The recruits stood in a line. They were doing their best to stand at attention, but that wasn't something that players were very good at. Unless they were hardcore role players, which many of these were not. Still, Zim didn't seem to mind too much; he paced back and forth in front of them.

All nine of them. It started off as 13, but four had decided that this wasn't for them after the attack. Instead, they found a few minutes of cold in a vacuum. Dying repeatedly was preferable to spending the rest of their playthrough in this world. Sevs didn't understand that. They must have been newish players or very particular ones. He had been in many worlds, though very few were nearly as intense as this one. However, that fight was not nearly as bad as it could get. Perhaps that's what they realize, perhaps that things would only get worse, well not only worse, he was sure they would probably get better as well.

But there's potential to be a lot worse. Hell, they had won that fight. If they had lost, things might have actually gotten worse. That was something that this world was not unique for, but Sevs had only stayed in a few like this. Ones in which torture was an option, and unless you had min deaths already, there was very little escape.

Of the ones who had made it, most of them he had expected. Next to him stood Bexy, Jason, Carl, Robert, and Soshal. Only three others had stuck around. Ones that he hadn't really gotten to know very well. They seem nice enough. While Sevs had increased his charisma, his social stamina was lacking. He could only keep track of so many people at a time.

Sevs remembered reading somewhere in the training world that people can usually maintain a network of around 250 individuals. He felt quite inadequate when he compared himself to that. He maxed out around 12 to 15 that was all he seemed to be able to keep track of in his life at one time. He hoped that, with some practice, he could raise that number. But so far, he had his five fellow recruits as well as Zim, Dan, and Alex. That wasn't even nine, now that he thought about it. Perhaps he could have made more effort to befriend his other recruits.

Zim finally stopped pacing and began to address them.

"You've all done me proud. I'm rarely able to send off a tested group of recruits for their first tours. Normally they just get the basics, but you have been through the first fire. If you remember what you've learned here, you will do just fine."

It was a short speech by Zim. He wasn't particularly long-winded though he did have enough charisma to sound elegant usually. It seems that direct and blunt fit the mood more, though. Most of the recruits were excited. Some were somber, though. They were about to actually learn what was going on in this world. They had been kept in the dark for the most part during basic. Sevs couldn't really explain why, though. But once people went through the basics, they would hear what was happening.

Then Zim went up to each of them and pinned a small pin on their collar. It signaled the completion of basic, and everyone on the ship wore one.

The ceremony completed, Zim stepped back. Lieutenant Dan stepped in from the side. As one of the junior officers, he was given the duty of welcoming the recruits. He was one of the only two infantry lieutenants on board. However, he was by no means a true Junior officer. Dan commanded respect everywhere he went. Only the infantry Captain and the ship's captain did not defer to him, though even they listened to him. Maybe it was just because he hadn't had enough time that he didn't get promoted or actively chose not to be. Still, since everyone had a lot of respect for the man, Sevs's hoped he could work with him and learn from him in the future.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dan was everything that he wanted to be. At least in this playthrough. Having chosen charisma for all his distributable stats, he still felt like he was behind Dan in effective charisma. However, he figured that was just because his base was very low. He really needed to learn more, practice, and experience, and he might be able to catch up.

His awkwardness mainly had vanished. Through time in the tutorial, he learned a lot about interacting with people and even leading in some ways. Organizational skills and management skills were things that he had developed slightly. Still, he would never call himself a true master at them. Looking at who he had been when he first met Bexy, he might have considered this increase in proficiency a success. However, seeing Dan, he knew how far he had to go.

Also, he could tell how he would act after he no longer had a modifier if he had to return to the real world again. Would the experiences he learned from the game boost his charisma and improve his social skills in real life? He didn't know it didn't really work that way with strength or intelligence or wisdom in many ways. You might know more things if you were intelligence-based, but it didn't necessarily mean you were smarter. Charisma though he wasn't sure how it worked.

Did the system alter others' interpretations of his actions and words? Or maybe it guided him in his interactions? Would his mind and mouth remember how these interactions were to be done, and would that carry outside the game? Perhaps the only thing that would really help was just to have the confidence to know that these sorts of interactions were possible.

Lieutenant Dan began to speak. "As you know, we face the Tarlaki. They have been humanity's enemies for as long as this world has existed. The first settlers of this world are not with us; maybe they've all ascended or chosen to reroll. We have very little idea of what the original system looked like here. Many, as I do, doubt this was the scenario the system had planned for us. But it's a scenario we have, and I believe that if we get a little lucky and work hard enough, we can change it."

Dan reached the end of the line, pivoted on his heel, and started pacing the other way, nearing the steps Zim had made when he gave his graduation speech.

"So you might know a bit about this, probably more than you should, but we are what remains of humanity. There may be other enclaves we don't know about. But that is beside the point. We're a fleet of a classified number of ships. However, I can give you more details now than I previously could. There are at least a dozen massive population centers, slow-moving cruisers, with the light-speed ability, as all of our ships do. However, the recharge time is immense and infrequently used. These are our population centers, each holding over 100,000 players. There are many smaller ships like this where the population ranges from 1,000 to 10,000, depending on the size. We are pretty much strictly military. Some of the most powerful players have their own vessels, but what they do with them, we do not question."

Lieutenant Dan's stage presence was something Sevs admired. He was exposition dumping, but something about a player doing it in-game made the whole thing a lot less tedious. With those last words, he'd stop pacing and stood in the center and look them all in the eye one at a time as he went over the rest of the welcome speech.

"We are their defense. We stand between them and the near-constant raids of the damn space elves. We intercept the raids when possible and try to strike back if we can ever find the chance. There are upwards of 30 ships like this, and this is one of the smallest, with about 1,000. Most of the people on here are what makes the ship run. However, we do have a single wing of pilots. That is five ships, along with their gunners and maintenance crews. We also have a company with two platoons, one led by myself and two sergeants per platoon. This number of combative personnel is quite understaffed. Our job is to repel boarders, as you well know, and to sometimes go on raids of our own when we find one of the Tarlaki ships."

Jason raised his hand, and lieutenant Dan stared at him for a second. He seemed to be considering whether he should scold or let him ask his question. Finally, Dan decided it was a good idea to get the clarification out of the way. He nodded. "You may speak, private."

"Sir, how do we find their ships?"