The moment Damien stepped out of the spacious lobby and into the parking lot, a notification entered his field of vision.

Quest Updated! Attend Zero's Briefing

The pop-up initially caught him off guard, but he quickly understood how it all tied together. The decision to attend the meeting with Zero appeared to have triggered this new addition to the quest line. But it also brought with it a new question: how far would these quests bend to his choices, and would they cease to exist if he ignored them?

There was no way to know, so Damien decided to ignore those lingering thoughts. The fact that he was now receiving quests at all suggested to him that he was on the right track.

Thinking back to earlier in the day, he realized just how quickly things had changed. Within hours, he’d gone from having no direction in this world to having two quests going on at once. It was a promising change in his fortune, and he grew exited thinking about the possibilities--and the funds-- that awaited him.

He closed the notification and approached his two companions, who were standing beside Kat’s purple sports car. Marcus held a lit cigarette in between his fingers, and Damien managed to hear the big guy’s sentence trail off as he approached. “…and worst of all, he turned out to be an Inkeye.”

“Inkeye?” Damien interjected, prompting the duo to turn around to face him.

“Yeah,” Marcus said, “you saw those things, right? Worst augment you can get as far as I’m concerned. I can’t even look those people in the eye; it creeps me out too much.” He took a drag of his cigarette, the meeting apparently stressing him out more than the earlier shootout. “And it’s not just the creepiness either. My gut feeling always kicks in around Inkeyes, and every one I've come across has been trouble. Can’t read someone when the windows to their soul are pitch black. And if you can’t read them, you can't trust them.”

“I guess we ended up swapping opinions.” Kat said. “He’s the cautious one now.”

“If there’s anyone to be cautious about, it’s Inkyes.” Marcus said to Kat before bringing his attention back to Damien. “So, what did he say to you in there?”

Damien gave a quick recap of his conversation with Zero, then pulled out the silver disc he’d received. “He said this would reveal her location, but I’m not sure how. I guess I should’ve asked before I left.”

“Can’t blame you.” Marcus said before taking a drag of his white stick. “You just wanted to get out of there, right?”

Damien shrugged. The big guy wasn’t exactly wrong about that.

“It probably has some data on it.” Kat said. “Try scanning it.”

Damien focused his eyes on the silver disc, but for the first time ever, a error message popped up. “It says my GPI needs an update. What does that mean?”

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“I guess we forgot to tell you about that.” Kat said. “It’s a General Population Interface; everyone has one. They’re tied to the city but not to any governing body. Among other things, it lets you store the city map in your neutral circuit. That disc would give you a location if you could access it.”

“I see. How do I update my GPI?”

“You can do it at any city information terminal. Just approach one and it should update automatically. They’re splattered all over the place.”

Marcus nodded behind him. “I saw one back there, just around the corner.”

Damien placed the disc back in his pocket. “Alright, I guess I’ll do that.”

“Before you go, let’s decide what we’re gonna do with this Zero situation.” Kat said.

“You guys are pirates, right?” Damien said, “I know you’re apprehensive, but isn’t this the kind of thing you do?”

Marcus blew out a cloud of smoke. “You’re right about that. Pirate work is all about meeting important people and securing jobs like these. But you gotta be careful who you’re working with. There’s a lot of dirty shit that goes on in this city, and you’ll get burned if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“And we don’t know a damn thing about this Zero person.” Kat said. “We don’t know his allegiances, his strengths, his vulnerabilities, or who he’s working with. We’re operating blind, and he holds all the power. This would be much easier if it was someone among the Big Five.”

“Big Five?” Damien said questioningly. He’d heard their mention before, but hadn’t bothered to ask for clarification.

“They’re the biggest information brokers within each of the five city districts. It’s something of an unofficial title, but they always have their fingers on the city’s pulse.”

“And so you’re worried about someone you don’t know having that kind of intel?”

“That’s right. Hate it or love it, he seems to be on the same level as the Big Five, if not higher.” Marcus said. “These are the kinds of people we need to work with. And at the very least, he wants TrillTech to go down, so our interests are aligned.”

“So he claims,” Kat said. “But we can’t know for sure.”

A brief silence surrounded them, before Marcus took one last drag of his cigarette and threw it on the ground. “Well, nothing we can do about it now. You can try to learn more about him if you want, but I’m willing to go through with this. I won’t give up on our friend.”

Kat let out a long and frustrated sigh. “You’re right. We have to do this for Jay.”

Marcus turned to Damien. “Well, Dame, what do you say? You in?”

Damien immediately nodded his head. He’d already made up his mind earlier, and he was hopeful that working with Zero would bring more answers to help him solve his mystery. He’d also be able to progress with his quests, and if he could help the two pirates find their friend while he’s at it, even better.

“Well that settles it,” Marcus said. “I’ll message the bombshell later to let Zero know. Funnily enough, I don’t wanna hookup with her anymore. Crazy what some Inkeye can do to you, eh?”

Kat raised an eyebrow at him. “You thought you had a chance with her?”

“Hell yeah. She was on my to-do list for the day. Guess I’ll move on to the next thing: an important meeting with Big G.”

“You’re going out there again?” Kat said. “Don’t you think you’re pressing your luck?”

“Not at all. I’ll be there deep into the night; can’t show those bastards I'm scared of them.”

Kat scoffed. “Whatever. Just be careful. I need to get something to eat. Been running around all day without a break.”

“Explains why you’re so grouchy,” Marcus said with wide grin.

Kat smacked him lightly on the arm before turning to face Damien. “What about you? You gonna go pay a visit to Zero’s acquaintance?”

“Yeah, it’s about time I started making some moves.”

“My man,” Marcus said in a proud and surprised tone. “You planning on going off on your own?”

“Not exactly. I thought about that offer you gave me earlier; about joining your crew. I’ve made up my mind, I’m in.”

New Title Unlocked: Pirate