My time in the program had prepared me for many different things. It had prepared me to be able to fight and kill with a variety of weapons, and even bare handed if need be. It had prepared me to plan ahead and outwit the enemy, always thinking one step ahead of them. It had prepared me to discard my emotions and betray anyone if it meant getting one step closer to my goal.

It had not however prepared me for clothes shopping with a girl.

“Hmm…” Rachel gazed up and down at me, examining the outfit I had picked out. “I don’t know about this…”

“It fits. Isn’t that good enough?” I asked.

“Of course not! It’s one thing about how bland your outfit looks, but the colors don’t even match well!”

I let out a sigh. It was true that I had mentioned wanting to get a new set of clothes as I was walking with her. My outfit was a dead giveaway of who I was for anyone who had graduated from the program. If I wanted to avoid being noticed by them, I needed to get rid of what I was wearing, thus a new change of clothes. I had never bought clothes for myself before so I had to admit I was anything but a fashion expert. However I hadn’t expected Rachel to be such a stickler for this sort of thing. In my eyes, almost anything would have worked.

“Just give me a sec. I think I have an idea.” Rachel said as she moved towards a rack of clothes in the store.

On our way here, Rachel had managed to tell me a lot about Genesis that I wasn’t aware of. The area we were in now was called a Safe Zone. It was a portion of the city dedicated to apartment housing and shops. The reason it was called a Safe Zone was because of the special rule that applied to it. You could not kill others here.

That wasn’t to say that it was impossible to kill someone within the boundaries of the Safe Zone, but if you did the goddess would know almost immediately and send an Admin to deal with you. Put simply, killing someone in here was tantamount to throwing your life away, so it was very ill advised. If nothing else, it put my mind at ease a bit, since it made the chances of someone trying to kill me in my sleep slim to none. The Safe Zone perimeter was also marked clearly by blue lines so it would be pretty hard to not know if you were in the confines of it or not.

The second thing I had learned was about the structure of the city itself. Put simply, Genesis could be broken up into two primary sections. Where we were now was the Outer Section. It covered roughly sixty percent of the city and was separated by a large indestructible wall from the remaining forty percent on the far end of the city known as the Inner Section. Every Player began in the Outer Section we were in. A tall pristine tower that the goddess Deus resided in was located in the Inner Section, which Players needed to reach in order to challenge her to a game. However, in order to get to the Inner Section, one first had to pass through the gate and Players could only do so if they had a minimum of one hundred thousand points.

I had asked Rachel why she couldn’t just fly over the gate. After all, it would be a simple matter with her Crest. However, she told me she had tried that once and found a forcefield over the wall that prevented anyone from going over it. So even if I managed to get to a high enough area to see over the wall, chances were high that Fast Travel wouldn’t allow me to move past it either.

Given that I currently only had 1,500 points to my name, a massive amount like 100,000 was going to be far out of my reach for now. I would just have to take it one step at a time.

“Here we are!” Rachel said, walking back over to me with a shirt and pants. “Try these.”

Giving a shrug on indifference, I walked back into the changing room. Taking off the outfit I currently had on, I tried the clothes Rachel suggested. They consisted of a simple short-sleeve tan shirt with an abstract blue pattern on it, and black pants. Looking at myself in the mirror, I suppose it did look a tad nicer than my earlier pick. But I still didn’t see the point of caring that much over it.

I walked out and showed myself off to Rachel. “Better?”

“Perfect!” Rachel replied with a wink and smirk.

At least that was finally over. I walked to the register and paid for the clothes, the points automatically being extracted from my Dux. I wondered about the woman behind the counter, as I couldn’t imagine any Player wanting to waste their time working in a store, but Rachel told me the woman wasn’t a player. She was instead something Players referred to as Residents, artificial humans whose purpose was to oversee shops and whatnot. Essentially these Residents made up the entirety of people within Genesis who worked at its various establishments.

I left the store in my new outfit. My Dux was capable of storing things for me, such as clothes, but I’d be fine with the one set for now. “So you said there are apartments in this area too?”

“That’s right. I’ll show you the one I’m staying at.” Rachel said. “It’s a bit on the pricier end, but it’s nothing a Player like you won’t make back quickly.”

I followed Rachel through the city streets. The Safe Area was primarily a large central plaza with five streets stretching out in different directions. Roads formed in a circular pattern at set distances before returning to the gridded setup outside the Safe Area. Many Players were gathered in the Safe Zone, a far cry from the practically barren streets I had first entered in. Despite the Players here likely being from all over the planet, I could understand them in perfect English. The automatic translator from the Dux really was an amazing feature.

Now that I thought about it, where was Rachel from? She looked like she could be American at least, but that was no confirmation. I considered asking, but opted against it. If I dug into her past, she might want to know more about mine.

After a minute or two of walking, we finally arrived at our destination. A several story tall pristine silver building stood up before us. Polished glass windows coated the building’s exterior. It gave off a rather fancy vibe.

“The regular rooms are 200 points a night, but it’s got its own restaurant that only guests can eat at so it’s rather convenient in that regard.” Rachel told me. “I’ll treat you to dinner as thanks for the fun game and friending me. I’m guessing you don’t want to spend too many more points right now.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She wasn’t wrong. Between my new clothes and the 200 points it would cost to spend the night here, my 1500 points was now going to be at 1150. I also didn’t know how long it would take me to accumulate more points so the more I could hang on to for now the better.

As I walked inside with Rachel, I was greeted by an open lobby with elegant decorations. A few Players were lounging about, but otherwise it was pretty empty. A pair of stairs could be seen leading further up to three elevators overhead of the concierge desk at the far end of the room.

“It’s still a little early, but how about dinner?” Rachel suggested. “I can finish up whatever other questions you have while we eat.”

“Sounds fine to me.” I answered. Considering I hadn’t eaten anything today other than a small breakfast on the ship, I was frankly a little hungry with it being the middle of the afternoon.

“Good. I’ll go get us a table. You go check into a room. Just talk to the concierge up ahead.”

With that, Rachel walked over to the right where there was an opening to an adjacent room, likely the restaurant. Meanwhile, I went up and spoke to the man at the desk. He acted surprisingly normal for what was supposed to be an artificial human. Had I not been told about this in advance, I would have thought he was as human as I was.

Once I received my room key, I walked over to the adjacent room where Rachel had gone in. The restaurant had violet carpeting and numerous tables with white tablecloth covering them. Only a small handful of the tables were taken so there would be no problem getting one for me and Rachel.

“Ah, perfect timing.” Rachel said as she noticed me enter. “Come on. I got us a table over there.”

I followed Rachel to one of the smaller tables where two menus were already laid out. We both sat down and opened our menus, looking at the options. A few minutes passed before a waitress came over to check if we were ready. I ordered the herbed chicken while Rachel got a plate of spaghetti.

As the waitress walked away, Rachel spoke to me. “So, what else would you like to know?”

“For starters, is there a way to gain points outside of games?” I asked.

“Oh sure, that’s simple. You just need to clear the weekly quests.”

Yet another term I was unfamiliar with. “Quests?”

“Yeah. They’re basically missions that happen every week. If you clear the weekly quest, you get some points. The amount ranges each week, but it’s usually within the ballpark of 5,000 or so. The only issue is there’s a limited number of Players that can clear a quest each week. First come first serve.”

“So how do I find out what the quest is?”

“It’ll be listed each week in the menu of your Dux.”

Curious, I called out “Menu” and a window popped up before me. A series of tabs were available. On the top right corner, it showed my total number of points. Directly under it was a tab reading [Quest]. I tapped on it and a new window emerged, showing a message.

[Find one of the gold coins scattered throughout the city (Note: Each Player can only obtain one coin). Reward: 4000 points. Gold coins found: 300/300]

“Finding coins?” I questioned.

“Yeah. This week’s Quest was pretty simple. I cleared it in a day.”

“There’s three hundred in total…” I muttered to myself. “How many Players are there in the Outer Section of Genesis?”

Rachel replied with a shrug. “I don’t know the exact number, but if I had to guess… maybe eight hundred or so? A little lower maybe?”

In other words, roughly eighty percent of the Players in Genesis were in the Outer Section. That meant it would be even harder to reach the points I needed to move on. Or perhaps it was a sign that things were just that much more dangerous on the other side of the wall. Either way, it was clear those in the Inner Section were the elite of the elite.

Today was the final day of the week though, so the quest would change tomorrow. With any luck, I could clear it quickly and start saving up some points. I couldn’t afford to drag my heels here.

The waiter came over and placed our drinks on the table. The topic of points brought another question to my mind. “Out of curiosity, how many points do you have, Rachel?”

Rachel took a sip of her drink before responding. “Before I answer, I have a proposition for you.”

I raised my brow. “A proposition?”

“How would you feel about being my partner?” Rachel asked. “Working together with me as a team?”

The suggestion certainly caught me off guard. “I thought it was every Player for themselves in Genesis.”

“It’s true that every Player is aiming to challenge the goddess; or most of them are at least. But it’s not unheard of for Players to work together, be it for Quests or just overall in general. It can end up being more efficient in the long run.”

I considered the proposal. Although everything she had told me so far seemed to be true, I still couldn’t bring myself to fully trust this girl, or anyone for that matter. Then again, I didn’t have to. If she was being dishonest, I’d kill her the second she tried to backstab me. And if her offer to work together was genuine, I could simply discard her once she had outlived her usefulness. After all, killing allies was something I was no stranger to.

“For the record, after eight months here on Genesis, I’ve gathered up about 70,000 points.” Rachel added.

I widened my eyes. I had seen Rachel in action so I knew she had skill. And even for her, she had been here for eight months and still wasn’t at the amount of points needed to move forward?

She was a veteran here. A wealth of experience and knowledge. At the very least, a little cooperation wouldn’t hurt for the time being. “Alright. I’m in.”

“Really?! You mean it?!” Rachel exclaimed, standing up from her seat as staring at me with the same excited expression she had after our game. “This is great! Happy to be working with you, Nate! We’ll be the greatest partners ever!”

It seemed I was going to have to get used to this girl’s enthusiasm. “Y-Yeah…”

Eventually, our food arrived. The chicken on my plate seemed well-seasoned, and I could see a thin layer of steam rising from the vegetables on the side. Meanwhile, the pasta on Rachel’s was covered in a rich creamy sauce. Compared to the canned meals I was used to eating for the past ten years, this might as well have looked like the highest class of fine-dining.

I cut off a piece of my chicken and put it in my mouth. In that instant, everything around me seemed to fade into the background. Meals during the program gave us the basic nutrition we needed. Anything superfluous like taste was secondary. Almost every meal I ate there tasted bland, and the few times there actually was any real flavor I was usually too tired from training to care. But the chicken in my mouth delivered a sensation to my taste buds I hadn’t experienced in ten long years. A warm cooked meal, prepared with tender care. Flavor danced along my tongue unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

It hadn’t really hit me up to this point that I was free from it. I was done with the program. I no longer had to endure hellish training. I no longer had to live in a dark depressing facility where sunlight couldn’t reach. I no longer had to associate with fellow trainees like me who had spent their childhood being turned into human weapons.

I was free from it all. And it took the taste of a well-cooked meal to drive it home.

As she finished the first bite of her meal, Rachel looked my way with a curious expression. “Are you crying?”

I hadn’t noticed the sensation of water rolling down my cheeks until Rachel had pointed it out. I quickly calmed myself down and wiped my eyes. “It’s nothing.”