“She died. Sheep Girl,” Sarah told them as she came through the front door of their headquarters. The crowd of people milling in the field was visible briefly over her shoulder before the door swung shut. “Got caught by a ‘crocodile from hell,’ were her words. That's why she looked so upset,” Sarah said as she came to stand beside Erik, crossing her arms. “Her screen name is Rokell.”

“So she’s out?” Marcus asked, frowning as he leaned against the wall, one hand resting on his hip.

“Apparently not. Her teammates got away, which means she can be revived. I guess it costs biopoints, though.” Sarah glanced at Erik, her brow furrowed in thought.

“That’s not so bad,” Marcus said, shrugging, but Erik shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck as he considered the implications.

“No, that’s terrible. Think about it. Even if it’s just a small amount, we can only earn so many biopoints per day, and they’re essential to improving our survivability. Not to mention, we only have a limited number of days to progress. Any points not spent on progress mean falling behind the curve.”

“So they shouldn’t revive her?” Marcus asked, pushing off the wall to stand up straight, his expression serious now. Erik shook his head again.

“No, they should. In fact, it’s essential they do. I don’t think we’ll ever see a mutation benefit that outweighs an entire missing teammate. Maybe in the very late game, but even then.”

“What’s with this game and crocodiles?” Marcus muttered, but Erik set the gossip aside. As much as it sucked for Rokell and her team, it was to the benefit of their own. If they were going to win this, they would have to grasp every advantage given to them.

“What is that?” Sarah asked, leaning forward to study the 3-D representation of Erik's Juvenile Triceratops, floating above the table’s liquid metal surface. Her brow creased in concentration. The shiny metal skin was rippling in slow motion, like pebbles tossed into a still pond.

“My new mutation. Bio-resonant tissue.”

“Bio-what?” Marcus asked, and Erik grinned, straightening up from where he’d been leaning over the table.

“Bio-resonant tissue. Basically, it’s a mutation that lets my body absorb and store energy from impacts. Think of it like a spring getting compressed—only instead of just storing it, my muscles and bones sort of resonate with the energy. When I hit something or get hit, I can release that stored energy back into my attacks, making them hit way harder than they should.”

He paused, letting the idea sink in. “It’s like turning my entire body into a living battery that charges up every time I take a hit or make one.”

“Stores for how long?” Sarah asked.

“Not long. I think it’s some sort of elastic potential energy storage, but the game is messing with the laws of physics. In any case, you get a few seconds at most to spend your stored energy before it bleeds off.”

“Bleeds off into what?” Sarah asked.

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“I suppose it would be thermal normally?” Erik asked, uncertain. “The mutation doesn’t mention a thermal component, so my guess is that it just becomes inert. Can’t have players using it as a workaround in cold weather, I guess.”

“So what you’re saying is, it’ll let you headbutt things harder?” Marcus asked, bringing them all back to the key point of the ability.

“Yes,” Erik agreed. “Not a lot, not right away at least, but it has potential.”

“Couldn’t you just give yourself bigger muscles?” Marcus asked. “That was my plan.”

“Yes, and I plan to,” Erik answered, trying not to smirk as Sarah rolled her eyes. “But,” he continued, “there’s a lot to be said for having some tricks up your sleeve, and being able to store and redirect the energy of my opponents has a lot of potential. Not to mention what other mutations I can get in future evolutions that might also be able to take advantage of that energy.”

“Yeah, but when you’re big, you don’t need tricks,” Marcus said with a big grin, and Erik could practically hear Sarah rolling her eyes this time.

“True,” he agreed. “I just think I might be able to get some extra efficiency out of solutions that aren’t just packing on size.”

“So it’s all part of your master plan?” Marcus asked, coming to stand near the table.

“It’s a bit early for a master plan. The progression is more complex than any other game I’ve played. Give me a few hundred hours to scroll through the menus and a few weeks testing things in the game, and then maybe.”

“See, this is why I like my approach,” Marcus said, tapping on the table to bring up the model of his Juvenile Rex alongside Erik’s Triceratops. “Because that all sounds super boring, except for the in-game part.” Erik shook his head and turned to Sarah, leaving Marcus to beef up his Rex as much as he could.

“What about you, Sarah?” Erik asked as she stepped up and brought her own avatar out of the liquid metal.

“I think the intention is pretty clear,” she said. “We’ve got a scout”—she pointed to her raptor’s model—“a tank, and a brawler.” Her finger moved from her raptor to Erik’s Trike and then to Marcus’s Rex in order as she spoke. “And while I’m sure you’ll come up with something clever as we go, I don’t see any reason not to play to the obvious strengths, especially while we’re still working things out.”

“Sensible,” Erik said with a nod.

“Boring, you mean,” Marcus said with a scoff as he finalized his choices. His Rex dispersed back into the table.

“Says the guy who just spent all his points on bigger muscles,” Sarah fired back without taking her eyes off her own interface.

“Ha! Fair!” Marcus guffawed as he headed for the front door. “I'm gonna take a walk while there's no dinosaurs in the bushes.” The door swung shut behind him, and Erik turned back to look at the evolution menu when his vision suddenly blurred.

The room seemed to spiral into three separate versions of itself, each translucent, overlaid imperfectly, and moving clockwise. At the same moment, a pain swelled in his chest. Neither were unfamiliar sensations, but he’d never felt them in-game before. He took a white-knuckle grip on the table's edge to keep from toppling over, and almost as quickly as they’d come, the sensations vanished. His vision of the room coalesced back into a single image, and the pain was gone in less time than it took to inhale.

He held perfectly still, waiting for something else to happen. There was only one reason that real-world sensations would be penetrating the game world. Things on the outside must be bad. He knew he didn’t have long left, though he didn’t think he’d been cutting it so close.

“Erik,” Sarah spoke, still looking at her menus, drawing him from his own thoughts. It was clear she hadn’t noticed his moment of distress. “What do you think of this?” she asked, pointing at her screen, turning to look at him, her anthropomorphic human-rabbit features turned down in a frown. A part of him felt he should tell her, but he knew how she’d react. He also knew there was nothing anyone could do. They’d have to end the game for him to get medical attention. De-syncing would end the tournament, and he doubted he’d last the month anyway.

I’d lose more time than I gained.

“Let me see,” he said, making a decision and stepping toward her interface. There was nothing to be gained by worrying his friends.