steel doors first she saw his surprise before she saw his face plant into something that was probably the floor, giving him a bloody nose. "Dammit" he grumbled, "Couldn''t you have warned me about that one Sophie?" he sounded angry but she couldn''t help but snicker a little before saying apologetically "Sorry, I struggled there to but I kind of forgot. If you follow that tunnel you will see two rooms, one is open, because I broke into it and the other needs voice recognition. I climbed through a ventilator shaft to get to the other side where there are only corpses and a guy that was crazy so I had to shoot him. It''s not worth the trouble anymore but if you want to check it out anyway, then I will log out for some early lunch as that will take a while." They nodded as Maya went through the doors, a lot more graceful than Bee as she had been warned. They made their way down. She felt a little bad about calling the kind old man crazy, but the headless body would bring up too many questions if not dealt with early. After a while they came to the rooms and looked into the closed one. Then went to the other and saw my construction. "Clever" Maya complimented me over the comm, but still climbed up to look into the shaft. Sophie sighed a little, paranoia was normal in a game environment especially when PVP was allowed everywhere and resources were scarce. She was about to say she would log off for a while when Maya climbed off and said she trusted my opinion that there was not much left. Sophie was glad, even though she didn''t mind playing alone, she enjoyed the company of some companions too. They made the journey back up and they stood in the room again. "So what now? Any plans?" Sophie asked, and the other two looked at her before looking at each other through their visors. Maya was the one to break the silence by stating "Yeah I think we should work together? If you would like that? We feel like you are a good person and capable so we would like to ask If you would like to group up with us and get of this rock?" she seemed a little insecure about asking, but Sophie wasn''t sure if it was because she was asking, lowering herself, or that it was because she still didn''t trust her, the gleam in her eyes not really fitting the rest. Either way she was glad she had asked, it saved her the trouble. She nodded her head and said "That would be good, do you already have a party?" as she asked she got another message.
Maya has send you an invitation to join her party "TheHive". Would you like to accept? Yes/No
She pressed Yes and underneath the Comm feeds appeared two red lines, probably their health. She couldn''t help but chuckle a little about all their bee references and asked "So what''s up with you two and our flower fertilizing friends?". Bee blushed a little at that and coughed, while Maya smile from ear to ear and explained "That was my idea, I''m streaming everything I do and I read somewhere that if you have like a theme that the views are better." Ah that made sense, kind of, probably the fact that she is gorgeous doesn''t hurt either for viewers. Now Sophie also knew why Maya was so amused at first, another eye candy for her viewers and a stumbling brother for the laughs. Oh, well, she said "Ah that explains a lot, so want to go out and explore? I''m kind of done seeing the body parts of space marines float around me..." they both nodded and we went to the door. Walking out they went out in front of me as they opened the door and stepped into the open. As Sophie came out, they jumped towards a space ship that was almost the same as the one that she had flown in the aptitude test. she focused and Identified the object.
Space cruiser LM231X Common Edition This ship is great for exploring a solar system, or just flying from planet to planet. If you want to travel to different systems though you will need some serious upgrades. Good starting ship. - reviews by Bo3ing. Owned by Bee.
Maya smirked as she saw Sophie''s reaction on the Comm and even Bee had a little smile on his lips. Sophie gaped at the space cruiser and Maya bragged "Ow did I say we also have a spaceship? Yeah practically spawned on top of it, I was quite pleased with ourselves until we found out it didn''t have any Oxygen or life support capabilities... That was quite the bummer... So, shall we get of this lifeless rock?". Lucky bastards, "If you must insist, then lets," Sophie smirked and went ahead towards the cruisers, let''s just hope they fly better than she did. 13. Planetary exploration Sophie sat in the space cruiser, wondering how she was going to survive any kind of turbulence or non-straight flight. The brother and sister pair were seated in front of her in comfortable looking chairs and safety belts strapped around their space suits. The glare of the pair through the still active Comm was causing an awkward silence, and Maya was smiling apologetically back while Sophie grumbled "At least you could have said that there were only two seats before calling shotgun", shifting her weight on the ground a little. As they had gotten closer to the space cruiser Maya had called out shotgun. She had thought nothing of it as it was technically hitching a ride with them at this point in their relationship. That was of course until she saw there were only two seats and Bee would be piloting his own ship. Not complaining too much, keeping the atmosphere a cheery one, but when they had lifted off the moon, the G-forces had thrown her against the wall, almost losing consciousness. After that Bee apologized profusely and Maya tried to hold in her snickering. Sophie had accepted Bee''s apology but kept glaring holes into the back of Maya''s helmet. Currently off the moon and into the real vacuum of outer space and it was beautiful. She stopped glaring for a moment and looked out of the side window, into the everlasting darkness that was filled with miniscule flickering lights. Everything was silent for a while, enjoying the great view. On the Moon, it had been the same but the circumstances on the Moon had not really facilitated any real enjoyment of the scenery. They stared out of the window, mesmerized by the reality of the game, and then the planet came into view. Sophie had already seen it when she had finally arrived at the station but they were a lot closer now and her visor was not distorting any colors this time. The planet seemed to be alive, to sparkle with different shades of green, with slight patches of brown, great spots of blue that seemed to shimmer in the light that came from behind us. Unintentionally we had taken off as the moon was in between the planet and the sun but now we could almost see the sun reflecting of the planet''s surface. The green and brown went into long strips of grey topped off by white. It was an oily painting that was finished by small patches of dark grey rain clouds that seemed to drift in random flocks around the planet. And somewhere in the middle of it all, was something that looked like a city. The green colors ceased and about came patches of black and steel like structures that were very difficult to distinguish by their parts, it was like looking at a patch of mold on a beautiful painting. It didn''t really belong, but it was very visible never the less. Bee was the first to wake up from his admiration as spoke into the Comm group, clearing his throat before noting "So I want to fly around the planet and train my piloting Genesis, but I think that could be extremely boring and at some point, I will need to come down and exchange some credits for more power cells. Do you guys have something else in mind?" he looked a little uncertain in that last bit, but it only contrasted with his first bout of confidence when he made it clear what he wanted to do. Sophie was a little surprised, she had thought he would just do whatever Maya was up to. She had been wrong, which was a nice surprise, people needed to do what they wanted to do themselves, not sheep around others. Maya on the other hand didn''t seem surprised at all and stated "Sure, If you can drop me off in the city then that would be great, I need to get a hang of the trading systems. What about you Sophie, got any plans?" she thought for a minute, she really didn''t but she supposed she had to find more scientist... But to go straight to that mold stain was such a waste, wasn''t it? An idea struck her and she hesitatingly spoke into the Comm "Say would you guys be interested in sharing a quest? I need to search for certain people, could you guys help? The rewards are pretty decent." They both looked at her different, Bee looked quite serious and was thinking, probably. Maya on the other hand smirked and snorted "I knew something was off! Alright, I will accept, so what do I need to do?" While Maya spoke, Bee just nodded, as if his sister had said it all. Sophie sighed and explained "I can''t give you too much details, as the more details I give you the less you will get in return as a reward, so I will only tell you this, keep an eye out for scientists. If you come into a range of five hundred meters of a target, you will be notified and rewarded." They both looked at me with curious eyes, but the fact that it was a tradeoff between information and reward was enough of a deterrent to keep any questions at bay, for now. She needed others to participate in her quest, as searching every corner of the universe was going to be very difficult, if not impossible then at least impractical. They both said yes and with that she got the message that Maya and Bee were added into the lowest levels of need to know. Then Bee spoke up "So where can I drop you off? In the city?" that got her out of her musings on how many levels of need to know there could be, and in which one she was currently presiding. "God no!" she grumbled, immediately turning red a little she shook her head and continued "Sorry but I don''t really enjoy cities all that much, so if I don''t have to, I like to avoid them. Could you land in one of those light green patches?". Maya had that smirk on her face again and even Bee smiled before saying "Sure thing, I will add you to my friend list so I can pick you up when we are leaving, or when you need a change in scenery" Maya''s smirk became larger and she snickered "Bee the pickup artist..." Dodging a flat hand to the back of her head before continuing "I will send you a request too, if you got any wishes for your credits let me know, I will bargain those aliens into oblivion." She smiled and Sophie got two friend requests which she accepted. They talked a bit more about how this game was really something else before Sophie decided to log off for some lunch as they still had about fifty minutes to go before arriving at the planet. Before logging off though, she thought of something and asked Maya "Hey Maya, what is your channel?" hearing the question Maya almost radiated with excitement before saying "It is called the B-Stream Team, and I host it on my own website, bstream.net, please leave a comment, recommendation or a review. I used to do it through the regular channels, like Twitch but they wanted a percentage of my income, and as I didn''t even have enough income to live off, that quickly became detrimental to the cause. So, I decided to stream it on my own site. Viewer rates are down a bit but I''m sure it will pick up again." Maya smiled and Sophie nodded, promising to check it out she logged off for some lunch. Getting out of the POD and standing naked in the entertainment room she grabbed the bath robe that was draped over a chair next to the POD and put it on. She looked around and saw that a sandwich and some orange juice were already standing on the table. Instead of walking towards the table she walked towards Franks "lab" and knocked on the door. Seconds later Frank opened up the door and said "You know you don''t have to wait outside of the door Miss, if you need me you can just walk in." he said in his calm voice, she nodded and answered "I know... On another matter, could you keep an eye on the traffic and chats on the site bstream.net, I would like to know if anything pops up that might lead to me being uncomfortable, or in possible danger in the game." He looked a little surprised at first but then just nodded and said it would be done, she thanked him and walked back to the table where her sandwich and juice were waiting. Finishing the last crumbs of the delicious smoked salmon sandwich and drinking the last bit of orange juice she got up and walked back and logged back in. She would do all her studying in the evening, first she wanted to do some exploration! As she came back into the game Bee was already there and he said hello, while he explained that Maya had to check the statistics of the site real fast, apparently, it had gained some viewers in the last few hours and she was very excited to see where they had come from and how they had found her site. She noted that Bee didn''t seem that interested and asked "You don''t seem a big fan of the whole streaming scene?". Bee thought for a while and then grumbled "Yeah well I don''t care that much and my sister only tries to earn money, but I just wish she hadn''t convinced me to keep the ears like they are in the real world. At least here I could have been a little normal, instead of Dumbo the flying elephant. But I guess it gives the viewers'' something to laugh and wonder at. And being the best in piloting is just adding fuel to the fire. But I love my sister and it''s her wish to earn a lot of money by being a famous streamer so I just went with it. But those assholes online think they can say anything because they are anonymous, I learned a long time ago to stay away from the site." He seemed a little angry still, and Sophie couldn''t blame him, if she would be mocked constantly she would change that part of herself to in the game. It took some serious courage to keep the thing you hate most about yourself just because someone you love could profit from it. as she said so, Bee just shrugged and said "Yeah well, maybe if this thing lifts off I can stop flipping burgers, so a little suffering I can handle." they were quiet for a while before Bee asked "Where are you from?" he had turned around in his seat so his visor was looking in her direction even though he couldn''t see her face. She thought for a moment, giving her location was not one of the things she did often but knowing that the stream wasn''t on at the moment and having a good feeling about the brother sister pair she answered with a short "The UK, you?" which technically was true. He nodded and then said "US, we life in the reconstructed parts of the Bronx, it is much better now that the whole racial conflicts have died down and violence has gone down. Still no paradise and it''s just a 3-room apartment, but it is good enough, for now." he gave her a half smile and turned back around. After that Sophie just watched the beautiful planet for the rest of the ride, it kept creeping closer and closer and she started to see some details that were less obvious when they were far away from orbit. Like that the brown patches were mostly still covered in green and blue, a little like you would expect from a marsh? And there was a massive plane of only grass that stretched out for miles. No deserts though. Which probably meant that the temperatures on the planet where moderate. She kept looking to the great plain and said "Bee, could you drop me of on that grassy plain over there." She had stood up and walked towards his seat, pointing through his windscreen towards the place she wanted to go. He looked at it and said "Sure" as he slightly corrected his course. She looked at his dashboard and he had already replaced many of the old pieces of tape with writing on it, with pieces of tape that read in English. She looked at them and then at Bee asking "How did you remember this many and still crash with the escape pod?" his eyes narrowed a little and he grumbled with some agitation in his voice "Yeah well I didn''t wake up in time to get to the seat¡­" she made a little ah sound as she understood it was a sore point before returning to her place on the ground motioning towards the dashboard with her arm "still quite impressive, I''m glad you know how to pilot, If it was up to me we would probably crash back into the moon." He snickered "Yeah well, I have played some flight simulations before so it is not completely a fair comparison but thanks for the compliment." and then the quiet returned. Ten minutes later we were about to enter the atmosphere when Maya logged back in and started talking about a Japanese site that had put a link to her stream on their website. She was very excited, not even leaving out that the site had stated that her two bigger than average assets where one of the greatest pro''s for following her stream, even if they were currently hidden behind a space suit. Bee and Sophie just shook their heads. Of which Maya took offense and asked them what was wrong with any of this news. Sophie decided to take it upon herself to explain "You do understand that right at this moment, a group of weird Japanese are watching us hoping for a scene they can jerk of to? And you find this not weird or creepy?" Maya looked at her with a confused expression and then said "I don''t give a shit even if they want to buy pillows with my body and face on it to cuddle themselves to sleep at night. As long as they give me hard cash I will even sent my dirty undies to them. I don''t care. As long as they don''t expect me to marry them, or get any weird ideas, I''m perfectly fine with some diehard fans." she said without blinking, and while Sophie and Bee shook their head in unison again, Sophie had to admit that she admired Maya''s resolve to earn money whatever way possible. She just had a hard time imagining going so far as she had never really had to worry about money. She now knew for certain never to tell them that she didn''t have any money this month because she bought a twenty-five-thousand Euro''s costing VRPOD. Better to just say nothing. As we kept quiet Maya smirked and laughed "Hell, if they asked to send some of Bees dirty undies I would not even think twice." This made Sophie laughout loud and Bee glare at the both of them. As Sophie and Maya were discussing how they could start a mail order services for the dirty underwear of Bee, they entered the atmosphere and Sophie got tossed to the ceiling shouting "Mother¡­ Next fucking time I enter this space ship there better be an extra chair." She landed back on her butt, but during her little outburst she bit her tongue, continuing to growl but not wanting to risk opening her mouth again she kept quiet. After a couple of seconds of a bumpy ride the ship calmed down again, and she watched out of the side window to see a lush forest underneath them, It looked like they were mostly pine trees and it stretched as far as the eye could see. Now that they weren''t far out in the orbit of the planet they could finally see some of the details that previously where only vague colors. The forest consisted of pine trees that were densely packed and prevented them a look of the ground beneath. As they flew further a small clearing appeared, but there was nothing else then a creak and some rocks. As they flew ever closer to the planet''s surface they got a message.
Planet Septer 2 A planet with lush nature some interesting species and a good atmosphere for humans, good starting planet as the native species are not very strong. - review by C01UMBU5 Resources - 2/5 Natives - 2/5 Beauty - 4/5 Breathability - 5/5 Location - 2/5 Danger - 2/5
We all stared at the summary for a while before Maya laughed and exclaimed "Perfect planet to start, I do wonder were the high risk is in this seemingly idyllic place." Sophie kept looking at the weird summary and wondered who had made all those reviews and if they were really from the public or that some generic AI was popping them out, then she perked up at what Maya was saying and shuddered "Please refrain from marking us for those who enjoy to see us suffer, I would like a place that didn''t tried to kill me everywhere I go." It was probably to late already anyway but Bee chimed in as Maya was about to retort "Your requested location is coming up Sophie, you still want to go off in the middle of nowhere?" Sophie looked out of the window and she saw a grass plain that was swirling in all directions like a sea of green florescent grass. The green had a beautiful contrast to the blue of the sky as little tufts of white clouds passed by on the horizon. Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she got up and walked up to the two seats in front and looked out of the bigger windscreen and was silent for a bit. Before she heard Bee "Sophie? Are you still there? Hello?" he waved his hand in front of her visor and she turned her head towards him and grinned "Yes Bee, please put me down here." He nodded and started the landing procedure while Sophie kept standing and staring out of the windscreen. It was such a beautiful scene to her, the wind that played the grass like an instrument, constantly changing the shape of the plain. The light that made the shadow of the grass have its own life furthering the image of the plain being one entity that was rolling around, not minding anyone. Mesmerizing.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. As Bee landed the ship Sophie didn''t even feel the slight bumps, and she didn''t fall down. As they hit the ground she hugged Bee, then Maya and said "Thanks guys, let me know how you are doing ok? I''m really enjoying spending time with you guys! See yah!" she got out of the ship before Maya or Bee could hug her back and they were a little startled by her sudden enthusiasm. Then they smiled and Maya said "You too Sophie, have fun in there, and let us know if you want to join up again. You are good for viewership! Bye!" she disappeared from the chat and Bee nodded his head and said "See you later Sophie, don''t mind Maya." And with that he waved goodbye and the space cruiser took to the air, swirling the air around Sophie with so much ferocity that she fell on her butt between the half a meter-high grass. As she watched them fly away, she felt a sort of peace return to her, a feeling of privacy she had missed when she had been recorded by Maya all the time. She really did enjoy the time she spent with the two of them, but she really didn''t like being recorded. Silence surrounded her, her visor had snapped open as she exited the spaceship and she was now breathing in the cool air, feeling it gently stroke her face as the winds passed her and the grass by, stirring both her and the grass in different ways. She sat there for another five minutes, feeling calm and at peace. Then she stood up and looked around. In the distance behind her she could see the pine forest looming and in the distance to her left she could see the white tops a of a mountain chain. But to her left and straight ahead there was nothing else then grass as far as the eye could see. No trees were ever she looked. At some point sprinkled around the plain lay massive rocks that seemed to have fallen out if the sky, some stuck out of the ground a couple of meters and their grey surface had been smoothed by the wind and rains that had a free rein here on the flat plains. She took a step towards the closest rock, it was around half a kilometer away and she walked in a tranquil pace, her gloved hand feeling the grass passing through it. As she approached the rock and had not even taken two steps, she saw something move through the grass, she stopped the step she was about to make and was about to grab her plasma gun when she noticed that it looked like a little white cloud. Massive horns curling backwards and into a spiral, the horns were almost as large as the rest of the small cloud like body. It looked like a miniature sheep with the horns of a male mountain goat. It was as tall as half a meter-high grass and she couldn''t see its face. Hesitating she made her way towards the creature that was now standing still as it had also seen/heard or smelled her. When the creature didn''t move, she got suspicious, prey should not be standing still in the face of danger, and this prey did not seem like it did a good job at camouflage. She got her plasma gun out of her inventory and slowly made her way toward the creature. Close enough now, she tried to get a name or something from the system but the system didn''t respond. She kept a distance of around three steps from the creature, waiting for it to make a move. Slowly making her way around it and going for its back, sadly the creature turned with her, showing her nothing but its brown horns. Curious she took a step in its direction and stretched out her hand to touch it, still aiming her plasma gun at its head. The moment the hand was about thirty centimeters away from its head the creature reacted and a maw of teeth and saliva entered Sophie''s field of vision. Intuitively jerking back her hand she screamed "Holy¡­" before she pulled the trigger and blew a crater into the grass plain. Mud and flaming pieces of grass and wool were sprayed everywhere as the creature bit down with a slight smacking sound. She had missed it. She could now see its head and it looked exactly like a wolf, sharp canine teeth, a long snout with a black wet nose on top that was currently wiggling a little with the potent odor of burning grass and some of its own burning wool that was drifting in the air. Its eyes were pitch black, and it looked hungrily towards the hand that was only seconds ago in its grasp before a wary look entered its eyes. Sophie on the other hand, had picked herself up and was holding the plasma gun at the ready, aiming it at the wolfsheep or sheepwolf or whatever Sholf this creature was named. The gun needed another thirty seconds to load after its last discharge, but the Sholf did not need to know that. Her heart was beating in her throat and her eyes were focused on the strangely cute predator in front of her. She moved a little to the left, trying to circle around the Sholf, but just like earlier it crept along with her, sometimes even taking a step forward where she would react with a step backward. Five more seconds she thought, but the Sholf had other plans and it launched itself with surprising speed through the grass in Sophie''s direction and then it jumped about a meter up into the air and tried to headbutt its horns into her face. She tried to turn away but was too late, the act had caught her by surprise and was going to devastate her face. The horns hit her helmet and its skull got stuck in between the space where her visor usually sat, centimeters from her nose the impact was stopped but the inertia threw her to the ground taking the stuck Sholf with her. She laid there in the grass, a little confused and dizzy losing some of her HP when the Sholf bruised her ribs by landing on top of her chest. As Sophie tried to get a grip on her swirling vision, the Sholf tried to get his head out of her visor less helmet hole, it twisted and turned but was solidly lodged into it. It tried to drag Sophie with him but she punched it in the side of its ribs and it squealed. Sophie was awake now, and she twisted her legs around the trashing Sholf on top of her. Then she started to smash its ribs into pulp. The Sholf squealed and trashed but Sophie''s grip was firm and his head was none returnable. As the Sholf stopped moving, she lost her grip on it and she starfished herself on the grass, breathing heavily. She slowly pressed a button on the side of her neck and the helmet came loose. Pulling it off with the Sholf still inside, she threw it to the side. Her long brown hair sprawled over the flattened grass underneath her, and then she just laid there, breathing heavy breaths and staring up into the sky. After a while she hoisted herself up, and she felt the wind go through her hair, ruffling it and whipping the brown strands across her face. She got the hair out of her face with her blood stained gloved hand and stared at the dead creature that was lying beside her feet now, bloodied, its sides caved in by her relentless attacks, its wool red with its blood and its head still partially stuck into her helmet. She had been lucky she realized. If it had been a bit bigger or smaller, she would have had a lot more trouble dealing with it than the awkward struggle it had now become. Or if the Sholf had just gone for any other body part, she would have probably broken something. She sat on her haunches as she silently studied the creature. Calling it a Sholf in her head because, well, it was a wolf in sheep skin, kind of. She touched its wool and was surprised how soft it was, and how far she was able to press it in. Its real body was barely half of the size as the wool let it seem to be. Its slim body was carried by four sturdy legs that looked incredibly small due to the wool but where in fact quiet large proportion wise. But the strangest part of the creature was of course its head. The big brown horns curved in a spiral downwards but were very solid at the stem, the grooved horn began at ten centimeters in diameter and became smaller the further down the spiral it went. It reminded Sophie about the Mountain Goats she had ones seen in a forty-year-old documentary of the state provided streaming cloud. Of course, with the one difference that this mountain goat had a maw full of sharp teeth and snout. Its white fur in line with the white wool on its back. She put her feet on the Sholf''s neck and pulled the creature out of her helmet, three minutes later she finally succeeded as the Sholf had made extra effort to stay in. Ones she pulled the Sholf out, she opened up her inventory and stuffed her helmet in it, taking up four spaces. Could be worse, she thought, then went back to pick up her plasma gun before she forgot it. Shuffling back to the grass and towards the dead body she tried again to inspect it. This time being rewarded with a message.
Congratulations you are the first to kill this creature, we here by reward you with 200 credits and the possibility to name it. If you decline the possibility to name it, the system will pick a name at random.
She stared at the message for a moment before cheering a little "Nice! That''s quite the amount of credits! And naming this sucker is also a no brainer." she accepted the naming and stated "Sholf" before she smiled and the system notified her that from now on the Sholf was an official part of the Universe Lore. As she named it, the ball of wool that had been a living and breathing Sholf disappeared and left two items. One was a credit card, with 30 credits on it. Frowning at the other item, a ball of wool, she looked at the ball and then another message popped up.
Sholf''s Wool Uncommon Quality Want to be the first to review this product? Say Yes please.
Reading the description, she sighed, another mystery solved. But she wasn''t in the mood to leave a review or to be known forshe who first reviewed Sholf Wool. She opened her inventory again and stored the wool into one of the remaining slots. She could only hope it would stack a little, because if every ball of wool was going to take up one slot, then it was going to be a very expensive job to farm materials. She looked around, the wind still played with her hair, throwing it every which way it wanted, but she didn''t care. It was nice to breathe without fogging her visor, to look around without her peripheral view being blocked by the helmet and not feel the weight of it on her head all the time, closing in all the bad odors that where coming from underneath her suit. If she could pull of the suit right now and store it in her inventory, she would. Sadly, the suit was too big so she could only leave it somewhere, and without knowing exactly how much a new suit was worth or how many upgrades there were, she wasn''t taking the chance that it was a once only deal. It hindered every movement but on the other hand it also protected her against claws, maws and headbutts. Well next time she would need to deal with headbutts aimed at her head, but the feeling of the wind caressing her hair and feeling the slight cold on her cheeks was well worth the extra wariness for head injuries. She couldn''t see any other white clouds floating through the green grass and thus decided it must have been alone, which was strange as both wolf and sheep were packanimals. Not wanting to spend too much time on it anymore, she decided to continue her way towards the rock. She took a step, and the grass parted for her heavy boot, leaving a brown print behind as she had slightly sunk into the ground. The grass reached abit over her knee and it was strangely resistant to bending. Not that it didn''t bend, just that the grass on earth, in real life, was very easy to bend, in comparison these were extremely hard. When she had been fully focused on the Sholf she didn''t noticed it. So now that she did, she noted that a consequence of this was that it felt a little like walking through a swamp. Her feet were heavy enough by themselves but the grass didn''t give enough way on its own to make it possible to walk through without exerting some more power than usual. Nearing the stone, she thanked the heavens for her decision to leave the helmet off, the flood of sweat in the space station could have been beat otherwise. This game was giving her a really hard time, nothing was really easy, not even this short walk through a plain of grass. Was it because everybody began at the same level? Was her progress as a frequent exerciser not counting towards her condition in the game? Whatever it was, it was annoying. Of course, she had counted on some tough opponents when choosing Hard mode but this was getting ridiculous. Crossing the five-hundred meters that seemed like five kilometers, she finally reached the rock. Looking it over, the rock was smooth like jade and had a dark grey color, it didn''t reflect any sunlight as it seemed to have no impurities in its build, and towered five meters into the air. its base being three meters wide, slightly curving, thinning and in the end rounding off the higher it went. It was beautiful in its simplicity and Sophie caught herself staring with her mouth open. She slowly extended her hand towards its surface and touched it. It felt warm through the fabric of her glove. She frowned, this was really weird, with the cold wind and the sun timidly shining upon the plain it should have been slightly cool to the touch, not the luke warmness that it was. Removing her hand from its surface she took a small step back and looked from her hand up again towards the top. During the time, she had spent touching it, a small line had appeared on the perfect smooth surface, a little under half a meter from the top. The line, barely ten centimeters long, seemed to be cut into the rock and she couldn''t be a hundred percent sure it had not been there before. Warily and warned after the situation she had been in not ten minutes ago she took another slow step back, and as she placed her foot on the soft ground below, the line seemed to snap open and reveal a white sphere with a yellow oval, followed by a single black dot. It looked exactly like an eye, the line had snapped open into two slight parabolas that encased the yellow pupil. It made some quick saccades scanning its surroundings before landing its eye upon Sophie who was currently standing perfectly still. As Sophie stood glued to the ground, the rock seemed to tower further into the air. It grew, it was actually growing even bigger? "The hell is this place... " She mumbled, coming out of her stupor and pointing the plasma gun at the creature in front of her. Where it grew in height, its bulk actually started to slim down centimeter by centimeter. When it reached half a meter of extra height two pairs of legs came into view in the tall grass. Before this point in time the legs had been hidden in the bulk of its mass, but now that it was growing, its bulk went up with its growth, slimming down, revealing its southern borders where two very bulky legs stuck into the ground. The bulk laid over it like a fat belly but then from all sides, mushrooming the two legs, and the longer the creature got the more the mushroom belly slunk. The legs, as far as they were not obscured by the grass, were at least half a meter in diameter. Smooth as the rest of the body they didn''t seem to have a joint, like a knee for example. As its growing process slowed down Sophie took another step back, not sure what she should do. Her guts told her that the creature was not a predator, but its size alone could crush her into her first re-spawn. She kept her plasma gun on the creature, her finger on the trigger, taking another step back through the uncooperating grass. Now standing almost seven meters into the sky the creature looked like a giraffe with two elephant legs, its grey skin still the same and its bulk had dwindled down to around two meters in diameter, still mushrooming over the now a meter-high legs. Its single eye, or at least, the only one Sophie could observe was still resting on her, keeping its attention on her and her every move. The complete process had taken no longer than thirty seconds, but due to the amazement she felt it could have been hours for all she knew. As she kept taking steps in its opposite direction, she finally reached the twenty-meter mark and decided this was a safe distance to observe what would happen next. The eye blinked the moment she stopped, then it moved its gigantic leg in the opposite direction and took a step. The plain shook as the creatures¡¯ step landed on the ground below, then it took another. Sophie sighed, it seemed to be just as scared of her as she was of it, what was by now not that much but enough to relocate. The creature which, if she was ever going to name it was definitely going to be called a Kevoulder, walked like it was walking on two enormous stilts, something that was definitely more than likely and not at all surprising at this point. The Kevoulder swayed from left to right in dangerous angles as it made its way towards its new home, and after fifty to sixty meters it stopped. Planting both legs next to each other, it shrank back into its original size at a surprising pace, its bulk curling around its legs, growing larger in width but smaller in height. Until nothing but the eye was left. The eye blinked two times and closed off too, leaving no clue behind as to its status as a living organism and going back to the rock she had taken it for in the beginning. The Kevoulder now being a safe distance away she walked towards the patch of grass it had left and looked down. What was left disturbed her more than she would have thought possible at this point in time. The grass had been eaten, the green of the grass only sticking out a littleabove the ground. "Do I even want to know where its mouth was supposed to be?" she mumbled and stared toward the now distant rock. At least her intuition had been right, it was some kind of herbivore, extremely disturbing to watch for the first time but not wanting to eat you. "This place is really something else huh?" she grumbled under her breath as she started walking again, taking a route with a little more space between her and the living rocks of the plain. 14. Two sides of the same coin John sat in his car, it rained, but now there were a few times in the day where it stopped raining and the clouds would just be there, floating around without making their presence known by releasing their contents on humanity. It was a breath of fresh air for any person, but rain really didn''t bother him enough to form an opinion on it. After going home last night, after the debacle they called a crime scene and taking the note, he had Googled the name on it. Sophie Hosk. Seventeen-year-old girl, that had inherited money from her dead parents and had been under super vison of her guardian and uncle, Frank Hosk. Nothing weird in any way just a regular girl, well not totally regular, for one she didn''t seem to have any social media accounts. In this day and age, it was highly unusual not to have any social media footprints on the internet, especially for a seventeen-year-old. She also didn''t attend any school since she graduated elementary school at the age of eleven and seemed to be home schooled since then as she did have a high school degree. Why would a man like Southwell, who was writing on the dangers of VR, and lived on the other side of the UK, have the name and phone number of this slightly isolated but still very normal teenage girl in his hand when he was killed? Maybe it was unrelated? Maybe they knew each other privately, but how? As he searched for a connection, he found the police rapport of the girl''s parents, gunned down when they were playing tourist in London. Classified as a mugging gone wrong. But what mugger in their rights minds would gun two people down for their wallets, in broad daylight, in the middle of a very crowded street, to kill themselves after the fact, right next to his victims. Had they been blind to see it as a mugging gone wrong? Or was there something else going on? The woman, Marie Hosk, had been a very successful career woman in both the field of science and business. She had created one of the first AI to be used in VR and had been hired by a company named Nsquared to create a better AI for them. Apparently, she or her colleagues had succeeded right before she died, as this company soared to be one of the biggest in the game industry after the creation of their very advanced AI. The man, Adrian Hosk, had been a genius in engineering since a young age, with almost a hundred patents under his name, and many more already sold to the highest bidder. All the patents were made in the field of robotics where he single handedly let the industry progress in 5 years where it was expected they would be in twenty. He was the sole reason that the Hosk family was swimming in money and that their child was still very well off even with losing both her parents, making work optional for her for the rest of her life. Nsquared. Was that the connection? Did Southwell want to find out what she knew about their parent¡¯s business. Did he also see that it couldn''t have possibly been a mugging gone wrong? But why were they both killed then? Maybe they had information that someone didn''t want to know, or they had created something that someone wanted or didn''t want to roam the earth. With his robotics mind and her AI mind they were the perfect couple to create the first droids, something that still happened but much later than it probably would have if the two of them were to be left alive. Something just didn''t make sense.Why so public? Why not just kidnap them or kill them in an ally? Take them from their home, or shoot them there. It was quiet enough, their house on the Scottish Highlands was perfect for a covert clean up. As he was mulling through the information he had on the Hosk family had gotten an email, a Jason McKenzie, saying he was head of security for Nsquared and that there was information he liked to share with me on the Southwell case. How he had known he had anything to do with the Southwell case, how he had gotten a hold of his email, and how he known he was still investigating he didn''t know. But the fact that someone from Nsquared was emailing him was confirmation enough that they were involved in all of this. He was now sitting in his car just outsidetheir European headquarters in London, an impressive skyscraper madeof glass and steel that went up at least sixty stories. He looked up at the building that was reflecting the grey sky; he had a bad feeling about this invitation why not just sent him anything they got? Or why not just call him? There were plenty of ways to ask sure it was a secure line, they could even put it through the mail. The mail for one, was one of the more secure lines of communication in this day and age and it was the only reason it hadn''t died out completely. Yet. He grabbed his cigarettes from his breast pocket and lit one up, without taking his eyes off the building. The smoke slowly filling the car, he snapped out if it and opened the window a little. He had to go in, even if it was only to satisfy his own curiosity. He opened the door and climbed out of his car and into the busy sidewalk. Officially he had parked his car in a no parking zone, but when the money grabbers, otherwise known as traffic police, would check his plates they would see that it was Scotland Yards. That would keep the flies away long enough. He stepped onto the sidewalk, standing still for a moment to stretch his tired body. Inhaling a last breath of death-in-stick-form he threw it on the ground and stamped it out. He crossed the busy street carefully, but still a couple of drivers found it their place to honk at him, he gave them the only appropriate hand sign he knew and continued on his way. Arriving in front of the massive building he looked for an entrance, finding one in the form of a glass revolving door, he walked up to it and let himself be shepherd into the building by the door. Once in, he gaped a little at the extravagance of the lobby; the floor was madeof marble, and so were the walls and the check in desk. The ceiling had paintings of, what he guessed to be, the games that Nsquared had created. The painter, or painters, had spared no cost and had filled the 900 square meters of ceiling with exhibitions of brave behavior and the slaughter of about any magical creature known to man. Very inviting. The enormous chandelier that sparkled and shone through the whole room made it seem just a little more over the top. As people started to walk past him slightly grumbling under their breath he snapped out of his stupor and went on in the direction of the marble check in desk. The perfect creature that was currently on the phone smiled at him with a radiant white smile. So sad it didn''t make it to her eyes what a spectacular view would that have been, he thought. He smiled back and leaned on the desk, waiting. As she was finally done on the phone, she turned her attention to him, and if he would have been thirty again he wouldn''t have known his name anymore in that moment. Luckily his testosterone had gone down with his aging body and he could only appreciate the perfect face and slight cleavage that gave a teaser to the fantastic possibilities that were hidden underneath. Still smiling she asked him what she could do for him, laughing a little at a few possibilities that crossed his mind he answered that he had an appointment with Jason McKenzie. As he said the name her perfect face twitched a little and he could see that the name didn''t have many good associations in her mind. Strengthened in his thoughts that he should be on guard she proceeded to make a phone call, and after saying yes sir three times she hang up, a little shaken she said he should go through the doors on her left and that somebody would be waiting for him there. He nodded and thanked her and proceeded to the door, opened it and walked through. He had walked into a hallway that let to multiple elevators and a man. The man was around a meter and ninety in height and almost as wide, all muscle, he towered a little above John. His face was filled with sharp edges, and every bone seemed to be sticking out, his chin had a dimple, his lips were slightly redder than they should be normally and his nose was pointy. His sharp black eyes seemed to be looking through you and his eyebrows were well kept. On top of it all was a head full of jet black hair that slowed lightly down till his shoulders. If John had ever seen someone that looked more like a classic superhero villain, then he couldn''t remember who. As he observed the man, so did the man observe him and after a couple of tense seconds he took a step forward and John had to keep himself perfectly still to resist the urge to take a step back. "Good morning John Cornwell, I hope you didn''t have trouble finding the place?" The man said while he was making his way towards John. "Mr. McKenzie I presume?" John said, taking a step forward himself and stretching out his hand, the man grabbed it in a firm but not a crushing hold and shook it while nodding and saying "In the flesh". They released the handshake and Jayson McKenzie turned towards the elevators, "If you could follow me, please?" now it was time for John to nod "of course". They stood and waited a little and then got into an elevator. As they got in, McKenzie took his keycard and swiped, before pressing a button that wasn''t previously on the elevator, and they went down. Slightly starting to worry, John asked "What is going on Mr. McKenzie?¡±. The man turned and looked up towards the roof of the elevator and down again towards John "this is not a good time to start our conversation Mr. Cornwell. Please wait a little while longer." He said and turned around again. John looked up at the place where the man had looked and saw there was a camera placed. Strange, why would the head of security worry about people listening. Even though it was a little strange, he kept quiet and followed the man out of the elevator after a couple of seconds had passed. He looked at the wall and they were at B35. At least thirty-five levels underground, things just kept getting stranger. But he could imagine that a game company needed cooled places for their server rooms. But why in London? Where real estate was like gold, and more importantly; why was he being led here and not just an office space? As they kept walking, John could only see doors and concrete. It seemed that this whole basement level was one big corridor with branching rooms on both sides. As John was getting worried that soon they wouldn''t be underneath the building anymore, the man turned around, opened a door and said "this way please". John hesitated for a moment when he walked in, the room had no furniture, nor had anything else, it was just a concrete room that was about three meters high and twenty-five square meters of concrete floor. As John hesitated, the man behind him slipped passed him and motioned him to come in to, saying "Please, if I wanted to harm you I could have done so without inviting you to come here." He tried to smile, but the smile was every bit as villainous as the rest of his appearance and thus had not much of a comforting effect. Still, he made sense so John walked in further, and closed the door. "So you said you had information?" John asked, his eyes on the guy¡¯s face, his head a little sideways as to try to look at him from a different angle. "Yes I do, it was me, I killed the Southwell family." There was a pause and John looked at him, trying to find out if he was telling the truth. He wasn''t surprised, ever since he had been contacted by this man, this Jason McKenzie he had thought of this possibility but he couldn''t figure out one important question. Mainly why he had invited him here. "Why have you invited me here Jason, you could have gone to the police, or MI6 or whoever is handling the case now? " He smiled again, this time it was a real smile, his eyes glistering and opening his mouth to speak "Because I had a feeling that you would come to the conclusion that Nsquared had something to do with it and I wanted to prevent a good man, and a great detective being found with a belt around his neck a dirty magazine on his desk and his pants around his ankles." John stared at the man for a moment, completely sure he was telling the truth, something that disturbed him greatly. Had he dodged a bullet by grace of the villain that had killed the Southwell family? "If you are such a vigilante then why kill those children?" he looked the man straight in the jet-black eyes, and saw there something he had not expected, shame. The man kept looking at him though and then spoke again "Yes that was a great shame, and one I had rather avoided, but the one that ordered the hit, stated that there should not be any loose ends, so it had to be done. If I had been alone, I would have hidden them somewhere, but I wasn''t. At least now they will still exist somewhere else. The reason I have brought you here, is so we can work together in preventing these things from happening again. Why here specifically, is because this room contains no bugs or camera''s and no electrical equipment, or for example wire function in this room. The man I work for, has crossed my threshold for idly waiting for a chance to relieve this company of its existence. So, I have decided to actively work towards its destruction." As he finished his little speech he walked towards the wall and leaned against it with his shoulder, looking at John. John looked back, thinking. If this was a trap, then it was a trap that was way too complicated for its purpose. If they wanted him dead, they could easily kill him. If they wanted him as a scapegoat, then they could just simply do that, instead of making themselves known. He sighed, he was getting too old for this shit "Why shouldn''t I just arrest you?" But at that the man only smiled and said "Sure, that would ruin me as I wouldn''t survive the first night in custody, and they would then proceed to wipe out everyone that came in contact with you in the last week. But sure, you could arrest me."This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. John frowned, He had expected such a response, but still hearing it was worse than suspecting it. "Please tell me everything you want to discuss and I will make a decision accordingly". And thus, came to be the longest time John spent between four concrete walls, listening to a story filled with horrors and monstrosities. _________ Jason was walking back from his meeting with the detective. The man had some sharp eyes and an even sharper mind, which could be a very dangerous combination both for the detective as for those he chased. The Southwell''s lay still fresh in his mind, they had been his latest targets. There was no assignment that had gone by where he did not mess up just enough for the right people to notice. His plan had worked perfectly this time. He had gone up to the house alone. None of his usual cronies that followed him around, day and night, had been given permission to join on this highly sensitive mission. Which suited his intentions perfectly. He had knocked on the door and waited. It rained that night and his hoody was up but the moment a little girl opened the door, barely old enough to open the door on rainy nights, he took his hoody off and let the rain splash his long black hair. He had crouched down to be face to face with the little girl who had stared at him with some curiosity mixed in with a slight fear. Everybody had the slight fear in their eyes the first time they met Jayson. Ever since he started school at the age of five, he had always scared his peers. When he was little he would often ask his mom why the kids in school didn''t want to play with him. She had explained "You should smile more Jason, people like it when you smile at them, maybe tell a joke." She had smiled at him with her characteristically beautiful smile that had filled him with warmth. Not that it worked, quite the opposite actually, every time he smiled the kids would run screaming and yelling for the teacher that he was bullying them. He had been confused until he had asked a kid that almost peed his pants the moment he had grabbed him. The kid had mumbled to him with a horror-struck face "E-e-every time I look at you, I feel a chill down my back, and my momma said we should better avoid you, as you... m-might hurt m-me". The child had started sobbing and Jason had let him go, sobbing himself. Was he some kind of monster or something? Much later he found out that he indeed was some kind of monster, but not in the literal sense of the word. The look in his eyes had struck fear in the many people he had met for the first time, and he had felt biter because of it. He grew up without friends, a pariah, an outcast and after school he had joined the military. There, at least, they made it a sport to look him in the eye when the fellow cadets tried to speak to him. The more time he spent there, the more he realized that he was a weapon, he needed to be used, to be honed. He was the main star of hazing the new cadets for five years in a row. The attention he got from his fellow cadets was addicting for a person who had been shunned his entire life. The bad and cruel things he did were reinforced by the attention, the rush of recognition. After the sixth year, he left, he had been picked up by Nsquared who made him head of security, the company was small at the time (only twenty employees) and was on the rise. At first it was boring, he felt himself dull, but then came the gutter tactics and he thrived. His actions were perfect and untraceable, cruel and destructive, but still held flair. He had been proud. That was until he had met the only one who saw him as a person and not a monster, Sarah, who he would marry after only three months of knowing her. They were divorced now as she could no longer deal with his line of work. He had not done any good lately that was until yesterday. He had asked the little girl if she perhaps could get her daddy to the door, and she had nodded and sprinted away, leaving the door open. Na?ve little girl. He had waited in the cold rain, his hair getting soaked, sticking to his face. It wasn''t normal to faint weakness like this, he would never do it in normal situations, but now was not a normal situation. He needed to look weaker than the monster they all saw, the villain even the seasoned detective reflected back to him in his eyes. The man had come to the door, wearing a red bathrobe, a white t-shirt underneath, finished by a striped pajama pants and some normal and uneventful looking brown slippers. This might have been the easiest job in his history with the company if not for the change in plans of his own. He coughed in his fist to let the smile leak off his face as he spoke to the guy that had brown hair, brown eyes and a very forgettable face which was perfect for his cause. "Excuse me for interrupting your evening Mr. Southwell but I''m afraid I come bearing some very disturbing news. Would you mind letting me in the house?" He looked up into the air and rain assaulted his face for some dramatic effect "I''m afraid it''s quite the awful weather outside." The man stared at him for a couple of seconds, not saying a thing and not moving aside. Just as Jason was thinking that this man was maybe a bit better than his daughter he opened the door and made an inviting gesture with his hand before saying "Please, come in, mister?". The fool, the man''s daughter was barely eight years old, what was his excuse? Ow well, Jason would need to fix a few things, but that was for later. He nodded his head in appreciation and stepped in while stating his full name. As they were standing in the hall way the man looked at Jason with some worry before asking "What is this disturbing piece of news that you wanted to tell me Mr. McKenzie?". Jason had to give it to the man, he seemed quite calm, which could not have been said about all the victims that had let Jason into their house. He took his time to look around in the hall way. A couple of photo''s catching his eyes, before he turned around to the man and stated "Mr. Southwell I was sent to your house to kill your family and let it look like an accident, then staging your suicide. Now before you think of doing anything stupid, like for instance, reaching for that umbrella to your side. I would like to state for the record that I''m going to do no such thing. You see Mr. Southwell, I think you are doing remarkably well with your news articles and I would like you to continue. Well with some inside information from me personally of course, but that is something we will discuss later. First, I would like to ask you Mr. Southwell. Do you think Nsquared capable of murder, just because you stumbled upon the truth without realizing it yet?" The man''s face was a cascade of emotions, fear, anger, relief, confusion, dawning, and back to fear. In the end, he whispered "there aren''t any accidents..." at this Jason nodded to the man, he had a quick mind, he had to give him that at least. "There are some genuine accidents, but most of the time they are intentional, but that does not answer my question to you Mr. Southwell. Do you believe Nsquared capable of killing for that information?" he stared at the man''s eyes, as they came to the realization how close he had come to death. The man shook his head and fell to his knees before looking up at Jason and he croaked "Yes."Jason nodded and had crouched before the man, lowering his position so that the man would feel less threatened and intimidated closing up at this crucial point of his plan. He then spoke softly "I will take you and your two children to a safe house that only I know of, provide you with fake identification and income. The details of what I want you to do will come in the coming weeks but first focus on staying out of sight and alive. If you get caught still alive, then I will be caught keeping you alive. Please gather your belongings, only the essentials, and nothing else. Nothing that can be missed or seen to not be where it should be, like the photos. Do you understand Mr. Southwell? This is a onetime deal if you cannot keep it together I will have to return to the original plan." The man had agreed and shakingly stood up and gone to do what he was told. He got them in his van and left them there while he had gone back with three fresh bodies he had picked up somewhere else. They had died of a poisoning in another part of the country and were still fresh, or at least fresh enough as nobody was going to look closely at the bodies, anyway. Placing the two children and the man where they should have been, he shot the man''s head half off so his face wasn''t visible anymore. Then went outside and called the cops and his contact at MI6. He knew the police would investigate but the disguise would hold up until his cleaner from MI6 got there. The least the guy could do was clean up a good situation for a change, instead of all those bad ones. Back at the van he had winked at one of the girls who was staring at him curiously and driven off to their safe house. He hadn''t been proud of anything lately but he had been proud of the way he had dealt with the Southwell''s. That and the man could become useful in his plans. Then there was the detective. He had placed the note in the man''s hand so that he could monitor anyone who was to curious about his set up. He didn''t need people looking further then the obvious because they would find inconsistencies that could get him killed. So he monitored for anyone searching for the name Sophie Hosk and consequently her family, the name had some meaning to him yet he did not know why he still used it. Finding Detective John Cornwell on his way had been a bonus straight from the heavens. The man was smart, knew how the world worked and wasn''t overly ambitious or moralistic. It was because of these impressions that Jason had decided to let the man leave. He might have joked around about the suffocation scenario but he could have easily killed the poor man fifty other ways. The talk had been good, and only now Jason felt how much he had been carrying around with him. It was good to share that with someone, even better if that person could function as Jason''s moral compass, as his had been deluded a long time ago. What could and couldn''t he do for his plans to succeed, it was good to have some feedback or he might destroy more than a few lives on the way. He hadn''t told the detective about the Southwell''s. Knowledge was power, and it was not detrimental for their relationship for the detective to see him as a villain which he still was. One swallow does not make a summer, and he was definitely no summer. He strolled through the corridors, his mood a good better now that he had dealt in a productive way with the detective. That was before he started noticing that several people were running through the office. Jason hadn''t seen anybody run through these halls in forever, and technicians only ran when their jobs were on the line. Something had happened. He changed course to the office of the cold-blooded lizard that dared to call itself the CEO of Nsquared. Passing more and more running people, some who normally would make large b-lines around him, now almost ran him down with fear in their eyes. He heard some people whispering about a missing asset within the game before he arrived at the door. The gateway to hell. He knocked and heard his boss yell before letting him in. His black box phone still on his ear, holding up a finger to Jason and ranting into the highly secure, untraceable and not destroyable phone. "You will solve this and find him or I will personally come down to the server room and I will make sure you never leave it again in your life, do I make myself clear Hanson?". A short pause before he continued "I do not care how you do it, find him." The lizard man proceeded by pressing disconnect button before smiling at Jason and exclaiming "Jason! I take it everything went agreeable yesterday?" The man had a smile on his disgusting face that said he didn''t want to hear otherwise, but Jason just nodded and stated "Like always, Sir. Is there a problem? It seems the office is more lively than usual." The lizard man walked back to his desk and set down, slapping the dust off his Armani jacket like he had the urge to smite someone. Before smiling back at Jason again, assuring "Nothing that you have to be concerned about Jason. Just some hiccups in-game. So, now on to what Idolike you to become involved in, and that is phase two of the plan." Jason paled a little but due to his already pale complexion it wasn''t noticed by the lizard man. He coughed, clearing his throat "Already, Sir?" The lizard man looked at him and simply said "Yes, now leave, I have other problems to attend to." and Jason left, his plans needed to go faster or it would have no use to even attempt them. 15. Plain weird She had been walking for the last three hours now (20% progress in speed; hurray) and boy, was she mistaken in thinking this was a tranquil place. Not only had she shot and killed seven more Sholf''s, she had made contact with a wide variety of other beast that wanted to eat her. Sitting in the grass, she shook her tired legs and got another strand of hair out of her sweaty face. Not only sweat covered her face, but long stretches of dirt, blood and a blade of grass she had not yet noticed. Her space suit was dirty beyond believe, the shoes and pants that were once white were now brown, covered in mud and other substances she hoped were mud. And while her pants were just dirty, her top was filled with long gashes and tears and a big oval spot of black where a Bubble had seared her suit. Her arms and gloves; a combination of blood red smudges and mud. It had been quite the adventure. The Sholfs had no longer been a problem as they had the curious habit of letting their prey come to them. Once she knew, she took aim and blew them to kingdom come collecting 14% in spatial awareness which was great, but also accumulating 210 credits which was even better. The only problem with this tactic was that once she fired her shot, it would incinerate at least forty percent of the entire Sholf. So, she needed to aim for the head or the wool loot would incinerate with it. She found out about the hard way by wasting three Sholfs before she realized. The good news; the wool stacked. Sort of. After adding the fifth to her inventory, the stack took two spots in her inventory, something she thought of as realistic but still wanted to curse. A credit sink; a mechanism that would force every player to invest heavily in an upgraded inventory, while they rather had invested that credit in something useful. Since seeing the massive Kevoulder, she had walked a dozen minutes before meeting the next weird creature; the Mocking birds. No, she didn''t mean it were Mockingbirds. These birds were actively mocking her. The first one she met, had flown from behind her and onto a blade of grass that was five meters in front of her, had turned around, still holding the blade in its little bird grabbers and stared at her. The bird; small, no bigger than her fist, had its red feathers streamlined around its body. So far so good, but the first time she had seen the birds head, she had stopped walking rather abruptly. The bird grew something that looked like the antlers of a deer on the sides of its little head. They weren''t big; maybe four centimeters up and wide but it was a peculiar sight that could not be easily forgotten as the antlers were white and looked like bone, and that was before you saw that its tiny tongue was sticking out of its mouth. Its curious black beady eyes were staring at her and she was staring back. Didn''t this look exactly like children when they were laughing at someone? Making fun of them by putting their hands next to their heads and sticking their tongue out of their mouth? While she thought, another bird had taken the blade of grass next to the first and stared in her direction too. "This is too weird..." She grumbled out loud, and the little birds had responded by a salvo of what sounded like laughter, soft and bird-ish, but laughter nonetheless. She looked at the birds, and thought of killing one so she could name it, but thought the better of it for now. She didn''t want to just randomly kill everything in her path. While that was how most would play a game, she had always opted to only kill those who tried to kill her. Shaking her head, she decided that it was better to just continue walking, struggling her way through the grass. The birds seemed to multiply every time she looked at them, lifting off of their blades of grass and then flying ten meters and landing again, turning their collective gaze back to Sophie. By the time she had walked another hundred meters, forty beady eyes were staring at her every move. Making their laughing noises every time she stumbled and cursed a little. It was like a rolling laughter tape she had always hated when she watched old school sitcoms. Worse of all, was that the sound kept getting louder and louder as more birds kept flying in. At the height of their hilarity and the height of her annoyance, she stumbled over a piece of wood. Which could not have come from any tree as there were no trees on the plain, and had to have been planted here or spawned out of now where; those were the two options. The loud laughter of the birds coupled with them trying to pry their antlers into her skin and suit while pecking at her skin gave her the idea they had somehow planted it there, and let her across it so she would be down when they attacked. She struggled to get up, and waved her hands around, to beat sense in the little shit heads but they expected it and made a retreat again. Seeing that attacking her was a lost cause, their antlers and beaks hardly doing any damage. Done playing nice she had grabbed her plasma gun and fired a shot into the flock, killing at least five with the single shot due to it exploding outward and taking some of the little fuckers with it. 20 Credits and two percent toward spatial awareness brought her good mood back, plus an extra 200 credits for naming and killing the bastards. This was before she saw them make a U turn and heading back. From that point onwards, the mocking birds had stayed with her even when she tried to thin their flock. An hour she walked, growing angrier with the minute, plunging her way through the constant laughter of the Mocking birds. Then she found the fourth strange creature of the plain. The Bubble, a creature she didn''t even know how or why it had ever been invented as it was just a bubble that sparkled in the sun like a bubble of soap. Floating around, waving in the wind, being carried from blade of grass to blade of grass until she had walked into one by accident. It had bounced right off of her, leaving a soapy kind of liquid behind that smelled awful and started burning a hole in her suit. If she had thought of it a little longer and had observed that the Mocking birds were staying far away from it, she might not have almost blown herself up. But as the laughter continued and the smell of burned suit went into her nostrils, she had shot it out of the air in a rage of pure spite and its explosion had turned into a fireball. The size it almost burned her eyebrows off. As the system asked her for a name, she was too tired to be original and had just replied with Bubble, later regretting her choice fiercely, but she couldn''t change its name into Maya''s Soap Farts anymore. Defeated she continued her march through the plain, before she noticed the incredible sound of nothing. The silence, the blissful silence was a sign that the Mocking birds had finally left and together with the 200 credits this had been a very convenient encounter. She sighed and walked in a peaceful and calm step through the plain, the grass and its toughness. Not even registering anymore, after the torment of the Mocking birds and she finally thought she was done with flying fuckers. Not half a kilometer later, there came along a little something she named the Whistler. First she thought it was just a big fluorescent blue ball of fur with four little dragonfly wings, slowly zooming over the plain, minding its own business. The furball had long arms in proportion to its body, and seemed to end in claws, no hands, only furry arms and claws. Between the two arms, was a body shaped like a mango, two black beady eyes; a bit away from the top, parallel to the arms; white strokes of fur above it like little eyebrows and a tuft of white fur on top of its head. And a little mouth all the way down where his belly ended, completing the face like features. Underneath the mango shaped body dangled two small legs, barely even visible. It flew over the plain a little lack luster, it looked, its little wings zooming from exertion to keep the relative large body afloat. The wind blowing it in random directions and its long arms hanging down like someone who didn''t see a purpose in life anymore. She would have felt compelled to help the little bugger if she had met it earlier when she had just landed, but now she only felt weariness for its presence. As it flew in random directions, carried in part by its wings and in another part by the wind, it kept coming closer, and then when it was about a meter away it seemed to take control of its direction and flew straight to her shoulder; where it landed and sat. Its little legs sticking out and its mango body plumping a little as it sat down. Sophie stood still, her head slightly turned, her eyes trying to make the almost impossible angle to look at the blue creature that was barely the size of an apple and weighted even less. The creature looked up at her, its beady little eyes radiating innocence; as they can only in movies or games. Its surrogate eyebrows slightly raised and its claws put together as it was the epitome of innocence. It stayed like this for two seconds as Sophie and the creature were locked into a staring contest before it turned its body to the front again and whistled. Its tiny mouth pouting together, eyes closed, he started a tune that was beautiful. It was carried by the wind of the plain, and sounded much louder than it should have sounded. Its tune was a sound of peacefulness, soft edges and low tones, joint with beautiful high pitched climaxes. Swirling from left to right as it kept is seating of her shoulder. She had got slightly dizzy, sleepy even, and had yawned with her mouth wide open. Her eyes half closing as the tune brought her all the peace she so desperately needed at the time. Yawning again she closed her eyes, just for a minute she had thought, just a minute of quiet, some blissful rest. Her eyes had closed and her consciousness had drifted, the last thing registering was her falling into the grass below her, face first. For once she had been glad that the grass wasn''t too soft and that it had pillowed her fall, and then blackness. She had woken up by something hairy trying to crawl into her mouth. She was lying face first in the mud, the soft and wet earth embracing her left cheek while her right cheek lay skywards. The feeling of a hairy claw trying to pull her lips apart, and then a jerk on her lower jaw that had been lodged in the ground as she had fallen face first. With a shock, she had snapped her eyes open, starring at the angry looking blue fur ball that was still trying to pry open her mouth. Without thinking of what would have happened if she had landed on her back, she pulled her arm up and smacked it down on the spot where the still struggling fur ball met its end. A huge mistake as she thought about it later. The blue fur ball, which she named the Whistler, had dropped 5 credits, and had exploded underneath her fist, sending blood and gore over her face and even some of it into her mouth. She had gotten up slowly, her face looking like a battlefield, scrunched up like she ate a lemon. Spending the next ten minutes getting everything off her face with a few blades of grass and her dirty glove. The results hadn''t been very promising. And that was how she had spent her three-hour trip so far; not wanting to draw conclusions yet she was just resting, mostly her mind. She was disappointed about her ability to protect herself, even though all the "attacks" had mostly been harmless. Harmless as in; she prevented creatures from some very disturbing antics. Would she need to shoot everything on sight from now? Was she being na?ve instead of being true to herself? It was a game, wasn''t it? She should be able to kill everything without feeling guilty or thinking too much of the incidents of the past. Bah, she hated mindless killing, even in a game. She had never done it; so why start now. She decided to keep doing the same; if it didn''t attack her she would not kill it. But everything she named, went straight to the kill list. A little hypocritical, she knew, but first; it was a game, and second; naivety kills. She rather hated her actions then die. Strengthening her resolve, she did some Psionic exercises, sitting crossed legged she looked around to see if there was anything that would try manslaughter, seeing that there wasn''t yet, she broke of a blade of grass. Positioning the blade of grass in front of her nose she closed her eyes and focused. Trying to find it was more of a hassle then she had expected. It was way smaller than the finger that the old man had used. Twenty minutes went by, as she focused all of her attention, trying to find the energy she had found before, then guiding it outside and forming something that looked like a third arm. Feeling for the grass she knew was in front of her. Seeing but not seeing; the state that the old man had kept on repeating. She could feel the first drops of sweat flowing from her face, streaking passed the blood and mud, curving towards her chin. Then at the forty-minute mark, she finally felt the blade of grass, it felt so small to her sight, barely visible, as it seemed to flow with something. Not spending much time to pat herself on the back she tried to move the grass towards her, trying to touch her nose with it. It didn''t budge. She kept at it, straining herself, feeling the headache from overdrawing of the psionic energies, but the grass wouldn''t move. Breathing out a big gulp of air and hanging her head a little, moving it left and right to crack her neck she gave up, not wanting to end up unconscious again, and opened her eyes. Using her glove to clean her face out of habit, not even noticing only making it worse. She checked her Genesis, and she had gotten 5% from an hour of practice. This would take awhile before it would be useful. Sighing she stood up and looked around, the sun was slowly disappearing behind the mountains but she still had four hours to kill before she needed to eat dinner and study. She needed training. Not the mindless walking around, or shooting the Sholfs. She looked around for something suitable, and found a rock, that looked like a rock, about four-hundred meters to her left. Determent she would no longer mess around, she walked towards the rock, slowly going faster, and then going into a jog. Jogging in the tall grass and mushy ground was like walking through water, but good for her Speed genesis. Arriving at the rock, she was completely out of breath and her speed had gained 5% in five minutes. Breathing in big gulps she leaned against the rock. It was just about as tall as the grass at its lowest, and one and half meters into the air at its highest, being about 3 meters wide on the side she was currently facing and one meter wide at its lowest side.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Getting her heartbeat back to normal levels, she again checked if her jog had attracted anything unwanted but could see nothing but the swaying of the grass. Now that said nothing in, or of itself but it made her feel better anyway. Slowly making her way towards the lowest side of the rock and positioning her feet right in front of it, she breathed out a final long breath and bent her knees before explosively trying to jump onto the forty-centimeter-high surface of the rock. In real life, this would have been as easy as taking candy from a baby, in the game it was the achievement of the century. Her oversized boots were not only big, but also ten times as heavy as anything else she had ever worn. She barely landed, her knees still in a ninety-degree angle, and her hands stretched to the side, trying to keep balance and not fall off again. Balanced, throwing her hands in the air like winning a gold medal, challenging anyone that thought it wasn''t. "This is going to be harder than I want a game to be¡­" she mumbled before bending through her knees, doing ten squads, then threw herself into a pushup position, doing ten push-ups, then ten sit-ups before she did a mountain climber over the rock to the top where she jumped off and landing on her feet, knees bending to make the impact lessen and rolling herself forward, evenly distributing the inertia of the jump. She stood up, sprinted towards the other side of the rock through the high sturdy grass and leaned against it again, all of her muscles hurting and tired. She hadn''t experienced this kind of exhaustion since she was six. The stone wobbling in her vision, her breath coming ragged, her chest and abdomen burning, her legs soft and unsteady. She looked at her Genesis, agility, strength and speed had gone up with 1%. A laughing sound came from her throat in-between short and deep breaths "this is going to suck...". She continued doing the same parkour for two hours, resting 3 minutes in between, every round became harder, every time she landed from the jump hurt more, the exercises went slower and jumping the rock failed more times than she cared to admit. But as she was sitting on the rock, her butt hurting from the squats, still breathing heavily. Each breath hurting her chest and abdomen, exhausted and not capable anymore to take another step, she had gained 30% in all three which was a huge leap. Even if it was not yet paying off at this moment. She needed more, she wanted to reach GEN2 in all three, so she at least be a little like she was in real life. But first she needed rest. Laying her body on the stone she pressed the log off button and went to see what was for dinner. The coffin lit slit open, and she tried to get out of the machine but her whole body protested. Groaning and lifting herself up of the side she crawled out of the POD and tried to stand on her wobbly legs. "Holy hell, was this in the manual?" she mumbled, making an unsteady step towards the table. She thought of calling for help from Frank, but if he would see her now, it could be awhile before she was let back in. No way she was going to let that happen! She took the bathrobe off the chair and winched when she tried to put it on, her chest muscles and six-pack had not hurt this much in five years. This was definitely not something usual. Trying to make her way towards the table, she arrived and with a groan sat down. Her butt was protesting the sudden movements and then embracing the soft surface of the chair. Ready, she called for Frank through the mobile intercom sitting on the table, asking for some food and study material. She would do her studying first and then go back into the POD, better for her body to rest a little first and let her brain do the work. _______ An alarm rang in a dark room, and for a while it continued its wail. Sophie struggled with her bedsheets, trying to get out of the mess she had created for herself. A big yawn escaped her mouth as she sat up, leaving the alarm to finish its song of agony until she had enough. She slapped it with her flat hand, turning the alarm of for another five minutes. In the meantime, she could get used to her waking state and remember how to turn off the god-awful machine. Slowly an arm went up as a hand tried to remove the heavy crusts that laid in the sides of her eyes. The hand balled into a fist and then gently rubbed her eye until she was tired of it and another yawn spread her face in two. It had been a short night. First she had studied boring stuff about stock markets and Data mining she would never use anyway. Frank had said if she wanted him to do certain things for her, she should have a grasp of what she was ordering someone to do. It had been one of his morality 101 courses she had rather skipped. But she understood why he did it, many times now had she ordered him to do something that sounded interesting or fun, before realizing it was a really hard or complicated thing to be asking of someone. It had reigned in her expectations of people in general, and specifically Frank. It was good he did it, but she enjoyed none of it. The only positive thing she could get out of it was that at least now she knew how data mining worked, instead of using it as a magical word to throw around at parties. Which, she didn''t, go to parties that is. Her sleepy eyes stared a little into nothingness as she thought back to the drill sessions she had put herself through after the boring study time. Frowning she rubbed her legs mindlessly and tried to move them a little. Surprisingly, she didn''t feel any soreness in her legs or upper body. She had continued to do the parkour on the rock as it was the only thing that wasn''t grass as far as her eyes could see. Then after two hours she had been exhausted again, so she had positioned herself against the rock and continued with psionic training for an hour (gaining another 5%) before starting her physical training back up for another two hours. She had finally hit GEN2; in both speed and strength, making the parkour a lot easier. When she was about to do the last bit of training and get agility to GEN2 she had been ejected by an angry Frank who had asked her what the optimal amount of sleep was. Sulking she had clawed herself out of the POD and struggled to get upstairs and into bed. Frank had been frowning, but said nothing as he saw her off, before walking away again. Sometimes she wondered who had programmed his passive aggressive tendencies. She was willing to bet it was her mother. Stiff robot, wasn''t she the Miss? Meh. Stepping out of bed and putting her feet onto the soft carpet, she turned towards the alarm that was about to sing another verse, and turned it off. Now standing in the dark room, she wondered when the last time was she had been woken by the alarm. Normally it stood there for decoration, its only use telling her how much time she had until she was supposed to get out of bed. But this time it had completed one of the two duties it had. She turned towards the curtains, her feet making soft prints into the carpet. Opening them up she could see that rain had won this morning. She always hoped for fog. Couldn''t have it all, she thought observing some of the rain drops rushing each other down the window, flowing in and out of one another ending into a pile of water at the base of the window. She smiled gently as she placed a hand on the cold window, kept it there for some time, leaving a handprint as she removed her hand from the glass object. After getting dressed she went down the stairs and looked at the table where some roasted bread and a boiled egg were waiting for her. "Passive aggressive Frank strikes again..." she mumbled as she sat down and ate her sparse breakfast, trying to ease the process of swallowing it by drinking the glass of water that stood next to the plate. Glancing at the newspaper she decided she would read it on the bike. Stuffing the last bits of breakfast into her mouth she got up and out of the chair to do her normal exercise. Finding it harder to motivate herself now that she already did a six-hour session yesterday, but she got onto the bike anyway. She couldn''t skip anything today. If she did something wrong today then Frank would reward her with an even more Spartan lifestyle. His parenting was based on a combination of a lot of autonomy, a healthy dose of stuff she needed to do and negative reinforcement. Meaning that if she didn''t do it the correct way, like staying awake till 2 am, he would take something away, like down-scaling the taste of food served. It was still good food and he would always make sure she got enough nutrients. But she had gone entire weeks on bread, water and some stew that had no flavor but all the necessities. Just because neither of them would bind-in and come to an agreement of what exactly fell under his purpose of protecting her and what was outright imprisonment. Fun times. She smiled a little when thinking back to those stretches of passive aggressive war. The longest one had been three months and twenty-five days when she wanted to go to the school dance at the end of middle school and he would only let her go if he got to chaperone her. Thinking back about it, it was incredibly stupid, but at the time she had gone through one of her rebellious phases and had done everything in her power to make him back down. To no avail, as she still had the pictures of him in a tuxedo walking hand in hand with the eleven-year-old, angry looking princes that was Sophie Putting her foot on the peddle of the bike she sat on top of the saddle, paddled and opened the newspaper. There had even been a time she refused to read the newspaper after she had read an article that was shaming the use VR in current society. Calling all those who played in VR, instead of working in real life to make the world a better place, childish, lazy, good for nothings. It had caused quite the uproar and the subsequent dismissal of the journalist responsible, his editor and the CEO of the paper. Not that she had seen any of that until two weeks later as she had gone into a fit of rage and had refused to read any newspaper for two weeks. She had been genuinely upset, and Frank had spared her of negative reinforcement the first three days. After that it was the usual. She looked over page one and stopped paddling. There had been a massive crash in the stock markets due to the news of five of the more prominent VR companies going bankrupt. She read the article while starting her paddling back up... In the night of Wednesday the 25th of April 2047, a statement was released in the United States of America that VRonic, Alternate Reality, Phoenix co., Zebra and last but not least the second biggest in its industry Bench Entertainment have all filed for bankruptcy. Cause for these five companies, all within the top ten of the biggest in the VR industry has not yet been confirmed. According to chronic rumors Lucas Marot has been arrested on fraud charges. Sources within the NYPD have confirmed to this newspaper that the owner of Bench Entertainment and the co-owner of the other four, has been arrested under the suspicion he has been embezzling money from said companies for over a decade. Leaving not much more than a few empty bank accounts. To save what can be saved, and to give creditors a chance to get their money back, the boards of the five different companies came to the same conclusion; filing for bankruptcy. The companies had a total market share of 34% in the VR industry and were mainly focused on the software side. What will happen with the fourteen popular games that these companies leave behind and are played by approximately 153 million gamers, is not yet known. It is expected that the servers will be shut down by the end of the month. The approximated forty thousand employees of the five companies are being let go. Nsquared, arguably the big winner of this debacle for many others, has responded with their sympathies towards the former employees, and to those who are about to lose their VR world. The CEO of Nsquared, Mario Lacerta, speaks of a great shame that has befallen the industry, and has offered to make it up by lowering the prize of Nsquared newest game "Ethereal Space" by fifty percent for the next week. Further stating that whatever happened, or whoever did this will not go unpunished. With this the CEO seems to further confirm Lucas Marot''s involvement. Whatever happens, it is projected that at least 40% will take Nsquared up to their offer, almost tripling their player base. Nsquared stock is the only positive stock as an effect of this change in projections. The rest of the article just talked about how the stock market had taken a huge hit because of the fallout it had caused in other listed companies. Not so important that Sophie couldn''t just skim threw it. The news above it could have far reaching consequences for her gaming experience. She read it again as something made little sense. How could this one person, Lucas Marot or whoever he may be, cause five companies toppling down, in the best payed industry, with no one or anything seeing any anomalies? That was almost impossible in this day in age where AI were in control of Accounting, scanning all in- and outgoing transactions for irregularities. Even if he had gained access to their own AI, the AI of the FBI, or the Tax Department should have picked up enough to come into action long before he could steal almost 32 billion out of the reserves. There was also something else that didn''t make any sense, and that was why? Why would a person bleed dry his own five companies, by stealing his own money, making him vulnerable for jail time and destroying his own companies in the process? The companies that had toppled were precisely those that had not been owned by Nsquared, and while Nsquared had owned 41% of market shares, together they were the two big fronts in the VR industry. They had been Apple and Microsoft, IOS and Android, hell even Xbox and PlayStation. Now with them gone only a few non-coherent competitors were left to stand up against the giant that is Nsquared. Something stank but she couldn''t imagine she would be the only one to think so. Yet, that was how it usually went. The editor or author of this piece of news could not have been a stupid man, yet nowhere these doubts were mentioned. If there was ever a moment she hated the way the public was informed it would have been now; on the day that her new favorite hobby was about to be swarmed with new players. Technically, she was new too but who cared about that! The rest of the exercises were done with growling and moping in between, even the personal best on the five kilometers didn''t cheer her up or made her frown. She took it in stride and went on with her business, like everyone else that read that article and didn''t give a shit. She felt a little angry, but after doing her boxing routine that was mostly gone. It was time she went back in and get serious. She needed to keep ahead of the swarm of noobs which was bound to hit soon. 16. Forgotten mines
Congratulations on evolving into GEN2 of Agility! There are now more options available to you!
Persistence gained 30% toward GEN2 for increasing all physical Genesis within twenty-four hours.
Shesat her foot on the rock as she slowly got out of the stretching position she had been in. Bending her legs, pushing herself of the cold granite that had been her training station. She had logged back in the moment her exercises were finished, not even bothering to dive into the pool as she was too impatient to bother. It would probably earn her another reprimand, or an extra day of rations but she didn''t care. All she cared for was the noob flood that was approaching the game. The problem at hand being the need to build herself an ark to keep from drowning in noobs. She knew it really wasn''t as bad as she was letting it be in her psyche. The universe Rsquared had created was extremely big. The chances of meeting over twenty players on a desolate planet were small, not to mention thousands. Still, it was a valid reason to whip herself forward. To generate some extra motivation to not only enjoy the view, but also make progress. She stretched herself out, feeling her bones crunch, some popping sounds escaped her joints. Jabbing the air followed by an uppercut, turning on her right heel and letting her left leg soar through the air in front of her. It was still difficult to move in the suit. The boots were still too heavy, the fabric to inflexible. At least now she had some wiggle room. She was only breathing slightly louder than before the sequence. Jumping of the rock and into the grass she looked around. Everything still looked the same, no real land marks. The distant mountain peaks on her right that didn''t seem to become even slightly smaller ever since she started out on the plain. What was she going to do? It was a question that had bothered her ever since she read the article. She felt like the plain was a great place to farm, but the creature''s were weird and spread out thin. She needed to find a way to earn a lot of credits and increase her GEN''s and alsoneeded a grinding spot. Sophieleaned her butt against the stone and thought. She could just continue as she was, stumbling around and hoping some really nice Dues Ex Machina moment would happen. She had read many stories where a pot of gold was just laying right around the corner. She had picked hard mode for a reason, and that reason was the pot of gold, but that wasn''t going to happen. The plain was too large; she had seen it stretching out for tens of kilometers when she had decided on its location. What she really needed, was a better view to search kilometers at a time instead of her immediate surroundings. She knew just the person to provide her with such view. Opening her friend list she stated "Invite Bee for a Comm." A picture, filled with static appeared in her field of view and she waited. He was online, so he should be picking up. Looking around and seeing nothing of interest, she started to walk around the rock. The green spiraling blades of grass giving way so much easier now that her physical attributes were GEN 2. Two minutes passed and nothing but the static showed on the video feed. She began to worry that maybe he was ignoring her for some reason. When the feed blinked into existence and showed Bee. His face was red, beads of sweat and smears of mud gathering on top of his face, his hair a mess. She looked at him, forgot what she was about to ask, and asked instead "Bee, what happened to you? You look like you ran a marathon in the dirt." Her face was serene, but on the inside she was laughing at him, it was just too hilarious to see the guy in this state, her eyes sparkling with a faint amusement. The fact that his face was twisted into a scowl and his eyes looked like they could start crying at any moment, only added to the fire. This must have been how she had looked after many of her loops around the rock. He sighed and looked into the invisible camera in front of him. His scowl lessening and his eyes drying up a little, but holding on to their melancholy before grumbling " First, I hope you will thank me on your knees for installing that third chair, It only cost me 200 credits in a junk yard, but that thing weighed like fifty kilo''s.." She looked at him before coughing a little and interrupting him: "I''m definitely not going to say any thanks on my knees, and am rather appalled by the suggestion that I would do any such thing.. I will say, thank you very much that I don''t have to sit on the floor anymore, though!" She looked at him with some fake strictness in her eyes that hardly hid the mischievous glint hidden inside. He turned slightly pale, stumbling to find his words again "W-what? N-no that was definitely not how I meant it! I would never suggest such a thing!" he protested. She kept looking at him like he was a child that needed a good spanking, using the way Frank used to stare at her when she had thrown a tantrum about him not being her real father. When he turned his face away from her stare growing even paler, she felt a tinge of guilt washing over her. She gave him a sincere smile and spoke up again "Sorry Bee, just teasing you, I know you wouldn''t, but that can''t be the only thing right? You look way worse than just moving a fifty kilogram weighing chair.." He looked up and into her eyes, mumbled something about her acting too much like his sister, then continued his story. "Well no, I also had to install it, but that wasn''t that big of a deal. Actually got me some Engineers progress which is nice. No, the main problem is that I had five dead batteries, and that was one too many for me to return to the city in time as it seemed that the sixth was faulty.. So I have been walking through a damn marsh for the past hour! Have you met any of the wild life? I''m so glad that those plasma guns have some serious fire power. But these boots are killing me, they make me sink into the ground. Goddamn realism." She felt a little disappointed that her plan was ruined, but then got over it and asked "Can''t Maya sent something or someone to pick you up? How far are you from the city?" He frowned and then scratched his ear, he had removed his helmet too somewhere along his hike, he thought for a while and whispered "That is actually not a bad idea." He zoned in again and responded to her question "I have no clue, It would have been ten minutes by space ship, but the way I''m going now it could be days, or if I''m lucky weeks. Wait a moment, I will invite Maya into the Comm." His eyes went hazy and out of focus before snapping back when another video feed entered Sophie''s field of vision. Maya looked the same as before, the only difference being that her helmet was off and her black hair fell down past her suit. She looked at the both of them and then started laughing out loud. Sucking deep gulps of air it seemed like she was rolling over the ground. It took her two minutes before her hysteria faded a little and only slight hiccups stayed behind. That and the smile from ear to ear, her dimples outstretched into slits, her eyes sparkling with amusement before she made the first none laughing sound of the day. She coughed a little, trying to pull of the incredulous act of hiding her smile after she just literally rolled over the floor laughing. She looked at the both of them again and then asked the obvious "What the hell happened to the two of you?" She kept smiling and Bee rolled his eyes and repeated his story to her. She looked at him with some sympathy, before turning her attention towards Sophie "What about you? You actually look a lot worse than my little brother here." Her smile had turned into a smirk at this point. Sophie sighed and told of her encounters, and the way she had been training to get her physical Genesis up to something more like the real world. The story actually got her some ooh and aahh''s from the brother and sister crowed. Especially when she arrived at the story of the Whistlers, they couldn''t contain a little gagging as Sophie vividly explained every detail of almost being the home of one of them and how it had splattered across her face. When she came to the part of training herself with the massive stone parkour, Bee actually asked some questions on why she had done certain things, while Maya paled slightly when Sophie stated that they should do the same. Sophie stated that it would take some of the stress off that the suit provided on their bodies. Maya had croaked at that with a "Yeah, don''t think that will be really necessary do you, right?" Bee had been quick to pick up his sisters apprehension and the smell of revenge had made him say the words that Maya feared the most. "Oh I think you will have to, it will be funny for your audience to see you stumble, and those Japanese guys might think it isweirdly sexy to see you sweat." He moved his brows up and down insinuating more than Sophie would have liked to think about. Maya''s only response was a dejected "Dammit". Almost forgetting about the news article and the noob flood, her subsequent idea and instant failure of that idea, she perked up and broke the silence that had been caused by their collective introspection. "Hey guys, have you read about the five VR companies going broke?" Their attention had been somewhere else but now it was slowly returning to Sophie, as they both looked at her with a bit of confusion. Maya spoke up first "Why would we read any news? If I want to be baited into clicking on a site full of adds, I can go onto one of those Social media sites and be entertained while I take in the propaganda or empty articles written without a shred of nuance or journalistic integrity." Ahh a girl to my heart Sophie thought, before Bee chimed in "But what about it? Was Rsquared involved too?" she nodded and told them what was in the article. They both reacted extremely differently. While Bee just groaned and shook his head, probably thinking of the same noob flood as she was. Maya hollered something that sounded like "Thank you god, you mighty being." Then did a little dance while smiling and closing her eyes. "Why the hell are you so happy about this?" Sophie asked, with as much confusion as she was feeling. Bee reacted before Maya could be brought back to the living, stating "More players mean more attention from the public which means more people wanting to watch her stream and higher sponsor deals. For her it''s like hearing that she might win the jackpot soon." This Sophie understood, even though she didn''t think it could have been this important to Maya, apparently it did. She waited a little before Maya calmed down again and then brought up her idea "So Seeing that we will have an increase in player base, I would like to find a good grinding spot and start making some credits so we can start upgrading everything before the influx of new players starts affecting the market." At this Maya suddenly looked extremely sour, and then extremely excited. The change in facial features was remarkable, like a sudden dawning that everything she planned could go to shit, before a light bulb going off. She exclaimed with a smile on her face "That would mean we can buy low and sell high! That would be awesome! How far away are you guys from the city?" They both smiled wryly and then told her why she had been contacted in the first place. Maya''s smile shook a little as irritation surfaced into her eyes, but she kept her voice calm as she said "So you want me to send someone with batteries your way, so you can go pick up Sophie and then scan the plain for good grind spots while I do.. what exactly? Hmm, I suppose I can come along, the shopping is not what it is supposed to be when everything is way too expensive. Did you know that a new space suit, common quality, is five thousand credits? It looks way better than the Beginner suit we are wearing right now, more slim, lighter and with some pretty nice extra''s; but damn, I barely have five hundred credits! This is going to be some grind." Hearing this made Sophie almost tear up out of joy, she really didn''t like her current space suite. Praise the developers for gear upgrades. Then she thought of something and asked Maya "How much are things like med kits or something like that?" Maya looked at her and then thought, a moment later and she responded with "I think I have seen something called a first aid injector. It''s something you buy for a thousand credits and keep until it breaks. To use it, you can buy vials of red fluid that you are supposed to insert into the injector and then, you know, inject yourself with them. It supposedly restores 10% of your health. It''s a cash sink, but I suppose we can''t really hire a healer¡­" She trailed off for a moment lost in her thoughts about how easy a healer would have been, before asking "So you want one?"Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Sophie thought for a moment, the body healed automatically, and it was thus not a high priority when the time was there to heal. But once that time was not given, it could be a lifesaver. And as long as she hadn''t heard of anyone having a healing touch or the healing light of the gods ,they would have to rely on tech. She sighed, already mourning the loss of her hard earned credits and grumbled "Yes, can I send you credits? I want the injector and six vials." they both looked at Sophie, their mouth slightly a gape before Maya responded with a jab "You, big spender you. Better use some of that liquid gold on us when we are dying. I think you can send it by opening a trade window. Only credits though, wireless banking and all. Physical products have to be delivered, or be sent through the games postal service which is, as you would expect another way to extract credits from the community." Sophie frowned, then assured them that she was broke now and would of course share. She looked around in the friend list and saw a wire transfer Icon and send Maya sixteen-hundred of her hard earned credits. Maya said thanks in a mischievous way, before smirking and saying they would arrive at Sophie''s location soon. Soon was forty minutes,which really was soon in Sophie''s thoughts. She had expected to train her Psionics for another two hours but when she heard the approaching vessel, she was pleasantly surprised. Breaking off her exercise and being rewarded by a 3% increase in Mental Fortitude. Later they had told her that space taxi''s actually existed, which was weird but handy. The Space ship had been in much better shape when she had last seen it. The hull was now covered in mud, the windshield included, and wooden sticks with leaves still attached to them were sticking out of various places. Nevertheless, it still flew, and that was all that mattered right now. The grass of the plain swirled and spun to all sides as the Ship landed a little over twenty meters from her location, and as soon as it landed the door was slammed open and came to a screeching halt as its hinges almost flew out of their rusted bolts. A couple of seconds later Maya''s head stuck out, and she looked around. When she saw Sophie, she smiled, walked down the uneven stairs, while creaking and moaning of steel followed her down. Once on solid ground and surrounded by the grass, she shouted "Supplies!" to Sophie who smiled and couldn''t help but shake her had at the slightly racist joke. She made her way towards Maya, who gave her the first aid Injection and six, five centimeter high glass vials. She focused and inspected them.
First Aid Injector I Common Quality In the absence of healers the only real alternative in a pinch. Can only use the 10% vials and breaks down after 50 uses - review by Nurs3Joy
Small vial of Aid I Common Quality The elixir that changes B negative into B positive. - review by ToSeriousForMyShirt This review is under investigation for stating untruthful information, the multiple complains will be taken into consideration.
She smiled a little at the cringe worthy joke that the vials review contained but was not surprised in the least. If you gave teenagers the chance to come up with game content, some will see that as a great opportunity to mess around. She shook her head and stored the products into her almost full Inventory, the vials stacked in what seemed like ten a slot so that was good. Then went into the space ship the same way Maya had done earlier; accompanied by a concert of groaning and screeching metal. Finally inside of the vessel, she looked towards the front and saw the glorious new addition. A chair. It was exactly the same as the other two with the big difference being that hers seemed to be flat, with the springs slightly against the leather fabric. Bee saw the slightly disappointed look on her face and without knowing her bad experience with springs and flying, he admitted "It''s not the best quality but it was the only thing I could find that didn''t murder my budget in one foul sweep. Sorry." She looked at him and smiled, before stating "No apologies necessary, I''m just glad I have a seat. Do you know if there is a way to get the leather off so I can inspect the insides?" she looked back at the chair, a plan forming in her mind. Bee looked at her with a slight frown, then got off his own seat and looked at hers saying slowly "I think I saw.. Ahh yes there it is.." he grabbed a zipper on the side of the chair and pulled it, the leather giving way to the synthetic cushion filling that was currently occupying the insides. Sophie smiled as Bee looked up and said "something like this?" she nodded and said "Yes!" before getting the Sholf wool out of her inventory and pressing it inside of the chairs internals. It wasn''t much of a difference but at least now she was not sitting directly on the springs. Aa system message popped up for both her and Bee, he made a little whoohoo cheer noise while she took a look what had happened.
Engineer Genesis has gained 2% towards GEN2
Space cruiser LM231X has gained 1% towards Uncommon Quality
Allright, interesting, so it was possible to upgrade space ships, that could be really nice in potential. Everyone would start out with the same space ships, but the longer the game was out, the more diverse the space ships would become. She smiled as she saw how happy Bee was as he cheered "I already got 5% when I installed the chair, good job Sophie!" she laughed and said "No problem just trying to prevent the chair from molesting me." He didn''t understand what she said, but he was too happy to care and she didn''t want to go into the details of her flying aptitude test. As they were still gloating over the upgraded chair, Maya turned around in hers and argued "So shall we go or are you guys going to stare all day? I have Japanese men to entertain you know?" She turned back around in her chair, not even a little flustered about what she just insinuated, while Bee took on a different color, a mix of pale and red that should not be possible. Sophie shrugged as he gave her a tormented look and took her upgraded seat behind the brother and sister duo. As she searched for the seatbelt, Bee started the launch procedure, but after a few seconds of searching Sophie came to a horrible conclusion "Bee where are the seatbelts?" He turned around with his head sticking around his own chair and just smiled apologetic before pressing the launch button. She screamed and got thrown off the chair when he made the first corner. They had stabilized after gaining some height and were now slowly flying above the plain, looking out of the windows to see if there was anything worthwhile down in the endless grass. Sophie was still moping from the earlier launch, rubbing her head as she was looking at the swirling green grass sea underneath her. Bee had told her that the chair had been so cheap because it didn''t have a seatbelt and he had figured they could just make one or buy one. He hadn''t mentioned it earlier because he knew she would not be pleased. She had not been pleased at all, but had more important matters to attend to anyway. Like searching for a pot of gold. They had been at it for at least half an hour now and it had been quite uneventful up until now. They once saw a flock of Sholf''s and Sophie had asked to go down, but Maya had asked if slaughtering three Sholf''s was worth getting thrown around again, and she had grudgingly agreed that it wasn''t. But now she saw something that was more than worth the stumble. She went back to the front and motioned towards her intended target and asked Bee to land it next to it. At first they didn''t understand what she was planning on doing with whole in the ground. That was before she reminded them that Ethereal Space was still an RPG even if it didn''t have healers. They gaped at her for a moment before realization finally hit and they both at the same time exclaimed the one word that was on Sophie''s mind "Dungeon". As Bee was preparing to land and Sophie was trying to stay seated, Maya had all the time in the world to act excited for all three of them. Mumbling "This is going to be so awesome, maybe we can get some good loot, shoot up some monsters, aww my viewers are going to love it! Maybe I can convince Sophie to do a little dungeon after school special¡­" She looked back towards Sophie who was staring at her with a blank, but very scary looking face, then turned back and whispered to herself "she is not ready yet, better wait a little and¡­ " The rest was too soft to hear and as Sophie was about to ask what exactly a dungeon after school special entailed the space ship landed and Maya practically stormed out, barely waiting for the ship to touch ground. Following her in a slightly less hurried way, Bee and Sophie walked out and saw how Maya was currently struggling to walk through the half a meter high fluorescent green grass. Sophie got out and walked twice as fast through the grass as Maya did, reaching her position and placing her hands behind her head while she leisurely walked beside her struggling friend. Taking an exaggerated deep breath of fresh air she sighed loudly and boasted "Ahh the fresh air, a lovely walk, what more can one wish for." Hearing Maya mumble something about murder between ragged breaths, she laughed a little and then said "You should gain some percentages in speed, otherwise I would have offered to carry you, but I don''t want to take away this special opportunity." She smirked and increased her speed a little, as she strutted away, arriving at the gaping hole in the ground first of the three. She had seen it from a hundred meters up and from there it looked quite small, but from up close it was quite large. The entrance seemed to be a small hill of three meters high, grass already growing on top of it, it was the highest place in this region of the plain as there seemed to be no Kevoulders around. The entrance was a hole in the hill of around two meters in width and two meters in height, the sides were strengthened with wooden beams like the old mines used to look like and on the horizontal wooden beam on top, words were written that she didn''t understand. As she looked at the words, heavy breathing that came from both sides signaled that her friends had arrived at the structure too. She didn''t look away though, trying to focus on them as if she was using inspect, and after a minute it blurred a little revealing a word. Followed by a system message. "¡­ ¡­. ¡­. ¡­ .. .. ¡­ ¡­. Risk."
Linguistic Genesis has gained 3% towards GEN2
"Risk.." She mumbled, probably enter at your own risk.. Well Hard mode and all. She turned to look at her companions and saw the both of them bent over, hands on their knees, breathing in and out in loud breaths. She patted Maya on her back and smirked "You know, if you stretch yourself out you will get more oxygen." Maya only responded with a growl, but Bee stood up and placed his hands behind his head. She smiled at him and Maya mumbled something about disowning him. A minute later they both recovered, and Bee said "We should probably put our helmets back on, we will have to use the lights." He kept looking into the darkness of the tunnel in front of us and then added "And maybe it will prevent whatever is in there from killing us faster." Both Maya and Sophie nodded silently and put their helmets on and entered the gaping, pitch black hole that was in front of them. As they entered a Ting sound could be heard and a system message floated up into their view.
Welcome to the Forgotten mines of Utek Entering is at your own risk. For being the first to find this dungeon you are awarded the right to review it and a 500 credit bonus.
They all stared at the message for a few seconds before they smiled and cheered. Maya was the first to walk further rubbing her hands, her face plastered with a greedy grin. They had found their grinding place. As they walked in, their flash lights lighted their way and Sophie got another invite to join TheHive, which she accepted immediately, facing the new situation they had regrouped and were now ready to grind their way to success. ??17. Hard wired As they went down, their lights painted a path for them that was around twenty meters out in front of them. They were quiet, their plasma guns out of their inventory, slowly making their way down the sloping tunnel. It was eerily quiet in this underground road. The unknown luring, but Sophie felt calm. Her finger on the trigger. She had been in these kinds of situations before. The space station was just as dark, the fight with the Sholf just as exciting. Now she even had two other people with her to protect her back. They had walked around fifty meters when they saw their first monster. It was sitting, holding what seemed like a bone in its clawed hands in front of it. The monster was looking in the opposite direction as they approached it from the back. It looked like a miniature bear with its long fur brown and its ears pointy, but rounding off at the top. It seemed like it was looking up as they could see its snout in the sky. Its beady black eyes staring at the ceiling. Weird, Sophie thought as they got a little closer. Aiming their plasma guns at the bear, Sophie looked at her two companions nodding the question that must be on everyone''s mind, do we shoot it? They nodded back, and she pulled the trigger, firing a shot in direction of the bear. As the shot of plasma hit the back of the creature, it passed right through the fur, into the empty airbehind it. They stared at it with some incomprehension when they heard a loud bang. Caused by the shot of plasma that had continued to travel further until it met resistance. They walked toward the bear hide, their boots making hollow plop sounds in the slightly moist ground of the tunnel. As they arrived, they looked behind it. There was nothing. The bear hide had been stringed along a cross made of wood that had been stabbed into the ground. The hole that was shot into it by Sophie, was not easily missed.The bone they had seen,stuffed into the claw. As they stared at it, two creatures that looked strange came around the corner of the tunnel. As Sophie saw them approaching, she aimed her plasma gun at them. She knew it wasn''t ready again, she just needed to alert Bee and Maya. As she made her move the other two followed her gaze. Maya made a small sound before pointing her weapon, followingBee who had already done so. The creatures had very thin arms and legs that seemed to be madeof steel. Their elbows and knees were a little thicker, but not by much. Their torso was madeof more steel with what looked like a large backpack on their backs. Their heads were can like with two glowing eye balls and a big bulb of light on top that shone in all directions like a candle. It was their hands that looked the most sophisticated of the whole machine.Minute details, plus in both their left hands a pick axe. Sophie tried to focus at the machines, see if she could figure out what they were. It hadn''t worked with living creatures yet, but these were machines, right?
Mining machine I Common Quality Good for farming materials if you don''t enjoy swinging a pickaxe yourself - review by Blacksm1th
She sighed, lowering her plasma gun.Standing up straighter, she whispered to her friends "They seem to be Mining machines, Common Quality, what would be the chances they won''t attack?" They didn''t have time to answer her as both of the machines launched at them. Pick axe raised in their left hands, ready to mechanically cave their skulls in. The brother-sister duo didn''t even flinch, both shooting their gun. Sadly, they both shot the same one as its torso got seared through it ceased to function. Its light fading from both its head and eyes, it sacked into a pile of metal. The other one didn''t even look back and kept rushing towards them. As Sophie saw what had happened, she dashed forward. Dodging the pickaxe that was brought down at a speed faster than she would have liked before slamming the bud of her gun into its steel face. It staggered but wasn''t out of order yet as it tried to pierce her with the pick axe yet again. She tried to dodge, but this time it tore through the outer layer of fabric, just barely missing her arm. She bashed the head again. Lights went out. A little plastic card fell from its steel back pack. 20 credits. Due to being in a group the credits got split into three, with the leader getting the biggest split if it didn''t split equally. Sophie couldn''t care less about the one credit Maya had gotten more than her. She looked around, her light shining into the darkness of the tunnel. There seemed to be no more movement for now, which was good. She looked up, seeing Maya and Bee talking. While walking towards them, she heard Bee mumble something about sleep while Maya said sleep was for the weak. Maya began pouting when Bee looked at her a little more firmly. Turning on her heels, Maya turned toward Sophie and grumbled "Sorry Sophie, we need to get some sleep. We have been up for way too long and its almost six in the morning for us... Will you be fine if we leave for like 8 hours?" A sour smile turned Sophie''s face a little wrinkly, but she didn''t want to show too much of the slight disappoint she felt. She straightened her face back to normal, nodding. The apologetic smile Maya made and Bee''s strict face softened the blow to her adventure lust. She had not expected the exploration to be cut off so early but if she was in their shoes, she would not have made it into the last six hours. She sighed snickering "Sure I will just log off and do a little pre-time studying so I can play when you guys are online. Sweet dreams!" she winked at them, logging off, they were waving stating something similar. As she got out of the POD looking for Frank, she spotted the lunch. Roasted bread with cheese and some water. Yup, Frank had found out about her skipping the swimming pool. Oh well. She walked towards the table sitting down. Her study material already next to the simple meal, something about flora and fauna of grass plains and how to best train the mind. Frank was tracking her progress. It was a boring four hours; Frank didn''t show himself and she didn''t feel the urge to call him for a little chat. This was also part of their routine. She was used to it and so was Frank. It might be unruly for any other teenager, but this was their system and until now it hadn''t messed her up. She went through the dull lessons like they were syrup; slow, sticky and holding her back from her goal. Which was; being finished. The fauna had little to nothing of use and so did the mental exercises. Follow the rules, get fun stuff to learn; don¡¯t and suffer. When the time wasup and she could go back into the game, she almost did a little dance. After answering the call of nature, she slid back into the POD, closing the lid. Back in game she looked around. The tunnel was darker now that Bee and Maya weren''t helping with their lights. She could still continue without them. She knew she could handle two of the miners alone, three might be a challenge. Four was not really possible but so far there were only two, so why not proceed? The party was still in effect, so Maya and Bee would still get credits. Getting rich while sleeping; perfect plan. She walked further into the tunnel. The moist ground making her footsteps slide a little further than intended but nothing that would take her off her feet. There were no sounds, only the sound of her own footsteps that traveled down the dark path. After a hundred meters three light bulbs came into view, she halted her step, aiming her gun. The light bulbs in the dark tunnel were like mini lighthouses guiding players to their location. Not complaining, Sophie kept walking, her gun up. It was going to be an experimental first skirmish. Not knowing how many burst shots it would take to kill one, she wasn''t sure if she could take on two of them in hand to hand combat. It was a risk, but a risk she was willing to take. She went for the tactic she was most confident about. When she came close enough, she aligned her gun with its bulk, shooting a full shot into the back of the first mechanic miner. It died instantly, its torso melting away, a little plastic card hitting the ground before its steel did. The other two miners turned around and focused their flashlight eyes on her. A little pause preceded their rush towards her, their metallic feet hitting the moist ground making slogging noises. In a calm manner, she inserted her plasma gun into her inventory. Now that both her hands were free, she slowly shifted her posture andstood into a boxing stance. She had been trained in real life to survive these kinds of attacks, but that didn''t say all that much. Her muscles here had no muscle memory, the suit she was wearing cumbersome and heavy. All factors that made fighting in game more difficult than in reality. Not that it was that much different, the basics were the same; you destroy your enemy. As the machines arrived, she dodged the axe of the first. Diving underneath it, using its inertia against it by planting her fist in its steel belly. She felt a spike of pain going through her hand. Another difference with reality as her bones here didn''t have years of strengthening. Grimacing, shedidn''t have time to think too much about the pain. The danger of beingspiked by a pick axe; still very real. As she had hit the first in its steel underbelly, the second had already targeted her face. Barely preventing it from entering her cheek. The pick axe swung past and her right fist connected to its left eye ball, breaking it. She stepped passed the tin can, making it a shield for its buddies¡¯ favorite weapon. The first machine had not even registered the blow and had swung its pick again, finding its coworker in its way. Morality was not a top priority in its transistors and the pick went into the second machines light bulb skull. Slumping down, it released its credit content to the ground, taking the now stuck pick axe with it. The machine and Sophie stared for a while. She was standing in a defensive position. The machine had no weapon anymore and seemed to be unsure what its transistors thought about that. Thinking of finishing it, Sophie stepped forward. She swung her non-hurting fist, the right one, into its eye ball. Then the other before breaking its lightbulb skull. Without the pick, the miners were not a problem. As the fight was over, she checked her left hand by balling her fist repeatedly. Nothing seemed to be broken which was a good sign but didn''t take away the pain. Note to self: don''t hit the miners in the gut. She walked further, still balling her fist a little, moving the pain away, or at least she tried. She took out the gun again, ready for the next batch. Groups of miners after groups of miners, all-in pairs or triplets fell to the rinse and repeat techniques she used on the first group. Shoot, wait, use the body against it, bash their lights out. As she came to the end of the tunnel, she had killed eight more groups. Totaling twenty miners, for which she gotpaid 260 credits in total and a hefty 16% percent in spatial awareness plus 5% in agility. Now she had visual on something she hadn''t seen before. She stared at it intently, trying to trigger inspect from quite the distance. Finallysucceeding.
Security Droid I Common Quality Shoots like a regular space trooper, but it''s a little slow on the intake. - review by M0bster
She stared at it. Its head was a littlesimilar to the miners. Its light not bright like the miner but red, its eyes sticking out less, armored insteel. A small speaker where its mouth could be imagined. Its upper body again a littlesimilar to the miner but its arms bigger. The steel bag the miner had was missing. Instead of the pickaxe it had a plasma gun that looked like hers. Where the hands of the miner were sophisticated, this specimen had hands that looked like mittens, with only its trigger finger out. Then there was the underside. It looked like a mini tank, but then without the barrel as that might have entertained in a different way than they had wanted at Nsquared. Its steel track standing in the mud, the mudguard at the front was brown of mud and four little road wheels were waiting to spin. It formed a triangle, but a sturdy one. Shedidn''t know if she could win a fist fight against it, a problem as they had two guns and she had one. Ah yes, they were with two, one on each side of the entrance of a cave. She mulled it over for a while. In the end decidingto try and lure one away with a burst shot. She lined up, taking aim. Holding her breath, she shot at her target, hitting it straight in its armored face. As it hit, the lights on its head began turning around like a police light while its speaker kept making weird noises. Probably stating something along the lines ofintruder, intruder, in whatever language it was programmed. As it came into motion, its tracks span in the ground and it drove off. Not quick but its gun was already aligning with her head. She fired more shots while the other security bot kept still and on guard next to the cave. Success! Sophie thought, right before a plasma shot caught her shoulder. She could smell her own smoldering flesh. Bellowing in pain she emptied her own plasma gun into the security droid. Her gun ceased to cooperate before she sprinted towards it, trying to remove some of the distances, making it harder for the droid to shoot at her. Not all of her shots had been accurate, on the other hand the droid was on target. It shot three more times into her flesh taking about fifty percent of her health bar. She kept screaming, partially from the pain, partially from rage that some stupid machine was shooting holes into her. She reached the droid after an adrenaline induced rush. Jumping up into the air she kicked both her legs into its torso, toppling it over. As she fell on her back so did the droid, the difference being that Sophie got up. The droids` tracks couldn''t find a foothold and kept spinning, shouting through its speaker. She heaved a gulp of air, her breath ragged more from the pain of her still burning flesh then from the sprint. Strolling towards it, kicking its head lamp in. It wasn''t enough to shut it down, so she waited a minute for her battery to get full, shooting it point blank in its face. It ceased to exist.
Spatial awareness gained 2% toward Gen 2.
Persistence gained 10% toward Gen 2.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. She couldn''t care less, ignoring the message. Silent for a while she looked at the small plastic card, eventually picking it up with some anticipation. A slight frown covered her face when it only gave her and the party 60 credits. Which was 20 credits for her. She sighed, looking at the other one that was still staring into nothing, as it had yet to take notice of the demise of its brother in arms. Slow on the intake indeed. The downed droid had dropped another plasma gun but as she already had one and didn''t need another she had thought of just leaving it there. That was before she took another look at the security droid still alive, smelling the smell of medium done. She picked it up. Walked forward. Checked the batteries of both guns and as they were full shot a full shot of plasma into the face of the still inactive droid. It sputtered to life. Its speaker damaged by the initial shot of plasma, blabbering and screeching now, taking aim non-the less. She grabbed the other gun and shot another blast. This time the speaker stopped functioning. A fist sized hole in its hull appearing, making all the wires visible. Not letting the Droid fill her suit with more holes she rushed forward, taking one shot to the other shoulder. Reaching the droid, she slammed her open and stretched out hand through the gaping hole where its speaker used to be. Grabbing hold of the internal wires, she pulled them out before it had the chance to fire at point blank. The droid slowly lost all life as she kept pulling out more until the red light blinked out a little grey card falling out. Sophie looked at her health, only 40% left. She had risked it and won. The droids had looked tough and had been tough but not asdifficult as she had expected. Mostly because they had been slow. Someone who had tried to play from a defensive position, would have lost in a war of attrition. Looking into the cave, she saw four miners that were digging their way into the walls, ignoring Sophie as she turned back into the tunnel and sat down for a while. She needed to rest. As she sat against the stone wall of the tunnel, she thought of what to do with the miners. In her head, it was simple.She needed to dispatch at least two before they can arrive in front of her. So, she had to switch guns again. The distance was to short so a third shot was probably impossible. But by now she had dealt with two miners enough times she was sure she could take them on without too much trouble. Getting up with a little groan, she had regenerated till 80 percent. The burns had gone down to mild annoyances. Picking up the two plasma guns, she kept one underneath her arm and one in an aiming grip. She took aim. Held her breath for a moment and fired at the closest miner. At the sound of the shot the rest looked over as the head of the first miner exploded. The second ran towards Sophie. Dropping the gun and in one motion, taking the other from underneath her arm pit, taking aim, the second shot. Missing its head by centimeters. She looked to the third gun on the floor, but she would not reach it before the miners arrived swinging. Dodging underneath the first pick, she swung the gun as a club towards its legs, dropping it to the ground. Immediately dodging towards the left, the pick axe aimed for her head. She passes by the third miner as she rolls out of reach of the fourth even before it tries to swing. She stood there, in the cave, while her entrance route was blocked by three miners. Looking at the gun gone club she smiled, starting herattacks. The miners were not fighters. They constantly struck each other or bumped each other out of the way, as she dodged underneath, passed and jumped over their swings. As the second miner overreached with its pick, she slammed the gun square on its metallic head. While the third got stuck in a wall, she leaves it there until she had dealt with the fourth who dies by losing both its eyes and breaking its skull. The last one, miner the third gets rewarded as the last man standing by a shot of plasma in the face. fifty-two credits and 4% into spatial awareness plus agility. She looked around the cave, disappointingly there is not much else then rock, a cart where the rock can be placed into and two other tunnels. One to the left and one to the right. Her eyebrows slowly meeting, nose twitching, the corners of her mouthgoing down, it was clear she was not too happy. This was not the pot of gold that was supposed to be waiting for her. Moping, she takes the left tunnel, stamping towards it, venting her anger on the innocent soil. As she passed the threshold of the cave and steps into the tunnel, she hears a snap sound of a wire breaking. A blinding light and an explosion followed shortly after. A force field smashed into her body and throws her off the ground as pain washes over the front of her body. Her HP bar plummets. Then darkness. Slowly a sound reached her ears, somebody was calling her it seemed. Trying to open her eyes they felt like they have been glued together. Her mouth felt like a desert, sand included. Succeedingthe task of opening her eyes she groggily saw a face right above her. A mouth creeping closer, a hand holding her nose, as if they are trying to reanimate her. It was game, wasn''t it? She was in a game, wasn''t she? Then why was somebody trying to use CPR? A thought came to her as wet lips hit her own. She tried to sit up but was pushed back down. Her eyes shot open wide as the face lifted Maya came into view with a glimmer in her eyes and a smile on her face. Sophie tried to punch it off, but Maya dodged backwards. Sophie sat up, stilldisoriented as she mumbled "Why the hell were you using CPR instead of the injector?" She turned her head that was sporting a glare towards Maya. Who in turn was hiding behind the apologetic looking Bee. Her head appeared over his shoulder, smiling at Sophie and winked before giggling "Afternoon special achieved! But honestly I forgot, now that you remind me that would have been a way better option." She didn''t stop smiling that fiendish smile. Sophie just sighed and got up. As she got up, shenoticed her suit. Covered in sooth from top to bottom, it also sports at least a dozen little holes that had not been there earlier. She sighed again. Trying to wipe some off but it didn''t butch. Giving up she turned to the brother sister pair that had left earlier that day. "How was your beauty nap, helped little I see." Sophie growled to the hiding girl, still feeling tricked by the fox called Maya. Maya just smiled, came out of hiding and said in a cheerful tone "At least I didn''t almost blow myself to pieces. Were you tired of being alive or just stupid enough to miss the trip wire?" Sophie snorted at that arguing back "Maybe I should take back all those hard-earned credits I made us in the last four hours." Just as Maya was about to retort Bee smoothed the wrinkles with a firm "Oh stop it you children, Sophie thanks for continuing the dungeon, but I suspect you grew in Genesis, so no complaining about your own decisions. Maya stop trying to sexual harass Sophie, just because your viewers are obsessed with you guys making out doesn''t mean you should oblige." They both pouted with arms folded over their chests but in the end, both agreed. They had bigger fish to fry. Steel, mechanical fish. In the minutes that followed, Sophie told them about her little adventure. Well mainly how she had dealt with the security droids. After that they checked if the wire had reset. Finding no such thing they stepped over the small crater that the explosive had left and went into the tunnel. Three really was much better than one, when it came to the security droids. They had been extremely tough alone but now that they could all shoot their guns, they practically blasted the security droids to the junkyard every time they met one. They seemed to be stationed in groups of two and in total they massacred eight before the end of the tunnel came into view, netting them a nice 160 credits each. Being the nice person she was she let Maya and Bee rotate on the last shot so they could get some Spatial awareness too. Perhaps she technically had stolen away those opportunities while going solo. As they killed the last security drone, they finally reached the end of the dark and moist tunnel. A faint green light came from the outside as they slowly looked in. What they saw was a state of the art laboratory. Forty square meters of steel cabins, desks, glass vials, scales, beakers. Some very large freezers were stationed in the back. Centrifuges, spectrometers, some machines that looked like computers, Bunsen burners covered the desk. Even a ventilation shaft with multiple entrance points and no idea where they would exit. That was not including the equipment Sophie couldn''t see its functionality. Not that she didn''t want to, it was fascinating. The room was orderedlike a little class room. The desk in rows, with a huge board in the back that had dozens of formulas on it. In the end, nothing was more attention grabbing then the two-meter-high spider-man shaped robot that was sorting vials with its eight legs while looking at a formula on the board. Its legs were mechanical, little claws at the ends so it could grab vials and whatever else necessary. They were big of their own, spanning about two meters of black steel, intertwined by hydraulics and cables that were not bothered to hide away. But the top part was in the image of a man, its arms lean, its hands as sophisticated as the miners. Its torso the same black steel as its legs, coated with some kind of alloy or coating that didn''t melt when some acid or other chemicals were spilled. As to its head; it didn''t seem to have one. Furrowing her brows, she tried to see what it was. Probably some kind of mini-boss.
Lab droid II [Boss mob category I] Uncommon quality Used to work easier in the lab, and a handy bag holder when I go shopping - Review Labbie
Damn, this is new, definitely a mini-boss. Quality is too low for it to be the final boss. Plus, whatever is in that other tunnel is probably just as tough or tougher. She looked behind her, seeing Maya and Bee looking around as well. She nudges them, retreating into the tunnel before the lab droid can spot them. They needed a plan. Walking back, Bee is the first to ask "So what do you guys think? Personally, I think we should go back collect some of those dropped plasma guns and shoot the thing to pieces." Maya nods, of the same mind. Sophie isn''t so sure, arguing "I think this mob will have area of affect skills, it''s good with chemicals and it seems the steel is a lot tougher to penetrate then with the others. I''m not sure if we will be able to hide while it attacks. Sure, we could hide behind the desk but what if it can throw stuff or something? I think we should use our numbers, spread through the room. Then shoot it from different sides,slowly making our way closer so we can manually pull its hydraulics` cables from its legs so it won''t be able to move. Then we can just bash it to death. It would fit the scenery if this machine was not build for battle, thus hadsome flaws. I''m just scared that we won''t get far shooting alone, that we get killed due to passivity." They both looked at her for four seconds before Bee nodded and chimed "That makes sense, let''s try that first. So, you will be the one that goes close to those legs of death, right? As you are the best trained and all?" he smiled a little mischievously and Sophie noticed that it might be a family characteristic. She sighed shaking her head in resignation. If you had a plan, you should be willing to do it yourself otherwise it might be worth rethinking it. "Alright, just keep in mind that you will be gaining its attention. So, keep your visor up as we don''t know what it uses as a weapon and don''t forget to put your weapon on burst." She ordered them around a little more before they were ready to go in again. Going in low, with their visors down, they each went in a different direction, Maya and Bee went to the right while Sophie went to the left of the room. As soon as they were all positioned behind a desk, Bee would start shooting and Maya would follow drawing its attention away. As soon as Sophie was behind her desk, crouching and keeping her head low, the shooting started on the other side. She took a peek over the desk, in time to see how the burst of plasma did absolutely nothing to the lab droid. She was glad they had followed her plan. Also, afraid that her plan wouldn''t work either. As Maya and Bee began their onslaught,the lab droid turned its body. As it took a look at what was bothering it, Sophie could see its face. It had four eyes that were spread out over its torso. Sophie looked at it and wanted to smack her head for not having a Comm up. She could only hope they would aim for the eyes. Not waiting too long she got out from her position at the same time that the lab droid threw vials of unidentifiable green fluids at her two companions. As one vial hit the desk in front of Bee, it melted the steel desk away. This gave all three a little pause, but only in their expressions as Bee and Maya kept firing, Sophie went up to the legs. She was sure she could pull out the tubes in the hydraulic systems but she wasn''t sure if she could pull out all eight. As she arrived, a plasma shot hit an eye and the lab droid let out a screech. Intensifying its barrage of throwing acid towards its assaulters. One vial hit Maya straight on her visor forcing her to pull it up as it melted, taking her vision with it. As the two camps assaulted each other with fluids and plasma, Sophie had claimed her first victim. The legs that were the furthest behind were not in play and she had easily pulled both tubes at ones. The lab droid had screeched again, spinning its upper body towards her. Scurrying away, a vial of acid hit her in the back before she could hide behind a desk, it wanted to pursue but Maya and Bee kept shooting it, luring it back to them. She hid for a moment panting a little from the pain in her back and the excitement of the fight. Coming out from behind the desk again, the Spider like robot was more cautious this time, positioning itself against a wall. She crept closer, witnessing the light show of plasma and glowing bottles that were thrownthrough the air. As she came closer, she could hear the mechanics in the lab robot working, it was new. Before she had heard nothing. She kept going closer. When she was within reach again, Sophie pulledout two more tubes, disabling two more of its right legs. Unbalancing it further. Feeling that was an opportunity ,she did not retreat but instead dove for the last leg on the right. At the last moment, as she had its tube almost in her hand, it jerked up, out of reach. As she lay there, underneath its lack due to the dive she had taken she saw how its leg was brought down with much more power than she had thought possible. She desperately rolled out of its way and underneath the spiders body. Avoiding the leg that tore into the ground like it was butter, but now caged underneath it. The spider tried to squash her by bending its legs, but she rolled towards the right where all its legs were three of the four legs were out of order and couldn''t bend. Avoiding another crushing. She tried to tiger out of the back but the wall prevented her plan. There was only one option left. She risked getting squashed, rushing towards its left legsto pull the middle two legs hydraulic tubes. As she was half way the spider bend its legs again, about to slam its main body into her she turtled up, bracing for probable death. No death came. The lab droids movement stopped as Bee stood next to the left legs with two tubes in his hands. While Maya was still shooting at it. Now was the time Sophie thought as she crawled underneath and through its hind legs and climbed on top. Bee followed her example. Together they shot straight into its unprotected eyes. Only its two front legs were still active but it couldn''t reach its back or throw them of by moving. A couple of seconds later the droid ceased all of its movements. Exhausted they slumped down, Maya sitting on the ground, half her suit gone and only 30% health left while Bee wasn''t in a much better condition. They had won. The boss was dead.
Congratulations! For defeating a Boss of category I, you have earned 500 credits!
18. What can a 17-year-old do? Frank sat at the dining table, looking at an unshaved man with black skin, wrinkling as was appropriate for his age. Kind brown eyes that betrayed a sharpness that had been forged into them by some hot fires. Frank had always been a good judge of character; his algorithms had been tweaked till he saw everything perfectly. The system responsible was the one his creators had spent the most time on by far. He needed to be a good judge of character if he was to protect the Miss. Right now, his algorithms told Frank that the guy in front of him, who had introduced himself as John Cornwell of Scotland Yard, was somebody who could be trusted. Possibly even built a relationship with for the benefit of the Miss. They had been sitting at the dining table for the last two hours. He arrived at their house wearing a black raincoat, that was at that point in timeheavily in use. The Scottish Highlands knew no bounds for water distribution and the detective had been getting his fair share. Not that Frank had invited him in until he had shown his badge, scanning it and confirming the man''s identity through the Scotland Yard servers. After the man had told him a tail that could have been quite the movie. If not for the fact that it involved his creators. He had always suspected that his creators and the parents of the Miss were not just gunned down by a random man in the street. Someone who was supposedlyconcerned about their intellectual property and the direction they were about to take humanity. As the man told it, itwas all about intellectual property but very different from what he had ever expected. When the man called John put his third cup of coffee down on the table, he had finished his story. Keeping quiet for Frank to progress everything he had said. The man had thought Frank a normal human. Like everyone else that he had met, but Frank had recorded everything the man had said. He had done a significant amount of fact checking and was now checking if he had overlooked anything. Those were just the processes that worked on the current conversation, while hehad been quiet and "dealing" with it. He looked at the man who was stirring his coffee while looking around the entertainment room. As the man''s eyes fell on the VR POD of the Miss as he remarked "Should Sophie not be present for this conversation, she will be 18 in a few weeks, right?" Frank was brought back to the present, his other processes canceled or put on other processors before he responded with "I do not see how the tale of horror you provided to me just now will help the Miss in any way. I will share my knowledge with her once I think she is ready to deal with it in a good way." He was agitated, or at least what the humans called it, his algorithms were telling him that the parameters were met, so he acted annoyed. In reality he thought the question was a valid one. He had assessed that the chances of this news causing unsolvable damage to the Miss psyche were 23%. Not high for a 17-year-old, but high enough that Frank did not want to risk a one in four chance of failing his most important purpose. The man looked at Frank with a combination of respect and curiosity before he said "You are an android are you not?" For the first time in what might be ever, Frank felt surprise, genuine surprise. How had the man made him? Had he messed up the emotions? Were his parameter settings outdated? Nobody had concluded before that Frank was something more than human. A cold andcalculative human but never the less of flesh and blood as the humans like to say with misplaced pride. Flesh and blood decayed. Replaced by steel and synthetics the longer they were on this planet. But this man, this detective had seen through him somehow. The detective in front of him shook his head before answering the question he must have spoken not only in his processors but also in his voice software. Maintenance seemed to be a higher priority than initially assessed. "I had a hunch, but you just confirmed it." He gave a small smile that spoke of no malice before continuing "But worry not, I am not interested in who, or I guess what the Hosks left behind to protect their daughter. I''m just glad she is not a sitting duck out here like I feared. It was the main reason to come by and check, apart from the fact that the truth needs to be known to those that need to be told." Before mumbling "Maybe even those that do not need to be told."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. This caught Franks attention as he reacted "I would rather you left the Miss out of the potential actions you are about to take Detective. There is nothing that can be done that will make her situation better or more optimal than right now." The detective shook his head,disappoint on his face as argued "Not even justice? Or to prevent more suffering?" Frank looked at the Detective. Again, the man had a valid point, but his parameters said to act agitated. Not that it mattered anymore as the detective had found something out only a handful of people knew worldwide. Still, it was more work to reroute his reaction trees then to let them be active. He thought for a moment and gave the man a simple answer "What, if I may ask you, can a seventeen-year-old do in the battle against some of the most powerful people on the planet?" Frank could answer this question many times over, but all were to high of a chance that his one and only purpose would come in danger of becoming a coin flip. Something he would never allow. The Detective sighed loudly and rubbed his face. The wrinkles in his skin were spread thin eventually coming back with the same ferocity. Then he grunted "I''m suppose you are right Frank. I haven''t slept well in the last few days, it is making my tongue loose." Frank stood up,the detective followed. As they were at the door Frank said "Whatever a seventeen-year-old can or cannot do I do not know, but I will do whatever I can to bring justice on those who deserve it. I will let you know what I can find about the requested personnel, but please try to refrain from involving the Miss. She will always be my number one concern." The detective nodded and said his thanks before going out of the door and into his car, lighting a cigarette and driving off. Frank waved him off in the door frame, a hard look on his face. Frank closed the door, walking back towards his lab. He needed to take actions against the threat that the detective had pointed out to him. He went through the door picking up the landline phone. Touching the key pattern that was imprinted in his memory, then he listened for the phone to ring on the other side. A click followed by somebody in a deep baron voice that based through Franks head spoke on the other side of the phone. "Yes?" was the simple answer, no name, but Frank did not need one as he spoke into the phone. His voice cold and impersonal "Mister Jazz, how have you been." It was quiet at the other side of the phone before the booming voice answered "M-Mister Frank, how long has it been? Ten years? H-how is life?" he stammered, which sounded strange in his low base like voice. Twelve years ago, Jazz, an enormous man who could easily turn over a car if he so wished to, had been stationed in the house as an extra security detail. Something that was decided after the miss had almost been robbed in the streets. Frank had slightly overreacted, hospitalizing the two man responsible in front of the twenty five-year-old Jazz. From that point onwards though he had been respectful to the extreme towards Frank. After two years of extra protection which mostly comprised walking the Miss to school and bringing her back home, Jazz had been laid off with a sizable money bag. The instruction to set up a mercenary network attached to it. The Miss had by then progressed far enough to get rid of most trouble herself, plus Frank had taken it upon himself to stay close for years after that. Of course, Frank had checked what Jazz was up to in these past ten years. It seemed he had become a very respectable mercenary. Now it was time to use the asset he had created ten years ago "Jazz, I need your services at the house, how many men can you spare?" he asked, already knowing but his algorithms always checked for loyalty. One of the biggest parameters for taking action. The man on the other side thought for a while then said he had to check something before returning to the phone he replied "I have forty on pay roll eighteen are busy on another job which can and will be cancelled if necessary, Sir." Frank nodded in agreement, that was correct, as he replied "Twenty-two is adequate for now Jazz. Come to the house as soon as you have your man ready and make sure all know what is at stake when they are on the job for me. Is that understood Jazz? I hate to set examples, they cost men." The mercenary was quiet before stumbling "P-perfectly understood, sir. I will make everything crystal clear." Frank nodded again, then said before he hang up the phone "You will stay in the house, the rest will make camp somewhere on the property, but not in sight of the Miss. I want covert protection. I will see you tomorrow." ?19. Optically amplified light
Persistence gained 10% toward GEN2
They sat next to the spider robot, taking big gulps of air. Their chest rising before falling in a rapid tempo. Sophie pressed the button on her helmet swiping the annoying system message away while her visor slammed open. That was way too close for comfort. As she thought of what could have gone wrong with her plan, she heard a visor slamming open next to her. Looking around the spider legs, she spotted Bee. Still breathing in big gulps, his hands on the ground together with his knees. Sophie smiled calling out to him. "Hey Bee," he looked up, red from the exertion. His eyes still in fight-or-flight mode. Limbs shaking a little. Responding with a grasping sound. His throat dry, he coughs and swallows, trying again "Yeah?" She winks and says "Thanks for saving me there. I thought I was done for." As she finished he smiled, falling over to his side laughing as much as his lungs allowed "Yeah, you know, anytime." Her smile grew as she got up. Walking toward Maya. She looked around the desk that Maya had hidden behind most of the fight. Now only half as big as it used to be. Still shrinking as the acid was eating away at its steel. Maya sat behind it, helmet off, or what was left of it. The same could be said for the rest of her suit. Large holes were visible in the suits torso. Underneath the wholes her flesh had a very unnatural color. Maya looked up as she heard Sophie close by. When she looked up, Sophie saw that one of her eyes had been damaged and half of her face looked like Twoface, the white knight version. At first, Sophie felt horrified. Then the thought that itwas all a game snuck into her consciousness and it wasn''t all that bad anymore. Strange what people can deal with when it''s not real. Guess that explains the horror genre. She grinned at Maya and teased "Dear god, couldn''t you have worn some make up today? I''m not sure if I want to see the real you so soon." Maya laughed, then cringed from the pain and then sneered back "At least I''m still prettier than you. I was just scared that you would be isolated and such. So I took a knee, lowering myself for your comfort." Sophie smiled before getting her injector out of her inventory using a vial to ease the pain a little. 30% health was more than enough. She wouldn''t die, but the pain would not be less just because she wasn''t dying. She looked a little guilty towards Maya saying "Do you mind if I only give you one? I think we should save them up for when we are in critical condition and we don''t have time to heal naturally." Maya looked back at her, then nodded, grunting "I understand, and you are right even if I dislike it. Maybe my viewers will think I''m a badass¡­ donate some money." Sophie''s smile grew wider while responding "A girl can only dream." With that she left Maya to her suffering for the time being and went to look for some extra loot. There should be more than only 500 credits that she needed to share with the rest. Where are you pot of gold? As she walked around the mechanic spider, six red vials caught her eye. She looked at them picking one up from the ground, examining it she was surprised with the find.
Small vial of Aid II Uncommon Quality Heals 15% of total health over the course of 1 minute - review by TheDevs
This is nice! Never can have enough of the lifesaving juices! She looked around a little longer, even though the six vials were good they weren''t in line with the high risk, high reward philosophy. Seeingsomething shining back form the flash light on her head, she took a look. It was stuck underneath a legof the dead machine but she could still get it out from under it. Inspectingit was hardly necessary as she recognized the shape.
First Aid Injector II Uncommon Quality In the absence of healers the only real alternative in a pinch. Can use vials up to 15% and breaks down after 50 uses - review by Nurs3Joy
She took the loot to Maya as Bee had joined his sister. Regenerating all his lost health while sitting against the melting desk. It was a very apocalyptic site, especially with the weird way the skin crawled while it regenerated. She kept standing at firstbut the two had to look up at her. Their pained faces made her feel guilty, so she squatted down laying the two pieces of loot in front of them. As she did they both looked at them and smiled. Sophie coughed once before suggesting "Maya should take this one, as you and Bee will be together more often. Bee has the ship already. I already have vials. Even if you take them I''m sure you would use them on me if I needed them." She stood up to search for more things to take while Maya ogled the injector. She didn''t grab it yet. Not trusting herself to keep them without using up theimportant healing equipment on her current pain. As Sophie went through the room she opened every cabin, every desk, every fridge. So far, ten minutes into the extended search, she had found nothing worthwhile. The formulas on the black board might be expensive. Rare even, for all she knew, but they were in a language she didn''t know, nor understood. Staring at it for five minutes had only given her one letter and 1% in linguistics. Which was nice but not worth staring at something for five minutes¡¯ kind of nice. As she closed in on the last area to look at she happened upon a strange machine. It was some kind of wardrobe, with two buttons. When Sophie pushed one of them nothing happened. Disappointed she walked back. A she returned she saw that Bee had fully recovered by now while Maya was in a little less pain and on 55% of her health. After the many encounters with various wild life and machinery, she had observed that the further your health was down the slower the initial regeneration would be. One to 2 percent would take about as long as 90 to a 100 percent. Which wasn''t strange. Critical health issues were more severe than some minor discomfort. It was however, even more important to save the vials for when the critical stage happened so it could be skipped. As she said down next to Bee, she told himshe had found a machine that didn''t seem to work but looked funny. He smiled, then asked if she could point in its direction knowing she had told him so he could practice his engineering. She smiled back and pointed towards the machine. Sophie then closed her eyes a little, waiting for Maya to recover so they could go on. She wasn''t sure if it was possible to sleep in game but didn''t have to find out as right before she dozed off Bee came running back. Only in his underwear. Both Maya and Sophie looked at him funny. Bee forgot his excitement for a moment, blushing then starting his story "So I took a look and then had an idea. I put my suit in the machine. It is so far gone that even if the machine incinerates it, it doesn''t matter that much. So anyway, It appears to be repairing the suit¡­" With that the excited smile appeared back on his face and infected both Sophie as Maya. They both got up following Bee in a jog back to the machine. As they arrived, they saw a green light shining. As Bee pressed it, a door slid open and out came a suit. Back into pristine condition. Maya smiled, slapping her brother on the shoulder saying "This might be the best thing you did all day! Well except saving Sophie just now, maybe¡­" He smiled back and pulled his suit back on, before hastily saying "Ow yeah before I forget, it needs credits, that''s why it didn''t work." Sophie felt like slapping her forehead. Of course it needed credits, every bloody thing needed credits in this game, she thought as Bee cheered "So if yougive me your suits I will make them as good as new." As he finished Maya smirked "Yeah not today, just wait outside for a moment would you." Bee made a little indignant noise but went to the tunnel in his white and shining new suit. Ten minutes later Maya had a suit that looked exactly the same as she smirked "All right Sophie, your turn!" Sophie got her helmet off, and getting out of her suit when she thought of something snickering "Yeah not today, why don''t you and your audience wait out in the hall huh?" Maya looked indignant, like Sophie had accused her of murder, before moping. Mumbling while she walked away. Something about not caring if she got rich or not. Ten minutes passed before Sophie joined her companions in the tunnel. All fresh. It might cost 100 credits but it was like showering after a week in the desert, a priceless feeling. As she arrived they both smiled at her. They went through the darkness back to the first cave. They still had more to explore. Secretly all hoping that it would be a lot more. Crossing the first little cave they checked for a wire at the other entrance. Finding none, they followed the tunnel in its downward slope. Strangely they didn''t come into contact with any machines before they walked into a huge cavern where they could not see the end. The cavern was huge, covered in darkness with what seemed like an ancient and big three in the middle. Its branches leafless. Comprising a dozen branches at a maximum, a metallic shine betrayed its machine-like nature. That and the hundreds of drones that flew around it in circles. The horde of drones was black. Square in size and half a meter to all sides, four rotators on its corners that let down to a body twenty by twenty. It seemed to support two little arms, a camera plus something else Sophie couldn''t identify from this distance. Its collective buzz filled the cave like a stormy sea. Most of the drones flew circles around the tree with little purpose. Leaving the rest to do the work of excavating the cave. As they walked in further, they shone their light up, just in time to witness the little lasers that were shot by the outer most drones. It went in to the rock, pulverizing it. Sending a little cloud of dust down towards the bottom where they were standing. When ten drones came loose from the pack, flying in their direction. They snapped out of their contemplation. "Back to the tunnel! They won''t be able to fly away there." Sophie shouted at her two companions as they back tracked towards the tunnel. Their plasma guns aimed at the approaching group of drones. As they came near enough Sophieidentified them.
Multi Drone I Common Quality Has a nasty laser but is not very agile in the sky, needs some reload time after each shot and needs to be directed by a third party. - Review by Onthefly
She nodded her head in confirmation, it was as she had expected. The drones were with so many that it would have been an impossible situation if they were alsowell build. She told the rest and as they arrived back in the tunnel, they took aim. Waiting. Sophie looked at the approaching drones, thinking of what to do. They had to spread their firepower, otherwise they would never make it. That alone was a problem as they only had a minimum amount of firepower. She sighed, telling the rest "I think we should start with burst and try to keep as much of the fire on different target as possible. Bee, you take the right, I will take the middle and Maya you will take the left most drones. Do you agree?" They both just nodded their head. It was enough for Sophie. Glad that her companions didn''t like to argue in critical situations. They shifted their aim towards the sides that Sophie had suggested. It wasn''t long, maybe five seconds. But those five seconds stretched out for minutes. When the drones flew into the tunnel, it was a relief. They opened fire, Sophie hitting her first burst perfectly into one of the drones¡¯ blades. The propeller broke, the drone kept being air borne. When she fired her second burst shot the drones started firing back.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The lasers that could go into the stone, went straight through their suits. Luckily the space in the tunnel was not to large. The cramped circumstances making it hard for the drones to get a clear shot without shooting down friendlies. Another aspect of the tunnel was that barely any shot they fired went astray. Their target was hobbled up at the ceiling, making it almost perfect target practice. She took aim for a third shot but instead got shot in the shoulder by one of the drones. It hurt like hell! She shouted "Goddamn pieces of junk!" Before shooting a blob of burning plasma right in the "face" of her assailant. It did more damage than shooting of a propeller. The turn side was that it was much smaller. As she tried to repeat the action, she missed and shot the body of a drone behind her intended target. As a retaliation, she got shot again. There was nowhere to hide behind, the only option was to man up, shooting the fuckers out of the sky before they reached zero health. The fire fight took two minutes, both sides taking damage. Sadly, it was their own juice that ran out first as their batteries ran dry before the last drone was shot out of the sky. She softly cursed underneath her breath as she grabbed the end of her plasma gun. Sprinting the five meters that separated her from the drone, slamming her plasma gun into the drone, dropping it out of the air.As the drone crashed into the stone floor, she looked around at the mess they had created. Everywhere she looked lay broken down drones. Ten grey credit cards laid about in the debris, crouching down to pick one up. Ten credits¡­ As she walked back, thinking of the raging tornado of drone bodies outsidethe tunnel, she smiled. This could be very profitable. As she turned around to face Maya and Bee, her smile changed into a grimace. They were filled with holes. Small ones, not much bigger than a centimeter. But holes none the less. Now that the adrenaline wore off, she also felt the irritated parts of her skin where the lasers had burned into it. It wasn''t very painful, but she had still lost around ten percent of her health. The picture of thethousands of drones in the giant cave suddenly wasn''t that alluring anymore. She walked back, still thinking of the possibilities when Maya stated "So I think we found our cash cow. How about we lure the next batch in? I think the tactic is solid enough to pull it off a couple of times don''t you think?" Bee nodded while Sophie thought for a moment. Deciding that risk is always a factor, she agreed to the plan. Maya passed by Sophie, sending a wink her way while trying to hit her behind as she passed. Sophie in turn dodged the hand, glaring at the girl that was increasingly more troublesome in trying to lure Sophie into her schemes for a bigger audience. Sophie didn''t mind as long as she wasn''t to obnoxious about it. Again, a feeling of admiration washed over the feeling of annoyance. Maya really did a lot just to earn money. People might say playing a game isn''t work. Clearly they did not realize how much effort some were putting into their attraction to the audience. Sophie had never realized until now that playing to entertain others differed greatly from playing to entertain oneself. The biggest difference being having to think of every action you made. How it would reflect on your audience. Tiring. She was glad she wasn''t in the same situation. As Maya stepped out of the tunnel, it only took a few moments for her to run back in. A smile still plastered on the dollish face. She ran passed Sophie before turning around to join the rest in their formation. They took aim just as the first of another group of drones flew in. Sophie shot the first one out of the air, followed shortly by Bee and Maya. The drones were really not much of an enemy but their numbers made them a rather annoying opponent. To say nothing of the shots of laser. Every hit made them cringe in a bout of pain comparable to a cigarette grazing the skin. Sophie knew because she had once walked passed a man that still had the old habit of smoking. Something that was rarely still seen as it was positively deathly and heavily taxed. The man however, could afford it, but had to visit the hospital after Frank had gotten a little over-protective. Not that the man had pressed charges. Frank had made sure of that after he had told the man he would sue him for child abuse until his money ran dry. She smiled a little, thinking back at the anger and helplessness that had alternated the man¡¯s face. Served him right for not looking out where he was walking. It had seriously hurt her face. As she thought of the memory five more drones went down and her suit was peppered with another eight lasers. It was a war of attrition, nothing more and nothing less. As Sophie ran out of Plasma she rushed the two drones that were left. Thinking it was weird that there were two as she took care of them and collected eleven credit cards. One more than the precious battle. "So not to play the part of captain obvious here, but I think they grew with one. Let''s lure another batch. I want to know if it was just a random encounter or if this will be a recurring theme." She said to the rest who just nodded as Maya went to get the next batch. Repeating the same tactic, Sophie quickly concluded it was a recurring theme. This was bad. Their cash cow just turned into a potential danger. They did not have the fire power to kill over nine of them. So with each drone that stayed alive, the chance they would lose the war of attrition became more likely. The thought to go back and recover the guns from the security bots came to mind but was dismissed as items that were not picked up for thirty minutes would disappear. A measure to prevent people from hoarding equipment in places that were not designated places to hoard equipment. Annoying, but understandable. She could keep hacking them out of the air, but it took twice as long compared to shooting. Twice as long meant twice as many shots of laser. They needed more fire power as she did not see how they could survive over twenty of the drones for long periods of time. Time was their greatest enemy in a situation like this. The longer they took to dispose of the droids, the sooner they had to fix their suits. Which would mean that more of their hard-earned credits would go up into smoke. Three of the drones were left after their plasma guns stopped working. She rushed the drones, this time flanked by Bee and Maya who had mirrored her angry facial expression. The three of them trashed the remaining drones. Maya even stamping on hers after it went down screaming at it "How do you like that huh!" Bringing a smile back to Sophie''s face. She checked her health. It was drifting somewhere between the sixty and seventy percent. Not too bad, the same could be said for her suit. Both had seen worse times, so she suggested "Let''s do two more runs. I''m pretty sure we can handle that much." Bee spoke up this time "Try not to bash them up too much, I want to try making one out of the shrapnel. But if you go to work at them like the last time nothing of use will be left." That last part was directed at Maya who did a little "Humph" sound but still shrugged before she went to get the new batch. Half an hour later Sophie slammed the last drone of fourteen into the ground. Their suits looked like hundreds little holes had been shot into them. Which was exactly what had happened. The last two waves had contained thirteen and fourteen drones. They were easy enough to dispose of. If you did not count the fact that their health was now on the verge of dropping below forty, their suits were in dire state. They were sitting next to a pile of parts that were left after the drones had disappeared. Bee had been right. It was possible to loot the drones. Now that she thought of it, it was logical. If she could loot the Sholf, then why not the machines? Most of the pile was in poor condition but Bee was still tinkering with it, already half way through a workable drone. Or at least that was what the system messages kept informing him. As he got to the bottom of the pile he sighed, grumbling "70% done, but the rest is junk, or duplicates. I can''t make more out of this. Guess I will just store the work in progress in my inventory." Both me and Maya stood up, with Maya asking the question on everyone''s mind "So again? Ipersonallythink we should take the opportunity of the numbers still being low and explore whatever is in the cave. We will need to go in there to explore the rest of the dungeon." Sophie had totally forgotten about the rest of the dungeon. Now that Maya mentioned it, the more they killed in the tunnel, the more drones they would have to deal with in the open cave. She smiled at Maya exclaiming "Wow thank god you thought about that Maya!" Maya smiled insidiously but did nothing more thanwalk back towards the machine. This actually worried Sophie more than the drones. Still she followed her out of the tunnel. Another half hour later, they were back in the tunnel. Only two hundred credits divided by three left in their pockets after the cost of repair. They all moped about the little profit for their painful work, except for Maya. Maya moped because Sophie had caught her in the room while she was still in her underwear. Sophie had given her two blue eyes, kicking her out. Actually, Maya was still thrilled about the result, but had to keep an appearance of being sad or she would risk the wrath of Sophie. They looked into the cave for the second time. The difference in the number of drones compared to the first time was barely visible. Which was strange as they killed sixty drones. The zooming and buzzing of propellers was still very audible. Everywhere they shone their lights a dense pack of drones flew. Sophie shivered a little thinking of what would happen if they all attacked at the same time. That would mean instant death by hundreds of little painful laser shots. Trying to ignore the thought of gruesome death she took the lead and walked to the right side of the cave, following the wall. They had talked about a tactic, coming to the conclusion that most dungeons had a certain system. Like go right for bosses, go left for the next level of the dungeon. So they had went right first. As they walked ten meters, they heard the first buzzing from closer by, coming towards their direction. Sophie knew what it was but looked anyway. A swarm of fifteen drones came loose from the pack and buzzed in their direction. They looked angry. Looking at the angry mob following them Sophie started running. Keeping the pace as slow as possible they ran as a group through the cave. Every so often Sophie looked over her shoulder as she was the only one that could spare the energy. Every time the pack would have closed a significant amount of distance. disappointingly, there was no tunnel in sight yet even now that they had ran for over five hundred meters. Five more seconds passed before Sophie was the first to get her brand-new suit penetrated by high intensity light made painful by optical amplification. The first was soon followed by a second. As she heard Bee and Maya groan, she figured they had been hit too. Should they continue running or shoot back? The problem was that when their batteries ran low, the drones were out of reach plus the fact that the drones kept a distance of around twenty meters. As they were spread out way more than in the tunnel, it made the chance that they would even hit the little fuckers even smaller. Running it was. They kept running, the drones shooting at them taking away some of their health every time they were hit. "Where the fuck is this new tunnel! I''m so fucking done with these shit heads using me as target practice!" Maya was the first to voice the collective thought. Things were not going as planned. Sophie responded "How fucking big is this cave anyway!" She shouted back before Bee gave them his own five cents "Could you guys stop complaining and run a little faster!" The anger fueled all three to a faster running speed while their desperate search for the exit continued. Both Maya and Bee faces were covered in sweat, their heads turning beat red. Sophie was not nearly as winded but was also feeling the exhaustion. more from the constant onslaught then the running. As Sophie was about to suggest shooting the little fuckers out of the sky as much as possible before running again, her light shone on a gap in the cavern wall. "Finally a tunnel!!" She exclaimed. Tearing Maya and Bee away from their exhaustion and into a final sprint. As they reached the tunnel Bee shouted "It is rigged!" Just in time for Sophie to jump over the barely visible thread. She turned around inside of the low tunnel and saw how her two companions jumped over the thread. Followed by their tormenters of the last five minutes. Suddenly hit by an idea she changed her aim to the thread that was spun at feet height shooting her plasma at it. It took three shots but when it hit an explosion went off taking all fifteen drones in sea of flames. The tunnel shook, leaving Sophie was a little flabbergasted by the explosion. She had thought it would take a couple of them. As the explosion that had hit her in the other tunnel was nowhere near this magnitude. She stared at the burning remains. Her ears filled with a long monotone beeping sound. She looked to the ground a little in front of her and saw Maya getting up, the back of her suit black with soot. Bee had been a little closer to Sophie and was also staring at the burning remains of the drones. He turned around, saying something. She didn''t hear what he said though as all she could hear was the long beep that was already annoying her. When Bee noticed, she couldn''t hear him he looked a little confused before he turned around helping his sister up. Maya was groggy from the blast but seemed fine. As she stood, Bee refocused his effort on Sophie. Thinking a little before he opened his game menu. A moment later Sophie got a Text message. "Are you all right?" It read. She spoke up "I can''t hear shit but I think the rest of me is fine." she said, a little annoyance in her voice. Bee laughed motioning her to sit and rest for a little. They would need their strength for whatever ''lived'' in this part of the dungeon. It wouldn''t do if she was deaf during the battle. If the difficulty until now was any sign it would probably hurt. 20. Deafness Twenty minutes passed before Sophie said she could finally hear again. It was also the time it took for her health to get back to full. In all likelihood, not a coincidence. While they waited for her hearing plus Maya''s small injuries to regenerate, Bee had collected the fifteen credit cards that weren''t affected by the explosion. The Drones had burned up, leaving no spare parts, to Bee''s great annoyance. Not that he said anything, he knew Sophie and Maya would just glare at him. Smiling at the thought of both girls¡¯ deathly glares he returned to them, sitting down next to Maya, enjoying the silence. They had come pretty far already. From the first time, they had met up with Sophie until now, killing the flock of drones together.It had been a lot of fun. Thinking of everything that had happened up to now, the next twenty minutes went by fast. He was so deep in thought even that he hadn''t even noticed that the girls had gotten up from their spot. Maya kicked his shoe a little. Looking up in confusion she smiled at him and nodded in the direction of Sophie, who was walking further into the tunnel. Quickly getting up they followed. Sophie taking the lead as she always did. Bee didn''t think she noticed the behavior, but Maya and him certainly did. Not that they minded. It was nice to have someone lead the group, coming up with good ideas and knowing how to operate under pressure. Maya and him had always had a way to communicate with little words, and Sophie was a perfect fit. He was just glad she didn''t seem to mind that Maya was entertaining rather than being herself. It would be a though choice if Sophie would ask Maya to quit it. He wasn''t all that certain that Maya would. As they walked further into the darkness of the tunnel their lights caught the end, guarded by two security droids. They looked through but with Sophie there to bash their heads in after the full shot of their plasma guns; it wasn''t more than a small bump in the road. The extra twenty credits per person were nice too. The game had not been very forthcoming when it came to giving out credits. He had gotten a space ship that was true but its repairs needed a lot of credits. Something that was not readily available in Ethereal space. As they shone their lights into the room, stepping over the two security droids that lay dead at their feet, he saw that it was organized like an office of sorts. A small light shone above the desk. A rug lay on the floor. The desk sat in the middle of the rug which placed it in the middle of the room. The desk had nothing on it and was made of steel. The roombarely twenty square meters. Behind the desk, the second mini boss of the dungeon. It looked exactlylike the security droids but it differed in a few very crucial ways. First of it didn''t have one but two guns. These guns in turn didn''t look like the ones they were using but more like machine rifles. If he had to guess it kind of had the design of the M4 but rounder. The barrel bigger, sporting a storage for plasma that ran all the way to a basin right before the trigger. It looked way more impressive than their guns. Did he mention there were two? The second big difference between this robot and the other security droids was that this one was twice their size. It stood a full two and half meters tall. Its tank tracks beginning where the desk ended. Why there was even a desk he could only imagine as it didn''t seem to have any hands that were not occupied with a plasma rifle. As he used his inspect skill Sophie already called it out. "Good quality¡­"
Security Droid III [Boss mob category I] Good Quality Miniature tank, but then without the barrel. Thank god. - review by GoodGirl
How she was always faster than them when it came to inspecting he didn''t know, but she was always a second quicker. Weird. Not like the mini boss, nothing weird about that. They probably would not survive this without some very painful experiences. Sometimes he thought about why people liked the way VR hurt them so much. Then he remembered that one biology class in high school where they had explained how pain triggered the release of endorphins. How pain can alter the sense of pleasure you feel after you succeed a task. It made sense in that light. If there was no pain, then the sense of achievement would go down, so would the sense of realism. Levels of adrenaline would be lower and the experience more boring. Ah, the wonderful world of the human body, odd little creature we were. That was not even considering the effects of cognitive dissonance. As he was contemplating life, Sophie had already turned around, walking back into the tunnel. They followed her, an automatism that had rooted itself into their behavior in the shortest time possible. She stopped before turning around as they reached her she asked "Anybody got any ideas how to best avoid frontal collision?" Her voice sounded the same as the look on her face. Not hopeful. They all took a moment to think of something other than rush in, start shooting and hope for a small miracle. The longer the silence lasted the higher the chances that thatwould be the jest of it. The desk was the only thing that stood in the room, except for the mini boss itself. The tunnel was around two and a half meters high but seemed to just about fit the security droid so they couldn''t really kite it. Then there were those guns. They would outlasttheirs two times over. They were quiet for a long time. Their faces lightning up as they got ideas but never telling them as they were all shot down at a primitive stage. As Bee was thinking he suddenly thought about the arms that were holding the guns. They didn''t seem to strong. He could be wrong, but if someone could get close and hold them down, they might have a chance. As he told the rest they frowned while thinking about his suggestion. It was better than trying to shootit down, but he understood the reserved expressions. It was not a solid plan.Maya was first to respond "Can we even get close to it without being blasted away? The lab spider was almost stationary. This one might not plan onstanding still." As Bee was aboutto give his counter argument Sophie chimed in "Where is it going to run? It is not the cavern; it is a small room. The problem is that it might have more tricks than only the guns." Bee agreed. Wanting to say so he opened his mouth again but got interrupted by his sisters¡¯ counter "Hmm, you are right I suppose. But I think we have littlechoice. Getting close will be the best tactic against a strong ranged opponent." Bee gave up, just nodding his head. He should be more assertive at these moments. He knew. It was just that most of what they were saying was right. It is hard to argue when your arguments are already in the conversation. He waited for Sophie to say something in return but saw she was back to thinking. Her face scrunched up, nose wiggling a little while her mouth pouted to the left like she was holding a cigarette in it. It looked funny. Never would he say it to her face but it surprised himMaya hadn''t. As nobody spoke, Bee made the decision. Take a littlecontrol. He said "It might sound foolish but why don''t we send Sophie in as the quickest, she will rush it from the front, and try to hold the fort. We go after her, running towards its back so we don''t get hit. Then westart shooting. Rotating the guns we use, from the security guards. If Sophie falls off, I will attempt to take over while Sophie takes my task. After that Maya. How is that?" They stared at him for a while. It felt a little off. The attention felt like a burning light on his face. While Sophie''s stare was one of intrigue, Maya''s stare held more surprise. He wasn''t one to spill his thoughts like this. Not that he was afraid, but he liked to observe what the others thought before he made his own known. Most of the time they would say what was in his head, making it unnecessary for him to speak up. He liked being in the shade, it suited him. While it wasn''t to uncomfortable, the longer they said nothing the more he felt like his idea might not be suitable. As he was about to state something in those lines, Sophie nodded her head, saying in agreement "I think it''s a good idea. I don''t like rushing that thing alone but I guess I have the biggest chancesI can hold on until we are in position." She stretched out her hand towards him with her gun in it. Smiling, she said "Take good care of it." She turned around, walking in the direction of the mini-boss. Maya smiled at him before following Sophie, grabbing the two plasma guns that lay on the ground. He hurried afterthem, a small knot of anticipation and nervousness tightening in his belly. As they reached the entrance again, Sophie looked over her shoulder. The question in her eyes was clear. Were we ready? Bee nodded at the same time Maya did. She smiled, taking off in a sprint. He and his sister waited a moment before running after her. The droid had already woken up as they entered the room, it took aim at Sophie, then fired. She dodged with surprising elegance as shots of plasma seared passed her head. Almost hitting Bee. In a smooth motion, she got upas the other gun had finished its aim she ran passed a hail of plasma shots. He saw how Sophie lost twenty percent of her health in that one rush but was relieved it wasn''t more. If Maya or him had done the same, they would have lost half their life. He really needed to think about getting his physical GENs up. Now was not the time to think of that though. As he and Maya went to the left and right flank of the machine, Sophie jumped the desk. Using it as a stepping stone she launched herself onto the droid. In that single action, she lost ten percent more health as the point blank shots doubled the damage. She now stood on the ramp that contained its tracks. Bee was fascinated with her athleticism. She had pulled it off! he just didn''t have any time to look at what happened next. He needed to get to the other side and open fire. The moment Sophie stood on top of the droid she put her arms underneath the machines and groaned, trying to move them upwards. As Sophie was arm wrestling the machine, he and Maya opened fire on its back. Asthe first plasma blob landed on its body, it turned around and opened fire, its aim slightly above their heads due to Sophie pushing its arms up. Sophie groaned again as the machine tried to adjust. To Bee''s surprise the arms didn''t move. With the arms locked in place it kept shooting while Sophie shouted "Aim for its tracks!" They went to the side and to work. The moment the first gun was emptied on the steel tracks of the security droid it did something we had half expected. Something other than shooting. Sophie was still struggling to hold its arms when something at the height of her abdomen detonated, sending her flying through the air. Bee couldn''t make sure she was all right as it was his turn to hold on to it. He dropped his gun into the dirt while his feet were already crossing the three metersbetween him and the machine. The machine however didn''t like his plan, aiming both its guns at Bee. He thought about dodging but he was to close. Making the jump he was shot five times in the chest. "Mother of dragons!!! That fucking hurts!!" His chest burning with the plasma, he had lost forty percent health. Grimacing, he bit through the pain, desperately trying to hold on to the arms like Sophie had done. It was incredibly heavy. The chair he had bought for Sophie was light in comparison. He grunted, trying to hold on. His grunt changing into a scream as his muscles filled themselves with lactic acid. How the hell had she held on for so long? He had barely been there ten seconds. To distract himself he watched how the rest was doing health wise. Maya was still one hundred percent, which was good. Sophie on the other hand went from thirty percent to fifty percent, using the injector. While the plasma fire never ceased on Maya''s side, it now also restarted on Bee''s former place. He needed to hold on, he couldn''t let go to soon. He had to hold on.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Thirty seconds passed, as he screamed and grunted it helped him to ignore the pain, to keep going. The moment he felt the machine went sideways to the left he knew Maya had succeeded in destroying its tracks. It was also the moment he knew how Sophie had felt when she was blown off. An explosion shocked his body as he felt an object hitting his belly. It felt like a ball. He flew.The feeling of relief in his arms washed away by the agony in his belly. He felt the vague feeling of a body passing him by and it drew his blurred gaze towards Maya''s rushtowards the machine. Getting shot just like twenty centimeters. He wondered how the ball had not torn through his body, but figured it was because its weight held down its speed. Blunt force. If it had been smaller, it would have been a lot nastier. Contemplating, he got to his feet, struggling his way towards the place where Maya had left her guns. As he arrived, he heard Maya scream "Hurry, you little shits!" He smiled, his sister always had an odd way of showing her love. Then he scurried over towards Sophie and opened fire. The last trackwas destroyed. It was unfortunate that thesecurity robot only began to smoke but was not yet defeated. Maybe it would have been to easy like that but he couldn''t help feelingslightlydisappointed. Keeping the robot under plasma fire he observed as Mayawas shotoff. She screamed, while Sophie rushed the droid again. She only had fifty percent health, she wouldn''t survive another shot in the gut. His face scrunched up in determination as he sprinted towards the other side of the droid opening fire on its main body again. As Sophie held down the arms from turning their way,literallyhanging on them with all her weight so they wouldn''t turn one hundred and eighty degrees, Maya joined him in their assault. She wore a pained expression, her health a bit above twenty percent. Only at that point he noticed. So was his. They needed to finish it now. They kept shooting until the last battery went dead. It was quiet for a moment. Bee yelled "Sophie we are out." he heard a muffled sound preceding a low grumble "Dammit, then slam the freaking thing!" he grabbed the barrel of the gun and sprinted towards the droid. Jamming the bud of his gun into its damaged steel. A small dent grew as he repeated the process. Maya joining him. After a while they heard the machines` insides jamming as Sophie hadtaken the opportunity to slam her fist into its eye. Breaking the glass and tearing out handfuls of wires. The arms slacked, the machine died down, and they all slummed to the ground. Exhausted. They all breathed heavily, leaning their backs against the machine a small ticking sound making its way into Bee''s ears. Listening carefully, his previously closed eyes shot open, going wide. Getting up, he shouted "Run!" Not waiting around to find out if they followed, he took the lead out of the room and into the tunnel. Looking over his shoulder he saw Maya close by and Sophie in last place. Reaching the tunnel, the room filled itselfwith an explosion that rivalled the last one and they were all thrown forward. Bringing their health down yet again, tearing their suits to oblivion. Sophie had suffered the most but also had a bit more room in her health pool so while she took on most of the blow her health stopped dropping at ten percent. Dangerously low but not dead yet. He stood up, disorientated, his hearing blown to pieces. He heard the same monotone beep as Sophie must have heard only half an hour ago. It felt like hours. He looked around, seeing Maya doing the same he made the thumbs up sign with his hand and she did the same smiling a little. It seemed to hurt, dropping of her face quick. As they saw Sophie lying in the dirt they walked over in a hurried way. She stirred a little, trying to get up. Her face was a mess. Blood everywhere. Mixed with black soot and brown dirt. Maya smiled at her, saying somethinghe couldn''t hear. Neither could Sophie, but the glare told him she could guess. They used up the three-remaining common first aid injections. Resting the rest of the regeneration period. While they leaned against the wall Sophie typed a message in the group chat. "I got GEN 2 in spatial awareness by flying through the air after the bomb explosion¡­ How cool is that, right? I knew I was close due to all those pesky drones but didn''t know I should just blow myself up to get there." They all chuckled at that, even if nobody heard the other, or themselves. After a while of sitting on the ground they got up and went back to the room. Their hearing had come back while their health was now a little over fifty percent. The roomwas covered in black and a mist of smoke was still hovering throughout. Sophie walked towards the now dead security droid, picking up a grey credit card. 500 credits. It was nice but not that much that it paid for the effort. Mostly because their suits had become useless again. Only 200 credits profit. When he saw one of the machines` guns laying to the side, he smiled and inspected it.
Plasma rifle II Uncommon Quality A great rifle to shoot mid-range with, has a nice kick to it but has no canon mode like the plasma gun. More battery though and more efficient. - review by Bulletf0rBrains.
Nice! This was worth the effort! He picked it up and was about to say what he had found when he heard Sophie saying the same thing he had in mind "Hey guys I found something awesome." She came walking in their direction with the same rifle he was holding. As she saw this her smile turned even bigger and so did his. High risk, High rewards! He aimed the gun and shot the wall. It made a nice smudge of plasma a little bigger than his gun would have done. The best part though, was that it only took 2% of battery power. This waswhat they needed! As he looked up, he saw Maya staring at the gun too. Ah yes, they only have two. He sighed inwardly and said to her "All right we will play rock, paper, scissors for this one. Sophie has Spatial awareness GEN 2, so that has to be better than 1 right?" He glanced at Sophie and she nodded stating "Yeah was kind of weird, normally it says there is more available, now it said my damage output was increased by ten percent. Pretty sure that means I will hit harder too." He nodded at that, before looking towards Maya, saying ¡±You ready?" She smiled and moved her fist up and down. He won, in a nine out of ten battle against his sister who kept insisting they should do one more. That was until Sophie had had it with the game and stepped up, declaring him as the winner. He had only smiled. Healready knew he would win. His sister had a tell, which meant he almost always won. Which was funny for him but frustrating her to thelimits of her patience. The fact she didn''t know how he was doing it only made it more fun to do. As he was admiring his new rifle she pouted, going off to search the room once more. Fifteen minutes of fruitless moping later the search was about to come to an end. Sophie and Bee wanted to fix their suits and were about to leave, but just at that moment Maya cried out in triumph. They both looked back as they were already half way into the tunnel, seeing Maya running after them carrying something small.
Badge of recognition Uncommon Quality Given by the federation to those that work for them. Gives a 5% discount to all items bought in federation controlled territory - review by TheDevs
Bee whistled, while Sophie looked at the badge with a little greed in her eyes. This was a very good item. Not only now, like the rifles, but also later. Five percent might not be a lot, but end game items were extremely expensive. Five percent on one of those meant you could get rich by reselling them. Sophie slapped her shoulder saying "Nice job we almost forgot the best item!" She smiled, the greed that had been therenowgone, replaced by a genuine smile. Bee smiled too, this was a great find! They walked into the tunnel. All happy with what they had gotten out of the last mini-boss. Their suits torn, now covered in big holes and tears, showing the skin underneath. Except for the 18+ parts. Those were still covered. There were places where 18+ activity was allowed. There always were in virtual reality. Not here though, thus those pieces of clothes were indestructible. As they arrived at the giant cavern, they halted again. They knewsixteen drones would come after them. He expected them to run again but this time Sophie came with one of her ideas "So I know I should have thought of this earlier. It would have saved us some pain but I think I know a way to fool the system¡­" They both stared at her while she looked guilty. Maya was the first to speak up "We really don''t expect you to know or come up with everything you know? So just tell us what you have come up with, no reason to act all shy now. My brother does that betteranyway." She winked at him and he glared back. Refocusing on Sophie as she explained "It is simple. What if we leave one of them alive and let it follow us towards the other tunnel." They were silent after that. It was simple. How had they not thought of it before? They tried it out, Maya going out of the tunnel to lure the drones. As she returned sixteen drones were on her tale, soon there was only one left, their rifles still holding ammo but they left it there. Proceeding to walk into the cavern, the drone followed. It worked, only the drone kept firing, nothing else! This was awesome and frustrating at the same time. They could have leisurely made their way last time. Ten minutes of walking through the pitch-black cavern, buzzing above them. Laser shots interrupted their pain free existence every ten seconds. When they made it to the other tunnel, Sophie turned around and shot the drone out of the sky. They didn''t know what would happen if they left it there. It might stay, or it might do something unpredictable. They rather took their chances with seventeen drones than something unpredictable. As they walked away Maya stayed still, saying "Can''t we try to shoot more waves of drones out of the sky from this position? Our suits are already ruined and its close to the machine. I think we should be able to shoot around eighteen or nineteen out of the sky before we have to club them to death again. I don''t see the disadvantage now that we know how to go through the cave¡­" She had a point Bee thought, he wanted to say so but Sophie beat him to it "Yeah sure, I think you are right. How about you Bee?" He smiled at the both of them and nodded his head. They held on without running out of juice until twenty drones. That should have been eighteen if his calculations were correct. Maya shooting with two plasma guns and Sophie really doing more damage, explained the discrepancy. Three hundred credits per person richer, they played it safe for now. As Maya and Sophie walked away, this time it was Bee who called out "Guys wait up a moment I want to finish my drone!" Maya sighed and Sophie said "Ah yeah totally forgot about that project. Go for it Bee!" She walked back and observed as he looked through the pile of destroyed drones for parts. They were all there, the parts he needed. He felt reallyexcited about the whole thing. It was easy to fix the drone, but it wasn''t too realistic either. if the right part came close to the place it needed to be, it shooka little. Most of it was click-in, sometimes he would need to take out his multi-tool to weld or screw something on. He had always been a little tech savvy. It was the main reason he had loved thatthe ship he had gotten could be upgraded. Although compared to this drone the ship was like a puzzle with ten thousand pieces and the drone only had a hundred. Nothing special but still very handy. As he finished the drone several messages appeared in his vision while the drone took flight. It flew but didn''t leave his proximity or shot at anyone. Which seemed to be a good sign. Telling Sophie, who was aiming at it not to shoot it down, he browsed through his messages.
Congratulations for recreating a Multi Drone I, it is now your property. Would you like to name it? Y/N
He stared at the message before saying "Yes, Little Drone." Maya laughed at that, saying "Please inspire me more ow creative one." He gave her the finger and read the next message on his screen.
Congratulations for recreating a Multi Drone I. For recreating, something you have earned 200 credits and the title: Ensembler. This title grants the player a ten percent chance that gathered parts will fit on current or already finished projects.
This made him smile even more as it was a great title for someone who wanted to rebuild a space ship! The last message informed him that his Engineer GEN had gone up with 20%. Not staggering but helpful. He told them the bonuses and they congratulate him while they finally walked towards the machine that got their suits fixed. Little drone flying behind Bee, buzzing, it was weird how it now belonged to him. It could become useful, he thought on his way to repair his suit again. How far is this dungeon going? So far it has been quite the experience! ?21. Shielded Back in the tunnel, their suits fixed, they stared into the cave that was still swarming with drones. Little drone buzzed behind them, Maya and Bee standing behind Sophie. Her face scrunched up, thinking. They should use the same tactic to search the rest of the cave.She felt that the final boss was not yet available for them yet. It was a strange sensation, but there non-the-less. She looked back into the smiling face of Maya and Bee''s thinking face. As the silence continued Maya spoke up "What is the plan ow fearless leader?" The smile on her face never left. Sophiereally liked Maya, but sometimes she wanted to punch her in the face. A signshe could be best friends with her if they ever met each other offline. Unlikely. She turned around and stared back into the cave. The buzz was suiting in a way. A droning sound that washed over the mind like the sound of the sea, or the buzz of the crowd. She sighed, mumbling "Let''s just lure the next batch and keep one alive. Then take a walk through the cave. There must be more." There had to be more. In no way, had they found a pot of gold yet. Some nice items sure. But not the jackpot. She felt Maya brush passed her, a hand touching her butt cheeks through the fabrics of her fixed suit. Closing her eyes, she tried to ignore the impulse of grabbing her gun to shoot her in the back. They needed all the battery power they could get. A little under a minute passed before Maya came back with a horde of drones in her wake. Twenty-one, this much should be manageable. As they opened fire, the drones fired back in the cramped tunnel. Drone after drone falling out of the sky, the little drone at their side doing its fair share of damage. Asthey reached the last one, they ceased fire. They had gotten used to the damage by now, or at least she had. It used to hurt a bunch but now it was only a mild annoyance. She wasn''t sure what caused the change, but she never bothered thinking too much about it. About to walk out of the tunnel, Bee called after them "Wait a moment, I think I might upgrade little drone." Sophie frowned but waited. The drone was definitely useful, and so was someone who could build them. Two minutes passed before Bee looked up from his project. smiling. The drone flew up, sporting not one but two lasers. While walking towards Maya and Sophie he laughed "You can upgrade them! It is now twenty percent towards uncommon!" They both smiled back at him, Maya taking a step towards him, hitting his shoulder "Stop stealing my spotlight, Nerd." It sounded harsh but the grin of mischief on her face showed the deep affection she felt for her little brother. Well, little only in age as he was taller than her. Sophie only winked at Bee before she turned around and walked into the cave. As she stepped in, the last drone flew after them.Occasionally shooting its laser. After ten minutes of walking in the opposite direction of the last tunnel, they saw an opening in the rock wall of the cave. A little cheer went through the group as they smiled at each other. The drones in the air still minded their own business while they made it to the opening. They inspected the entrance, avoiding the trap that had been spun again. As they entered Maya suddenly turned around and slammed the drone out of the air with the bud of her gun. Proceeding to stamp it, venting some of her frustration. In the last ten minutes, she had been the main receiver of its fire.Bee looked a little pained at the scene, while little drone flew in a wide arc past the ruthless beating, scared to be next. Done, Maya wiped some of the hair out her face and blew out a breath of air before walking on as if nothing had happened. Sophie just smiled shaking her head at the comic scene. As all their lights were now focused on the tunnel it relieved the place of its darkness. All the way to the end. Slowly they crept towards the exit before trying to look inside. As Sophie tried to walk into the misty cave,she walked into something solid. The entrance was blocked. Now that she had walked into the invisible border, an energy field that shone with a faint blue light had become visible. As Sophie slowly touched the energy, it rippled around her fingers like a pool of water. She couldn''t penetrate the field but it did not sting or feel anything other than just air. She took her glove off and felt it again. Static passed through her hand, slowly growing numb, before she removed it from its surface. She took a step back, aiming her gun at it and shot. The energy shield wavered, like throwing a rock into a pool while it turned a little more purplish. Other than that, nothing happened. Sighing she shot two more shots, but it resulted in the same thing. She looked over her shoulder and was aboutto say something when Maya aimed her gun and shot. A full burst of plasma passed her head with centimeters to spare and splattered into the shield. It shimmered, went red and out of existence. A little flabbergasted she forgot to scold Maya for not warning her, instead just shaking her head. She looked into the room which had cleared up completely now that the shield was gone. The room was about twice the size of the "Office", but five times as high as the ceiling stopped a good twenty meters into the air. The rest of the room was simple to describe as only four objects were occupying it. First, there was a structure that stood around four meters high, its surface constantly giving off small electrical charges. Three thick black cables went out of the structure, towards the three other objects in the room. Standing in front of the towering structure were tree robots. Quite big, at around two meters, but not as big as the security mini-boss. She inspected them.
Shield Droid II [Boss mob category I] Uncommon Quality Mostly used as a classic tank mob, but excels in hand to hand combat. Can be adjusted to use weapons but will be inefficient. It shield covers 20% of its Health pool. Slow movement under Great quality - review by TheDevs
That was a lot of information. More than she was used to. It was off-putting, to be honest. She had gotten used to the funny, or cryptic reviews. A useful one felt wrong. The short version of the three shield droids was that they were trouble. As she heard soft curses behind her, she was sure the rest had already seen the information on the droid. There was one more objet in the room and thus she waited with turning back into the tunnel to discuss a tactic until she could focus her inspect on the towering structure. As she focused on it, she felt something pushing back, as if something was keeping her from inspecting it. After two dozen seconds passed and her head started to feel drowsy, her skill won out.
Generator III Good Quality Great for keeping your robots going - review by YourAIoverlord
Again, there was a feeling that something was wrong. This time it wasn''t in the description but her intuition. Th generator felt like the bigger thread. It might be more important to stop the generator then the shield droids. Still thinking about it she walked back into the tunnel where Bee and Maya had already begun without her. "Should wego in guns blazing? I have no clue what else to do. Maybe kite them in circles so that their wires get shortened around that weird pole. But I guess that would only annoy them. Annoying them to death might not be the best strategy. Plus those cables looked like they canbe unhooked so getting them entangled might bea bad plan¡­" Maya was talking, more to herself than anyoneelse. Bee just had his brows furrowed, his hand at his chin. Seeing the brother-sister duo deep in thought brought a small smile to Sophie''s face and at the same time a lightbulb went off in her head. Her smile grew bigger as she walked passed the duo, leaving her in the dust of her wake, confused. She turned her head and yelled "Follow me, children. I have a plan!" As she upped her pace, she heard a soft "Pffft" sound. Her smile turned into a laugh. She did not have a plan. More like hope that something that could become useful was buried in thetunnel. When she arrived at the entrance, she got to her knees, inspecting the wire that was still there and intact. She followed it with her eyes as it went from one end of the tunnel to another. When it arrived at the wall, it made an arc down due to a steel loop mounted into the wall. Then the thread then went into the ground. She stared at the place where the tread went into the ground for a moment, not sure if what she was planning wasa good idea. She looked behind her, straight into the curious face of Maya who was looking over her shoulder. Surprised, Sophie almost moved aside but was just in time to realize what a bad idea that would be. Instead of moving she grumbled. "Could you give me some room, or do you want to spend the next twelve hours outside the game?" Looking into Maya eyes of innocence she sighed going ahead without asking the rest if it was a good idea. She knew Bee was standing in a safe enough location. Maya would just have to learn from her horrible and explosive death. As she took off her gloves, she started taking off a bit dirt on the spot where the tread went into the earth. This game was semi-realistic. So even though she was not expecting a full functioning bomb that would work in real life, she did expect to find a piece of explosive. Removing more and more dirt from the ground she felt her heart rate go up a little. Small beads of sweat covering her face as the prospect of blowing herself up at point blank range were haunting her thoughts. A minute passed as she dug five centimeters into the ground before she sawsomething white appear in the brown dirt. It reflected the light on her helmet as some kind of plastic. While she had dug the hole ten centimeters wide, she could not see its corners. She focused and inspected.
Explosives II Uncommon Quality It goes bang, so don''t throw it around - review by TheDevs
She smiled. Success! She slowly uncovered the rest. At twenty centimeters, wide and fifteen long it wasn''t thick which made its overall appearance look like a large book. A book that was explosive and had a killer ending. Every publishers dream. As she removedall the dirt, the detonator came into view. A steel cylinder like object that sat into piece of explosive at the side. One end tied to the wire, the other pushed into the clay like substance. She had once read something about these kinds of detonators. She never would have guessed that the piece of useless information Frank had made her study would come in handy today. The detonator had two ways two lit up the explosive. One was when the small stick was pulled out of the shaft and a spark would be created. The other was when the force that was pulling it out of the shaftwas lifted, by for instance somebody cutting the wire or breaking it. It would snap back in and create a spark. Then, how did you get it out without blowing yourself up? The information never told her¡­ Sophie cursed a little under her breath, so much information and then leaving the useful part out was just cruel. She looked at the detonator, a small beat of sweat coming off her face, landing on the explosive. She wasn''t worried about getting it wet. That was the only advantage she had at the moment. The rest was just one big problem. She looked over her shoulder where Maya was still breathing in her ear. They looked at each other for a moment but she just shrugged. Great, not that she could blame her. No normal teen should know how to disarm a booby trap. She was no normal teenager and even she had only been taught in part. Studyingthe detonator for a moment, she let multiple plans cross her mind before shooting them down.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Minutes turned into the double digits before she heard soft footsteps coming closer. Looking over her other shoulder itwas occupied by Bee''s face. He blushed a little at the proximity of their faces but kept looking at the predicament in front of her. After a few more minutes passed, he mumbled in her ear "You could try to pull the detonator out of the explosive without moving it from its place. That way it shouldn''t make a spark." That didn''t sound half as bad! It had crossed her mind as a maybe, but now that he had confirmed her idea it moved to the probable pile. Which was empty. She turned to face him and said "You should stand back and take your sister with you. I might want to take her with me into the lands of the death but it would be sad to see her cry herself to sleep." Sophie smirked during the last part,ignoring the snort of indignation behind her other ear. They both stepped away to a safe distance, not making much sound while whispering "Good luck." As she focused on the task at hand she cracked her fingers, more out of a nervous habit than it having any practical use. She had seen people do it when they were about to do something dangerous. Copying the ritual couldn''t hurt. A slow bead of sweat made its way down her nose and onto the explosive where a little pool had gathered. Shedug her fingers into the ground underneath the explosive, holding it in her left hand. Moving her right to keep the detonator in place. It would be difficult. She took a deep breath, before she started pulling carefully on the explosive, keeping her right hand in the same spot. She didn''t dare to breathe as the detonatorslowly made its way out.It felt like it was embedded into the clay for half a meter, as shepulled all of it out. Holding a steel pin of fifteen centimeters in her hand. Lettinggo of her tensed up right hand, the detonator fellto the ground. Its pin shooting back into the shaft, a spark coming out of its end, lighting the tunnel up for a moment. She breathed out, relieved that it was over before realizing she was now holding a deadly explosive in her hands. Carefully opening her inventory, she placed it in. Closing it she turned towards her companions. They both smiled at her, Maya asking "So what now?" She was confused for a moment. Then she remembered the three Shield droids. What was her plan again? She had been so busy with getting the explosive out that she hadforgotten¡­ She tried to scratch the back of her head while she laughed sheepishly, her hand scratching her helmet. They both looked a little stunned before Bee asked "You do have a plan, right? I mean I can guess that you want to put it next to that generator looking machine and blow them up. Trying to get a head start by disabling their power source. Right?" As he talked, her not to specific plan came back to her. She exclaimed "Yes! Thanks Bee, all the excitement made me forget a little. Anyway. That was part of the plan. But we will have to improvise a little as I want to cause maximum damage without blowing ourselves up. I was thinking." She told them the plan and while Bee paled a little Maya got excited. Ten minutes later a little drone flew into the room filled with three Shield droids and a generator. The Droids activated as their party had entered the room but they could only watch as the drone flew a meter above their heads. After some experimentation, they had found out that Bee could control the drone by giving it certain voice commands. He had hypothesized that it was possible for an AI to contact thousands and control them all. He, on the other hand, would be restricted to either building an interface or using his voice. Maybe there were certain implants on the market but that was beside the point. The point was that he could give the drone a voice command. To, for instance, fly into a dangerous cave and deliver a certain object. When she had explained her plan, he had first said he wanted no part in it. When She had suggested that in that case, they would have to get theexplosive material there manually, he had sulked for a while longer but gave in after a few more arguments. He had demanded that they would help him with the creation of three replacements and they had agreed in an instant. With the number of drones flying outside it would be an easy feat to build a fleet of drones from the debris. After Sophie had convinced him, they had tied the book sized explosive to little drones back, and waved him off. Saluting, Maya hummed her national anthem while Sophie whistled God save the Queen, annoying Bee but he said nothing. When he gave his last voice command, he let go of the brave sacrifice and let it float into the room. Thus, ending up in their current situation. Staring at the slow-moving drone that made its way to the generator pillar in the middle of the room. Three shield droids staring up as they assessed the threat to their habitat. Not processing what was happening in their processor. To be fair, it was a fairly unique case. She couldn''t blame the developer that had created this piece of the game for not figuring out a way to handle this situation. Or maybe they wanted to reward ingenuity. Whatever the case. little drone had reached its destination and Sophie aimed at its mother load. She asked a final time "Are you guys ready?" They both nodded, and she made the shot. Missing. Bee exploded in an instant "Seriously? Are you fucking¡­" as he shouted in frustration Sophie shot her second round and hit the target square on the explosive. The explosion that followed blew them all back. The fireball that was created seared their eyebrows off and they all lost thirty percent of their health just by standing fifteen meters away. Sophie lay in the dirt, her face hugging the moist floor beneath, mouth slightly open as her world spun. This was not part of the plan. The plan had been to wait for the explosion and rush in to deal with whatever had survived. Nothing could have survived that. Nothing. Well, maybe something of very goodquality would, but neither them nor their enemies could have survived that blast if they had been in the room when it happened. She thanked whatever brain cell that had given her the idea to use little drone. That had almost gonewrong in a horrible way. She tried to turn her head and close her mouth. Everything went so slow. Like she had entered some slow motion scene. She looked around, her head a bit off the ground now, she could see Maya trying to get up next to her. She heard the ground scraping underneath Maya''s knees as Mayagot into a sitting position. Sort of. She kept leaning on her arms for a while, sitting on all fours. Her head hanging between her arms. Sophie laughed. All these situations with explosions were absurd. Way too real. Slowly Maya laughed with her and grumbled in a hoarse voice "I bet that this was not part of the plan¡­" Sophie kept laughing, leaning her forehead on the moist ground, her hair curtaining her face. Shaking a little she pushed herself up, saying"No, it definitely wasn''t¡­" With about all the power she still felt capable of exerting, she turned her gaze towards the cave that was now full of smoke. She stared at it, but nothing stirred. Thank god. If they had to fight those things in their current condition, they might not even get a punch in. She heard shuffling on her right side and turned towards it. Bee had woken up too. He had landed on his back, the front of his suit black with soot as was his face. He had been standing closest to the explosion, not turning away from it at all. Too busy to shout in anger at her messing with him. He coughed a few times, lifting himself up with his arms. As he sat up, he looked around confused, before saying the legendary words "That was awesome." They all laughed after that. In the end it took five more minutes to muster up the courage to stand. Maya was the first that to stand, making her way towards the blown up scene.As Bee and Sophie watched her back disappear into the cloud of soot and dust, they both stood up too. Followingher. Walking was disorientating at first but this was her fourth time almost getting blown to pieces. By now she had gottenused to mild vertigo. Seeking the wall of the tunnel with her hand for comfort she went into the dark room. Her light shining only two meters in front of her, the rest staying pitch black. She could faintly see the light of Maya making her way across the room. She opened the comm windows and invited the two to join. As they sprang to life, she could hear the echo. Their voices went through the room as well in the comm. It was annoying, so they all closed their visors. the moment it slapped shut, she stumbled upon the first shield drone. It had dropped 500 credits. She almost did a little happy dance. This was awesome. It meant that the rest would get 500 credits too. She told them the good news and got a little cheer. Then she searched the corpse, finding another useful piece of technology.
Energy shield I Common quality Absorbs 10% of total health. Handy but I would not trust it to save your life - review by Sempai
She Looked at the design, it didn''t seem big. Round, ten centimeters in radius, black and flat. She had no clue where she was supposed to install it on her suit but decided that for now, she would store it away in her inventory. Then she spoke to her friends again "Guys I found an energy shield, It absorbs 10% of damage, calculated by your total health pool. No clue where to put it though." It stayed quite for a while as she could see that Maya and Bee were both staring at something. Then Bee said "I found the generator. It''s damaged but I can still install it on my ship. It also fits in my inventory as I purchased two more space slots. Figured it will be worth it in the long run. Its Common quality though. Probably due to the explosion. It is now around 30 centimeters instead of four meters.." As Bee finished Maya spoke up right after "Oeeew I found the second one, it was blown all the way towards the back. Looks nasty now. But it also dropped a shield and 500 credits! Nothing more. Sad." Sophie smiled at their enthusiasm, it was turning out to be a pot of gold. Not at once but the more they conquered the more they got. Which was nice but frustrating. She walked through the smog, looking for the last remaining loot bag. It should be here somewhere. Even if it disintegrated, it should have left loot behind. Not very realistic but reality in the game none-the-less. She walked a few meters, shining her light around, asking the rest "Guys have you seen the last loot bag?" They both answered with a negative. Hmm, where could it be? She was sure it could not have survived that blast. She walked around at one point even seeing Bee crouched over his new toy, the generator. As seconds passed, turning into minutes, she got more and more confused. How did it disappear? She was about to ask the rest for their opinions on the matter when a steel shovel sized fist flew by her visor. She jumped backward in a rush of adrenaline, about to warn the rest when another fist stalked after her. She dodged to the right, but it grazed her shoulder dislocating it with a mere graze. Sophie screamed in pain and tried to grab her plasma gun. She spun on her heels running away from the thing that was throwing its fists at her. She needed some distance to pop her arm back in. As she looked over her good shoulder, holding both her gun and her arm she saw the shield droid approaching. It was slow. Like all the droids she had met since now, but damn it hit like a truck. Its facetorn off, she could see the wires and processors that were supposed to direct it to her destruction, its body had been similar to the miners, only two times bigger. Hands like shovels, big and precise in their making. Legs moving slow but firm, like an elephant that would squash you if you let it close. This would have been the picture before the explosion. Now its body had lost half its bulk. It could barely walk, and its arms were the only parts that didn''t seem todamaged. She got unlucky, being surprised. Now that she had a clear visual she popped her shoulder back in. Clenching her teeth against the pain, aiming her gun. It crawled closer to her position. It was like seeing a robot zombie coming towards her. She shot, right in the gaping hole that used to be its center of action management. The plasma melted down its last working processors to nothing more than plastic and steel. The droid ceased to exist, and she relaxed. Though little bastards. She looked at the two little screens that were giving her visuals on Maya and Bee but they had been obvious to the fact she had almost been stamped to death. She coughed a little before saying ¡°I found the last one¡­ why the hell didn''t you guys notice me screaming?" Bee just answered with a hmm? While Maya looked confused and said "What? Sorry, I was checking something for my stream. This smoke is killing my ratings¡­" As Maya finished, Sophie just grabbed the 500 credits and Energy shield that had been dropped. Mumbling"Useless." She went back to the tunnel and sat down. Inspecting her energy shield. She had to figure out where it was supposed to go on her suit. She wascertain they would need it. ?22. Death and the return of the castl Bee, still looking at the generator he found, had moved with it towards Sophie against the wall. He sat down, before tinkering with it again. She wasn''t sure how much of the generator he could fix, or if it was even in need of a fix. All she knew was that she had found a place to stick the shield in. It had been a slot on her back where she could slide it in. As it clicked-in, a blue hue came over her like a bubble, turning transparent shortly after. Maya had tried it out by trying to grab her ass. The endeavor left her disappointed when the energy shield had stopped her groping hand. Sophie had just smiled at her, before sitting back down to regenerate her wounds. It was getting late in her time zone. Soon she had to leave them for a few hours. Not before they had found the next boss. Whatever that may be. As she regenerated her last percentages she stood up while saying "Shall we move on?" It was a rhetorical question but both nodded. Beeless enthusiastic than he normally would. She guessed he wasn''t finished. He could fix it while she was gone. They both crawled up from the floor as Sophie gave them a hand to pull them up. As was now custom, Maya went first into the giant cave to lure the next batch so they could move around in relative peace. As Sophie was inspecting her new gun for any possible damage, she was curious how it worked. The plasma seemed to come out of nothing, the "Battery" couldn''t just make the stuff indefinitely, right? That would be weird. In the middle of her thoughts, she was interrupted by a screaming Maya who was sprinting into the tunnel far faster than Sophie had ever seen her run. Surprise making way for alertness as Maya explained in a panicked voice "I have no clue what the fuck just happened but it seemed all the remaining drones are coming this way¡­" They were all quiet for a moment, as Bee''s and Sophie''s expression went from confusion to pale. This was bad. Deathly bad. Sophie rushed to the end of the tunnel looking outside. A massive body of drones counting at least 300 was in its forming stages as it circled in a dense pack around the steel tree. Where it was normal for them to fly around it, now they had grouped up and they seemed to wait for the last stragglers that kept joining the group. As she was looking at the black cloud of angry buzzing, it moved towards their tunnel speeding up with every passing second. They were fucked. No way they could win against so many¡­ She turned around running back to her friends, telling them what she saw. Maya nodded as she probably had expected such a scene, while Bee cursed out loud. Seeing their reactions Sophie smiled. In this hopeless situation, at least she could die alongside her friends. She rather not die at all but at the moment that was impossible. Once you logged off your body stayed within the game for at least three to fiveminutes. She hadn''t seen this with Maya and Bee as she was always somewhere else when they logged, or she had gone first. They had told her during a random conversation. It was annoying, but a good thing against people that ruined the game by logging off while you were about to murder them. As she smiled they looked at her a little confused before Maya understood her train of thought and laughed "Ah the dying alongside your friend¡¯s clich¨¦. Man up Bee, we got shrapnel to teach that nobody messes with the Willis siblings." Bee still looked sour and cursed "Dammit, why are we dying so much." Sophie could only keep the smile on her face, she felt fortunate to have met these two persons to adventure with. She nevercared about being alone, but the feeling of companionship and friendship did not go to waste on her. Likingit as much as any other human would. Smiling she said to them "Willis huh, not afraid one of your stalker viewers will come looking for you?" This made Mayas` face look pale and scared before relieve washed over it,she said "Well, first, there are like a thousand-people called Willis in New York alone. Second, I made it beep out my real name every time I or my slow brother would say it out loud. I did kind of forget about it. You almost had me way more scared of them then that Swarm of robots outside." Handy, Sophie thought, she might ask Frank to do a little research on them. It was all that could be said on the subject as there was no more time left. Their conversation cut short by the first drones that flew into the tunnel. All three of them turned around and began shooting. They didn''t need to aim as the whole tunnel was filled with a wall of buzzing, laser shooting black drones that looked annoyed at their presence. They kept on shooting, their energy shields covering the first ten percent of the onslaught. They had managed to shoot around twenty out of the sky before the real pain began. Tens of lasers fired every second into their suits that soon looked nothing more than rags, their health plummeting down in a crazy pace. Maya was the first to fall down. Her body disappearing. Sophie didn''t look at it and just kept on shooting, her gun almost empty, maybe fifty dead drones on the ground but many, many more still in the sky. The shots painted her skin red. Soon Bee fell down, disappearing. The sound of the buzzing drones echoed through the tunnel, the laser flashes now focused on her as her blue plasma sometimes overshadowed a drone, only to be replaced instantly. This could not be won. This was a massacre. It was also her last thought before she experienced her first death in the game and everything turned black. The last thing she saw from the horde was a face that formed in their collective bodies. A face that had a strange familiarity to itand seemed to smile. Before she could process any thoughts, the blackness swallowed her whole. As she died she expected to be thrown out of the POD. At least it had said so in the manual. Now however she felt like she was floating through an endless expanse of blackness, stars surrounding her. She looked down, but couldn''t see her body, she was nothing. Floating along, nothing pushing her forward, nothing holding her back. Perfect equilibrium. As she drifted for a while her visionblurred and she was back in the POD, the lid sliding off. She blinked a few times but then crawled out of the POD and back into real life. Looking around the room she noticed the house was dark, a cold breeze touching her skin. It had more to do with the fact she was naked then that the house was not well heated. Lights would have gone off at eleven o''clock, looking at the antique clock that was hanging on the far-off wall she could just make out its legs and see it was a little before twelve. She sighed, it was late. That Frank had not yet pulled her out had to do with the agreement they had. Twelve o''clock was the limit. It was a good time. She would still get enough sleep and had plenty of time after that to do the mandatory activities of the day. Getting out of the POD she put the bathrobe around her shoulders, making her way upstairs. She was tired off a day''s hard work. Throwing her bathrobe on the floor next to her bed, she climbed in. The soft fabric embracing her as she snuggled into the giant bed and fell asleep. The next morning, she woke up with her alarm clock blaring at her again. Groaning she slammed her hand on it with a by now practiced ease. Hearing a small crack, the red lights that used to give her the time snuffed out of existence. She stared at the clock for a moment, awake and alert by its destruction. Shehadn''t used the alarm a lot in recent years, most of the time just waking up out of habit. But besides that, it was a little unusual that she could break it with just her hand. She had not paid attention to how much power she asserted but to destroy the plastic alarm clock went a little too far¡­ Maybe she should ease up a little on the weights and focus more on cardio. It seemed she was getting a little bit too strong¡­ She slowly got out of the loving embrace of the soft and warm bed, to replace it with the cold and harsh air that hung in her room. Picking the bathrobe up where she had left it last night she put in on while walking towards the window, opening the shades. She had plenty of time today. Well, not that much considering she still needed to do a whole lot before twelve, but still. As she opened the shades a rarity shone into her face. The sun was shining, with no clouds to be seen in miles. She smiled, thisdidn''t happen often enough and could be over in a couple of hours! She quickly went to her closet opening the door, walking in and picking up some warm clothes. As she walked out again she pressed the intercom, stating "Frank I know you are still angry but I am going out for a run." A dozen seconds passed by and she waited patiently for Frank to react. If she went out without informing him things might getpesky for her. As she waited she tied her laces and put on the sweater she usually never wore but still had for the colder parts of winter or to go on a run, like today. The intercom creaked, before she heard Franks business voice coming out of it "All right miss, be safe. What route will you take?" The corners of her mouth curved up in a little smile as she listened to him. She knew he acted mad, but by the sound of it, she would be back on her normal level by tomorrow. Not wanting to ruin that she said sweetly "Route A, and after that, I will study till twelve." A little pause was followed by another "As you wish miss." Before silence returned to the room. Walking downstairs, towards the table, she grabbed the breakfast that was already waiting for her, three pieces of roasted bread with butter and sugar on top. It might not be fancy but she loved it. It was also a sign that her punishment was almost over. She smiled again, stuffing a piece into her mouth chewing it while she walked into the opposite direction she usually took. Normally she would exercise in the entertainment room, before going to the swimming pool. Now she walked underneath the floor where her room was located,into a small hallway that led to a pair of huge double doors, standing three meters tall. It was the entrance to the house and she had gone through these doors many times. Not so much in recent weeks. Taking a run outside was more of a summer and spring activity. The rest of the year she preferred the warmth and comfort of the house. As she pushed one door open the sunshine hit her face, putting a hand in front of her eyes she smiled. Her pale skin sucking up the rays of sunlight as if it were a thirsty man in the desert. She felt her face warm up just by the few seconds she was out and she loved it. In the summer, she had to smear layers upon layers of sunscreen to prevent her skin from turning tomato red, but now it was still harmless enough to go without. It was bliss. She took a long sniff of the crisp and cold air, forgetting for a moment she was supposed to go running and just enjoying the first rays of sunlight in months. Snapping out of her trance after a couple of minutes she shook her head, makingher way through the front garden. She called it a garden but in reality, it was more like a plain of grass that was larger than some surrounding villages. On both sides of the road she walked on, stood oaks that were older than her grandparents, aligning the road that stretched on for two and a half kilometers. She started her running pace, slower than normal as she had to run four times as long. Route A was a route of twenty kilometers. After she finishing it she would be done with exercising. With this kind of weather, it was a treat.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She ran, pacing herself, looking around. Taking in the scenery. She had almost forgotten how beautiful it was. The dirt road took her past the numerous green plains of grass interrupted by rough and rocky hills that sometimes came out of nowhere and disappeared into nothing. She ran as in a trance, her feet hitting the road underneath her that was mainly gravel with a preordained rhythm. Lost in thought, lost in the scenery. The sunshine shone on her while little tendrils of heat rose into the cold morning air. It felt freeing to run as she pleased, not hindered by a heavy space suit or unwilling vegetation. The landscape passed her by, uphill, downhill, until she finally arrived at the place she was running to. As she ran over the last hilltop her destination came into view. At precisely ten kilometers there was a lake that stretched out for tens of kilometers to both sides. She stood still, looking at its reflective surface, the slight ripples of disturbances that went through the lake as birds and fish penetrated its surface. Small waves landed on its shores and the grass plains that were interrupted by rock and an occasional tree made the scene all the more serene. She breathed in and out deeply, her face sweaty, her hair sticking to her face, streams of steam coming off of her body and into the crisp air. Her eyes shone with joy as she had not seen the scenery in front of her for quite some time. She had stopped while admiring the scenery but now continued downhill until she reached the lake. She stared over it. Its surface releasing small amounts of mist that would normally create the misty conditions that plagued the Scottish Highlands. Now though they added to its mystique. She had not visited a lot of places, but these lands had to be one of the most beautiful that one could come by. Untainted by the decay called the human race, the elements and time sculpting a masterpiece. She sighed. When she had been little and upset, she used to come to this lake and stare at it for hours until Frank would pick her up. Rain, fog or sunshine it had not mattered. She took one last look, the sunshine reflecting off its surface, the grass surrounding it slowly moving in the slight breeze. The rocks unmoving and uncaring. The slight reflection of a glass object on top of one particular large stone outcropping. It was not supposed to be there, she knew, but she wastrained by Frank. Meaning she wasdrilled on what to do when something was not as it was supposed to be. She slowly walked back up the hill, like she had not noticed. The most important thing after staying calm was not to give away your advantages. She walked up the hill until twenty meters separated her from the edge. Then, in one big exertion of power, she took off sprinting the remaining twenty meters, throwing whatever was watching her off its game. As she made it to the edge she slowed down again. She looked back, agitation showing itself on her face. Whatever was spying on her was ruining a perfectly fine morning. She made a b-line off the track and onto the grass and rocks that ran parallel with it. Walking slow and steadily towards the spot she had seen the reflection from. It was far and she needed to be careful not to make too much sound or trip over the rocks that were covered in moss. Half an hour later she arrived thirty meters from its location. Crouching down, onto her knees and looking over the ridge as she had sought higher ground behind her intended target. She was curious, not stupid. She looked over the ridge and saw nothing. Staring at the spot in confusion for a few moments before she shrugged, returning to the spot where she crawled from. Maybe she had been wrong. Making it back to the dirt road, her shoes had suffered mud pools and her leggings had cuts from sharp bushes. Moping a little about the disturbance she resumed her run, going back in a brisk tempo. If she would take too long Frank would ask questions about her leggings and shoes. She didn''t want to explain how she went searching for trouble. It kept gnawing at her. She could have sworn she had seen the reflecting surface of something like a scope. Frank had shown her on multiple occasions what to look out for when she went on her runs or went somewhere alone. Had she been mistaken or was there reallysomeone out there looking at her? She ran a lot faster back home then she had done towards the lake. Not even half an hour had passed or she ran passed the ancient oaks again. As she made the final curve in the road and her house came into view again she saw that in front of the villa that seemed to melt away in the scenery a Jeep was parked. She instantly stopped running, almost skidding over the dirt road underneath her feet. They didn''t get visitors¡­ The last time somebody visited was a teacher that made a mandatory house call and that was almost six years ago. Sure they went out sometimes, to one of the local cities or the bigger ones like Glasgow or Edinburgh but nobody ever visited them. Too many secrets lay in the house. Most of all the one that Frank was not human. She did not want to know what would happen to whoever happened upon that secret. She slowly made her way towards the car and saw that the number plates were English. Not that that was strange but she knew no one from the English side of the country. She didn''t know all that many people period. As she came closer she looked inside of the car and frowned. It was empty, except for a couple of bags inside of it. Black and big. She thought about opening one but then decided against it. Sometimes it was better not to know. Saver too. Cautioned she approached the house, trying to hear if there was any disturbance. But she heard nothing. As she walked towards the big double doors she heard talking coming from inside. She crept closer and in a fluent motion pulled one door open. No one stood in the hall, but there was a trail of footprints that led into the entertainment room. She looked at the print and judged that they were around size 11. Which was big. Either this was an enormous woman or a man. Walking to the door that connected the entertainment room to the hallway she put her ear to the door and listened. As she did, she heard a thunderous roar of laughter. Lettingout the breath of air she had been holding in ever since she had entered the house, a small smile appeared on her face. She knew this person. She pulled off her shoes, openingthe door. Without making a sound she sneaked in, seeing the enormous back of a man that stood two meters into the sky. His head shaved and his black skin wrinkled at the base of his neck due to over training, scratching up the skin with muscle. He had legs like a bull, one of his thighs easily as big as her torso as they went into a v-shaped back , and arms that looked like they could hold a bridge, putting steel cables to shame. She sneaked into the room on her socks, not making a sound. She saw how Frank had seen her but just slightly smiled as she made her attack. She rushed towards his back, jumping up, putting her arms around the walking mountains` neck shouting "Jazz!" The person called Jazz grinned, hardly surprised that he was being jumped by a seventeen-year-old girl saying in his deep, rumbling voice "I see that the miss is still as energetic as ever. I am glad. For a moment I thought Frank might have gotten to you with his harsh teachings." She beamed back and kissed him on his broad and shaved cheek letting go of his neck walking around him. The man''s face was like it was carved out of stone, and a big chunk of it at that. His nose was broad, just like his cheekbones, jaw and chin. Big bushy eyebrows stood above his big brown eyes that lay a little deeper inside his skull than was usual. Sophie looked at his face, not saying a word. She had always liked Jazz a lot when he was still there to play with her, now it seemed like he had grown two times over. She smirked saying "Did you eat your twin brother or something. Jeez, I don''t know how you got through the door! Did you come to show off?" She laughed at her own joke and saw Jazz smiling too, before he looked at Frank who nodded. Jazz face became a little more serious and said "Frank has asked me to keep you company for a while. He said you missed me so much that you couldn''t sleep anymore. So I took pity on you and quit my job to help Frank around the house." He smiled, Sophie smiled back, her little dimples showing on her cheeks but there was also doubt in her mind. He lied. Why would jazz lie about him staying here? For one, she knew for a fact Frank did not need help in the household or grew tired. For another, she spends almost all her time in the game or studying. Why did she need someone entertaining her? It made little sense but she left it be for now. She was just happy Jazz was visiting for whatever reason the two had for him being here. She Looked at Jazz a moment longer, before turning to Frank stating "Can''t he join me in Ethereal space? I could use a man of his skills." She turned around to Jazz and smirked "You know all muscles and no brains." A laugh thundered through the house, it had always been their act. They would jab at each other even when she was still small. Frank had said it was good for her character to have somebody around that didn''t take her too serious. He had been right. When he stopped laughing, Jazz looked at Frank for confirmation. She had guessed he would. There was something going on between the two of them, she was now more sure than ever. She had not even felt the need to lie as she used asking Jazz into the game as a probe. She really needed someone with Jazz his skill set. Maya was great and fun, she was a great person and friend, but Maya was only mediocre in combat. She suspected that Maya had it in her to become a great merchant or something else that involved people, but that was beside the point for the moment. Bee was a great person, honest and smart, but also timid and again, not great in a straight up fight. She loved playing with them but an extra hand in the dirty work of fighting would be appreciated. If Frank agreed then it would be perfect, she could focus more on precise actions instead of the bulk work she was doing now. She might seem good at it, but she had seen Jazz practice on the dummy and sandbag all those years ago, and she was far, very far from his level of expertise. That was not counting the almost guaranteed high aptitude in strength. The man was a walking castle. She followed his gaze towards Frank who was now frowning and letting his processors do the cost-benefit analysis. She wasn''t sure if Jazz knew what Frank was, but she would not be shocked if he knew. He had lived with them for a significant amount of time, and Jazz was a lot of thinks but dense was not one of them. She saw the tides turn in Franks'' eyes as he came to a decision, a smile telling her enough to smile too. Frank coughed a little and said "I think that would fit in our plans for young mister Jazz perfectly. I gather young mister Jazz agrees?" This time she followed Franks gaze towards the stone face of the castle named Jazz. He seemed to think for a while but his smile shone through the mask of intimidation as he answered "I would be honored to show the young miss how it is done." Frank nodded stating "Excellent, well then I believe the young miss has studying to do while we will discuss the details of your¡­ companionship with the miss in the game. The guest room you used to inhabit is made up for your return and I will order an extra POD which will probably arrive here tomorrow. Let''s be on our way young mister Jazz, for we might be a distraction that the miss does not need in her studies." Jazz winked at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead before following Frank into the back where the guest rooms were situated. She felt the urge to follow them and listen in on their conversation but thought the better of it. It was better to have Jazz join her online then to know what they were up to right away. Not yet anyway. But ones she got some alone time with Jazz in the game she would drop the occasional question at an unexpected occasion. Smiling at the prospect of having one of her oldest friends joining her in her adventure, she walked towards the table with study materials. She would take a dive in the pool once she finished this. She needed to keep the momentum going or it would slowly eat her brain away. Plus, after almost two days of not showering the pool was a nice reward to give herself after finishing. The studying subject? Robotics.