Logan opened his eyes, seeing his hospital room again. He didn’t miss being here, but he did enjoy seeing the nurses roam around the room, unaware he was awake yet. Sometimes he felt like a ghost, but other times he was able to convince himself he was just very stealthy and that they couldn’t see him. He wasn’t afraid to admit to enjoying some childish fun, but he also recognized that it was a defense mechanism to protect him from deeper realizations.

The nurses couldn’t see him, but the speakers placed around the room would simulate the rough position of where he was speaking from if he spoke in his digital render of the space. “Is Dr. Master’s available at the moment? I’d like to speak with him if possible.”

Both of the nurses jumped and stared at what they saw as an unmoving body, chest slowly rising and falling with a thick plastic helmet covering the majority of his head. They looked at each other, and the one closest to him spoke. “He’s here, one of us can let him know you’re asking to see him.”

“Thank you. There’s no rush, it’s not like I’m going anywhere.” He replied, hoping his bad attempt at humor would help to ease the tension in the room. The nurses exchanged another look, and while one finished the task she was on, the other quickly left the room, disappearing from his vision.

—

Dr. Masters arrived, looking excited. His hair bounced as he quickly moved into the room, taking a stool with wheels and rolling to the side of Logan’s bed with it. The older gentleman had a professional look which was contrasted by the child-like wonder on his face. “Mr. Randall, how can I help you? Are you enjoying the new world that Prestige Entertainment has sent you to?”

Logan couldn’t help but smile and shake his head. The trauma of watching his friend die ran through his mind. “Sometimes when I’m there I can’t tell that it’s not real. It’s… a hard adjustment, since I don’t have a good baseline anymore.” He told the doctor about everything that had happened so far, trying to not spare any details, because he might not realize what’s important.

The two of them chatted for a few hours, Dr. Masters able to help him through a hurdle or two, but it wasn’t his area of expertise. He offered to call for the psychologist, but Logan declined for now. He wanted a bit of time to decompress, hoping to get back into the game world when his friends were ready.

He opened the forums and started to look more into what other players had figured out about the game world and what their experiences were, hoping they could help to shed some light on what he might want to do going forward.

Class changes, he learned, were hard to come by but not entirely unique. Special roles and advanced classes could only be unlocked with a combination of attribute distribution and ability platforms chosen correctly, but some of the hidden classes people shared had yet to be replicated, a few players having classes that were unique at the moment.

What Logan didn’t find, however, was a class change that would permanently lock once unlocked. He wasn’t sure what that meant, but maybe he should just sit back and enjoy finding something so rare that not one other person had posted about it yet.

The forums were usually divided between the four different worlds, as there wasn’t too much overlap between them. Entering specific search terms, however, lead to a post that was only an hour or so old. The title was “HEx user rarity boost?” and he was intrigued enough to click on it.

“Is there a known boost to the HEx loot drops?” The post was short and sweet, with about a dozen replies, ranging from a simple “no” to “what the heck is a HEx?” which didn’t surprise Logan, as they were part of a very small focus group. He decided to reply to the post, which had been put online by HEx #2.

“I’ve noticed that loot drops a little easier for me as well. Not sure if it’s bias, or if there’s something else going on. Feel free to DM if you want to keep in touch.” He thought his message would be good enough that another HEx would get some information, but it wouldn’t hold too much for anyone else. It helped that he was assigned his name for the forums, so he was simply HEx #5.

Searching around a bit more, he found videos of other players attempting to clear a devourer nest, with very very mixed results. The amount of screaming and carnage was terrifying, and he understood why most of the videos began with a disclaimer saying that they were visually disturbing. He wasn’t sure what to make of his team and the relative ease with which they blew through the dungeon. Maybe it was easier since it hadn’t been completed at all beforehand? Or the damage output they had, combined with their sneak attack tactics and his revival drone, made for an easier time overall. Logan had no answer, but seeing a devourer worker shred a person in half was not something he was prepared for. He moved away from these posts, knowing he’d have to go back sometime soon to fight the monsters again.

—

Logan logged back in, appearing in the safe room before the boss room. He was quite a few hours ahead of schedule, but since he didn’t actually need to sleep much anymore, he had plenty of time to kill. Killing monsters, of course, since time wasn’t something he could get his hands on at the moment. He wanted to practice and experiment with his new blade, and also to save on ammo, since he only had a few spare packs and his pistol would only recharge a single shot every two hours. Fighting the boss alone didn’t seem like a good idea, so he opted to go back and try to ambush a few of the warriors and defenders, to test the waters.

The first attempt didn’t go well. He wasn’t a scout, so his ability to sneak wasn’t great, but he got close and then the warrior spun around and tore through his leg. It only took a minute or so for the bleeding condition he suffered from to overtake him, which it only had the chance because he had taken the chance to remove the head off of the devourer while it was removing his leg for him.

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Logan thanked the system admin that the respawn timer in the dungeon was only forty-five minutes in-game time rather than six, or he would have wasted his only chance before his friends logged back in. His second attempt went better, since instead of trying to use stealth to get close, he used it to get close enough and then rushed forward to sever its head. It didn’t always work well, but waiting and resting between fights made sure he didn’t need to use his healing syringes.

After a couple of hours, Logan was confused, since the only piece of gear he looted was the helmet and he had gotten at least three of them. Mason and Meghan had told him that it was the hardest piece to find, enough so that other players had not found one yet. He enjoyed the extra chitin, which he could use or sell for some cash when it became an issue he needed to concern himself with. Without a workshop, he’d have to wait to use it for upgrades or crafting, but he was excited to see what he could upgrade later on.

Ambushing became boring after a while, and while he enjoyed the swift death he was bringing with the mandible blade, he missed being able to be safe with his drone providing backup. He couldn’t have his valkyrie flying with him during his ambushes, because it let out a low whine that the devourers responded to rather quickly, making any stealth attempt fail immediately.

Loneliness started to get to him after a long while of being in the dark caves with nothing but large insects and their corpses to keep him company, so he was ecstatic when a little ding sound signaled a message from Meghan, saying that they were all online and waiting for him. He jogged back to the safe room, where he saw Pat excitedly showing Meghan and Jones what the helmet looked like. They looked over to Logan as he entered, offering congratulations, but Meghan also lightly punched him in the arm.

“Why did you guys go on without us? Taking all of the bonus for completing the dungeon first! You got a helmet, though, so Mason will be happy, I guess.” She moved from angry to a little defeated. “Should we try the queen together since we’re here? See what Jones and I get from it?” She gestured to the door leading into the chamber that held the queen.

“Might as well,” Jones chimed in, “I’d like to fight a boss for the first time in a month, all of the good spots have been taken by the Free States anymore. Even on the level one planets, they’ve capitalized on everything they can get their hands on.” They all nodded to one another, walking to the door.

—

The four of them were better coordinated than when it was just Logan and Pat, and while they still took plenty of damage between them, by taunting the queen to switch targets when someone was close to dying, they were able to make sure that there were very few deaths in the fight, and even then, Logan’s valkyrie was able to bring them back into the fight rather quickly. It took quite a while, since Logan was still trying to conserve ammo, but his blade was able to strike her legs off during the fight, and he even clipped her elbow at one point, making that set of claws useless.

The others were doing well in the fight, Meghan providing high damage at tactical moments, using the distraction the others provided to score hits on vital parts of the queen. Pat brought out her grenades, making sure to avoid throwing them when Logan was close. Her rifle cracked a lot of the carapace on the front and sides of the queen’s body, making it easier for everyone else to score damage. Jones provided consistent damage through his turret when it was active, as it never really stopped firing a light barrage of energy at the queen. It started to be stronger in the fight the longer it went on, as the cracks allowed the energy blasts to pierce into the soft flesh underneath. His shotgun was useful, much in the same way; providing a barrage of shot that was best used against the cracks in the carapace compared to directly on the unbroken pieces.

The queen fell eventually, prompting Jones to thrust a fist in the air and shout. He kicked the corpse a few times before picking up his turret for the sixth or seventh time since the fight started. Meghan gave a kick as well, which made Logan raise an eyebrow. Pat came and kicked the queen, finally prompting Logan to ask his question.

“Okay, why are you all kicking it? Why aren’t you looting it?” They looked to him like they were taking part in a joke. They started to laugh, which confirmed it.

“You don’t have to touch a corpse with your hand, you just have to touch it.” Pat explained. “Makes things a lot easier when it’s all gross like this.” She gestured to the pile of goop that was around them, admittedly not as bad a when he went to town and shredded the body last time.

“So what’s the haul this time? Did we get anything good?” Logan asked the others. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but he did know that they should be happy with the gear drops if they were what he had been seeing the last few hours.

Jones was the first to reply, “Picked up a pair of the boots, pair of the gloves, one of the suits, and a bunch of chitin. Oh, and something called a Dust Pin but I’ll have to figure that one out later.” Meghan nodded along, speaking next.

“I got the same. Not the pin, but the boots, gloves, and suit. Bunch of chitin as well.” Meghan seemed a little disappointed, but otherwise in good spirits. Pat agreed that she got the same loot, not one of them received a helmet. Logan pulled his extras out of his inventory and handed them out, hoping it would help to tide them over and show Mason that this wasn’t a wasted trip. “Logan, how did you get so many? We thought they were really hard to find, but between you and Pat you have five of them.”

“I don’t know, I just spent some time before you guys logged on going around and practicing with my new blade. Chopping the insectoids up and cutting their heads off.” As Logan spoke, Jones’s face became contemplative.

“Maybe…” Jones began slowly, “it’s based on what body part we break, and the helmet only comes when we smoothly remove the head? We’ve destroyed them before, but it was never severed cleanly. Plenty of chopped legs and claws, though.” The other two thought it over for a bit before talking among themselves.

“Is it really just that simple?”

“Why didn’t we think of that?”

“Maybe because nobody wanted to get close enough to try? These things can rip us apart in one hit if they wanted.”

“Huh, well, maybe this will help Mason with his plan, and the other leaders will be convinced to work with him.”

The two of them eventually quieted down, and Logan had looked at what he picked up, confirming the same gears pieces his friends said they had found. He did want to see if he could find another heart amidst the corpse, but while he was starting to carve up the pieces, it started to dissolve into digital noise.

Logan sighed, a little frustrated. “Maybe we should head out and give the good news to Mason. I’d like to get out of these caves soon.” The others agreed, and they showed him that in the back of the room when the boss was dead, a circle had lit up on the ground. Stepping into it, they were teleported to the entrance of the caves, the bright sunlight filtering in through the dust outside.

The three buildings were exactly where they left them, and Tony and Wendy were milling around with a few others. The newest addition, though, and a surprise to Logan, was a ship that was parked just past the last building. A larger and heavier looking model, it seemed like it could carry a few people, which was confirmed when the back ramp slid down and three people disembarked the craft.

Two players in heavy armor, carrying assault rifles and riot shields, flanked Mason in his even heavier armor, carrying a very heavy looking minigun in his hands. Mason didn’t have a helmet on, unlike the others, so they could see the face he was making. It was torn between hunger and rage. The minigun started to whirr, spinning up before the main trigger would start shooting.