I raced along the floating ruins, my very first game in Genesis underway. My opponent Rachel ran right alongside me. The goal of the game we were playing was simple. Catch the bird flying around before the other could. I was able to somewhat keep my eye on it, but pillars and other parts of the ruins that obscured my field of view, such as floating chunks of rock, made it difficult to see at times.

It would be one thing if that was the only issue I had to deal with. But of course, Rachel had requested a “danger field” for the game. The premise of it was simple. The very world itself seemed out to kill us both.

A statue falling over caught my attention just in time as I jumped out of the way. The delay it caused me allowed Rachel to slip past me. She flashed me a smile.

“What do you think? Pretty fun, huh?”

I let out a sigh as I continued running. This girl was out of her mind. I couldn’t believe anyone could consider increasing their risk of death “fun”. But it was clear Rachel had more than enough skill to deal with the obstacles we were facing. When she tripped a trap that caused the portion of the ground she was standing on to crumble away, she moved out of the way without breaking a sweat.

I scanned the sky, trying to find the bird I had lost sight of. However, it seemed to have vanished. I needed to get to higher ground. And a nearby pair of pillars connected by an arch gave me an idea to do just that.

Rushing over, I leaped up and kicked off the pillar. I then kicked off from the wall right next to it. Kicking off both sides one after another, I continued to move higher. Finally I landed at a higher elevated spot. It would be easier to spot the bird from here. Meanwhile, Rachel would still likely be struggling to get to higher ground. I had retaken the lead.

But when I glanced back toward where Rachel had been, there was no sight of her.

I frantically looked around. Where had she gone? She couldn’t have fallen victim to one of the traps around the ruins, had she? Was there a chance she had found a similar way to get higher up like I had? But where?

“Hm? You know birds tend to be up in the sky, not sitting on the ground, right?”

I jerked my head up as I heard the voice. I couldn’t believe it, but there she was. Rachel had somehow managed to get even higher than I had in this short amount of time. Except she wasn’t standing on any ground. She was hovering midair, with a pair of angelic white wings spread out from her back.

How was this possible? Was she an angel? No, of course that couldn’t be the case. I realized quickly what the cause behind this was. The special power given to every Player of Genesis. This was her Crest.

“What do you think of my Crest?” Rachel smirked. “It’s called Arcangel. It allows me to grow these wings out from my back in order to fly. Pretty neat, isn’t it?”

I had underestimated this girl. No, that wasn’t quite right. I had failed to ask myself an important question when I had first met her. She had been watching me since I first entered Genesis. And yet, she had managed to not only sneak up on me, but also get on the fire escape several blocks down without me noticing. I had been so surprised that I hadn’t bothered to consider how she had managed that. But now the answer was clear as day. She had been watching me from the roof of a building, flying around to keep track of me before coming down to greet me.

One of the hunks of rock floating in the air flew in towards Rachel, but she noticed it at the last second and dodged. “Whoopsie. That was a close one.” she said. “Anyway, I don’t know what your Crest is, but unless it lets you fly through the air like me I don’t see you winning this game. See ya. I’ve got a bird to catch.”

Not wasting another second, Rachel flew off. I grit my teeth and how much of an advantage she seemed to have in this game. She had played me, plain and simple.

What should I do? If I used my Crest, perhaps I could even the playing field. Just as I was about to use it though, I restrained myself. Rachel didn’t know what my Crest was. That meant she couldn’t plan ahead for it. Now wasn’t the time to use my Crest. I needed to be patient and wait for the right moment to turn the tables on her.

Rushing over to the nearby stairs, I moved further up. Finally, I could see the bird flying around the skies. However, Rachel was following it and every second she was inching closer. The floating chunks of rock were proving to be quite the obstacle for her however, preventing her from grasping victory. Even still, it was only a matter of time before she managed to grab the bird and win.

If I was going to use my Crest to turn things around, I needed to get closer. Both the bird and Rachel were flying further away from me. Currently their distance was a little under fifty meters. As I ran on ahead, I saw that the elevated portion of the ruins I was on descended down into an open courtyard area.

I ran down the stairs leading towards the courtyard. As I ran however, the stairs suddenly folded and turned into a smooth slope. I began to slide down as the area at the bottom opened up. Yet another trap from these ruins trying to kill me. Resisting the urge to escape using my Crest, I lunged to the side and landed away from the hole.

There was no time to rest. I kept running out into the courtyard. I made it to the far end, where the edge separated the ground from the open air. Thankfully, the chase between Rachel and the bird hadn’t moved much, and now the distance between them and myself was roughly twenty meters.

I kept a close watch on the bird, observing its movements as Rachel chased it. She kept glancing toward me for brief moments every few seconds to check what I was doing. I would only get one shot at unleashing my Crest before Rachel saw it and figured out what it was. That one moment would be crucial.

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With every inch Rachel moved closer to the bird, my urge to use my Crest grew. But I managed to keep my cool and wait. I needed to be precise.

Nineteen… no. Twenty-one meters. Wait for it… Now!

In the blink of an eye, the distance between myself and the bird shortened to less than a meter. Rachel widened her eyes in shock as she saw what had happened. After all, who would expect someone to go from standing on the ground to appearing in the middle of the air in the span of less than a second.

This was the Crest that I had received from the goddess. Fast Travel. The ability to teleport to any spot within my field of vision, up to thirty meters.

I had appeared right in front of the bird, which was now making an emergency turn to try and avoid me. I reached out my hand to grab it. It was so close. I could do it. I had to.

But no such luck existed. As I closed my hand around the bird, it just barely managed to elude my grasp. I clicked my tongue as my chance to win with the element of surprise slipped away. Rachel had quickly recovered from her surprise of the sudden use of my Crest and was turning with the bird to keep going after it.

Although I had missed my chance to grab the bird, I wasn’t about to simply roll over and let Rachel win. I reached out my other hand and grabbed her right ankle. I began to fly along with her, the extra weight hanging from her slowing down her speed considerably.

Rachel grit her teeth as she looked back at me. “Get your own wings!”

Bending her free leg in. Rachel sprang it forward and kicked me in the face. The blow forced my grip to loosen and I was now separated from her. Gravity began to work its magic on me as I began to fall while Rachel tried to catch up with the bird. If I did nothing, I would fall into the bottomless abyss past the clouds. I had no idea what awaited me if that happened. Worst case scenario, I could die.

Well I couldn’t let that happen.

Quickly maneuvering my body, I spread out my arms and legs to prevent myself from spinning like a gyroscope. I didn’t have time to get a good look at the small bird so I fixed my gaze on Rachel instead. The distance was roughly twenty-five meters. There was no more time to wait.

Here goes nothing.

Once again, I used Fast Travel to teleport. This time, I warped right over Rachel. A quick glance showed me that the bird was close, but not within my reach. But now I could get a more approximate estimate of the distance between it and myself. I kicked downwards against Rachel, causing a grunt to escape her as she was forced to balance herself out again. However, it was too late for her. Victory was mine.

I used my Crest a third time, appearing right next to the bird. It panicked and tried to flee, but this time I was ready. I swiped my arm sideways, grabbing the bird and holding it firmly in my grasp.

I had won.

I turned my body around midair and got a brief glimpse of Rachel’s bewildered expression just before my vision went white. A few seconds later, my vision cleared up and the sensation of falling through the air was replaced by the feel of solid ground under my feet. A quick glance around showed me that I was back in the city street I had been standing in with Rachel when the game had started.

A second later, tiny orbs of light flew out from Rachel’s Dux and into mine. My guess was those were the points I had won from her. Once the transfer was complete, Rachel’s Dux vanished from my sight once again. The red ring that had been around us was also gone.

Rachel lowered her gaze. Her entire body was shaking. “That… That…”

I readied myself. Was she angered by her loss against me? Would she attack me out of a need for revenge due to losing against a newcomer to Genesis? She had been the one to challenge me in the first place, but I had experienced my fair share of people getting pointlessly emotional over a loss during the program. If she attacked in a fit of rage, I’d need to kill her quickly before she could use those wings of hers to gain an aerial advantage over me.

However, rather than attack me, Rachel looked at me with eyes full of wonder and excitement. “That was amazing!”

“... Huh?”

“I was expecting you to put up some sort of fight based on your reflexes I saw earlier, but who knew you were that good?!” Rachel exclaimed. “I’ve never seen a newbie with skills like yours! You totally caught me off guard with your Crest! Can you friend me?! I want to play even more games with you!”

“Wait! Slow down!” I said. “You’re… not mad about losing?”

“Well of course I’m annoyed I lost, but it really doesn’t matter with how much fun that was. Besides, 500 points is nothing I’ll miss.” Rachel stepped forward, clasping my hand with hers. “But enough about that. What do you say? Will you friend me? Pretty please?”

“Friend you?”

“Yeah. It works just like social media sites back on the surface.” Rachel explained.

Social media? What exactly was she talking about? Was it something that was commonplace for the society that I had spent ten years isolated from since being taken into the program? My memories of my time before the program were foggy at best outside of my family. Had I encountered it before being kidnapped?

“Well? Will you friend me?”

I could always ask Rachel for more info on this social media she mentioned, but perhaps it was best to keep my questions related to Genesis to prevent her from gaining any insight to my past. “What kind of benefits does this ‘friending’ give? And how do I do it in the first place?”

“Oh that’s easy. Menu!” Rachel said. She began to tap what appeared to be floating invisible buttons. It seemed it wasn’t just the Dux of other Players that was invisible to me, but their menu screen as well. “Basically, you can send short messages to Players you friend through your Dux, kinda like a text. You can also check the location of any of your friends in Genesis. It’s a really handy feature.”

A few seconds later, a transparent blue window popped up in front of me. It read a simple message to me.

[Rachel has sent you a Friend Request. Accept? Y/N]

The idea of giving Rachel full time access to my location didn’t exactly thrill me, even if the opposite was also true. Could I trust this girl? For all I knew, she was secretly plotting to get rid of me at the right moment. However, this could also prove to be a good chance for me to get some information from her and learn more about Genesis.

“I’ll agree to it on one condition.” I said. “I want you to answer all my questions regarding Genesis.”

“Pfft, is that all? Sure.” Rachel replied with a shrug. “I’ll tell you everything I know about this city.”

I nodded my head and pressed the ‘Yes’ tab on the window. Once I did, the message was replaced with “Rachel has become your friend” before the window vanished entirely a couple seconds later.

Rachel’s smile grew wider. I don’t know what made her so happy about having me as a friend, but if it put her in a better mood then who was I to complain?

“Alright, let’s talk then. You said you had questions.” Rachel began walking down the street, gesturing to me to follow her. “I can show you the way to the shopping and residential district in the meantime.”