Chapter 141
Brian smelled stale air and could barely see. After some confusion he realized that he was back in his bunker, his base. He had been extraordinarily close to being killed but had extracted with zero time to spare. Had the person noticed him even a second earlier he wouldn't have made it.
But he had made it.
Brian smiled and stood up. He brushed himself off and marveled at the fact he even had to do so. The new VR technology was incredibly immersive and Brian had to constantly remind himself that none of this was real.
Brian thought about the time and a tiny clock popped up in his vision. 17:04. So 17 minus 12 is 5, so it was 5:04 pm. He had thought that he would be kicked out of VR at 5:00 on the dot but that hadn't happened. He had misunderstood it seemed. The game map closed at 5:00, not VR entirely. It appeared that he was free to explore his base should he choose to do so.
Brian could barely see it was so dark so he wanted to focus on fixing that first. He had a Lighting Module – Basic that he was hoping would take care of his illumination needs.
The box turned out to not be a box at all – it was a sealed unit with no other details, just a smooth casing.
As Brian held the casing and looked about the room he saw that on the far wall was a number of open square sockets, one of which was highlighted blue.
Brian wanted to test something out. He put down the block and the socket on the wall went dark. He picked up the block once more and the socket on the wall lit up.
“Well that makes this pretty easy,” Brian said to himself as he fitted the six inch square casing in to the wall socket. It slid in to the slot easily and made a satisfying click sound once it was seated fully.
Immediately the bunker was suffused with a pleasant glow that lit up the entire space without revealing where exactly the light was coming from.
Brian smiled, he could see a lot more now. There was a main desk, a workbench for crafting, a bed, and a storage room with lots of shelving. There was another room that looked like it was meant for storing clothing or armor.
It was a metal bunker and the walls were painted a dark green. It was a bit spartan on decorations.
He emptied his pockets and tossed his coat on to the bed.
He had a knife, a fluffy strip of pink fabric, some coins, and a metal vial. The vial seemed like it was for charging up something with magic but he had yet to find anything that would work with it. He took the vial and the strip of fabric and put them on a shelf in his storage room.
He set the knife on the desk and took his coat off the bed and folded it over the back of the desk chair.
He counted the coins. There were five. Each coin was ridged along the edges and had a sword on one side and a staff on the other. So, in-game money perhaps, Brian thought to himself. He put them on the shelf in his storage room for now.
He'd take the coat and knife in with him when the game map opened next at 8pm.
There was really nothing else left for him to do at that point so he lay down in bed.
A notification popped up shortly after.
Do you wish to log out? YES|NO
Brian mentally selected yes and everything went dark as if he had fallen asleep.
*****
Brian woke up in the candy apple red gaming bed with the helmet still strapped securely to his head.
He tried to remove the straps and fumbled with the catches.
It was really well secured.
Brian slowed down what he was doing and carefully removed all of the straps and then the helmet. He sat up and stretched. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up.
That was when he realized how badly he needed to use the restroom.
He ran to the bathroom and made it just in time. He promised himself that next time he would go before logging in to VR. Thankfully the VR bed wasn't set up too far from the bathroom.
After washing his hands and getting dressed Brian was about to give his new computer a try when a button lit up on the panel next to the door. Brian got up and pressed the answer button.
“Hello Brian and congratulations on your first trip in to VR! How are you feeling?” a calm and possibly female sounding voice asked him.
Brian smiled, “I feel hungry. I feel great though, really. No side effects.”
“I will see that food is brought to your room. How does a bacon cheeseburger with chopped onions and a side of crispy shoestring fries sprinkled with Himalayan pink salt sound? I'll even throw in a chocolate malt milkshake.” the voice asked in an upbeat manner.
Brian's mouth began to salivate prodigiously. His stomach rumbled. He was starving.
“Oh god yes, please.” Brian answered a bit more confidently.
“Done. Your meal will arrive shortly. While you wait would you mind telling me how you felt in game?” the voice asked reasonably.
Brian nodded before he remembered that the disembodied voice couldn't see him.
“Sure. I mean no, I don't mind. I felt terrified. I saw a guy get torn to pieces by a dog like thing. Chased him down and killed him. Although that turned out pretty well for me, I got that basic light module out of it.” Brian replied as he trailed off in to thought.
“Did you experience the following symptoms at any time: Nausea, vomiting, blured vision, headaches, intense nerve pain, tremors, or seizures?”
Brian answered, “No, I felt great, I didn't have any...wait, seizures? Do people have seizures?”
There was a pause before the voice answered, “Some people who are predisposed to light strobe triggers may experience them if not properly prepared for in advance.”
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“Oh. Well, no. No seizures or anything else on the list. Just a bit of terror.” Brian answered truthfully.
“Excellent! In that case there are no more questions at this time. Should you need medical assistance at any time merely say the word help out loud and medics will be dispatched to your quarters. Alternatively you may use the call button on the door side panel in order to make any less emergent requests.”
“Thank you,” Brian said politely. He still had no idea who he was talking to.
“One last thing,” the voice stressed. “You should look through some of the Scavenger related info on your computer before you go in to VR again. It might end up helping you.
“Scavenger?” Brian asked.
There was a moment of silence before the voice continued, “Scavenger is the name of the game you have been playing. Some of the other testers coined the term and it has stuck. Good bye.” the voice answered before ending the conversation abruptly.
The button next to the door went dark once again.
He had turned to walk over to the computer desk when his door chimed. This was quite unlike the normal noise it made. Brian found the button on the side panel that opened the door and found a covered tray and milkshake set on a cart just outside his room. Brian took the tray from the cart along with the drink and the cart zoomed off down the hallway before turning out of view.
Delivery robots. Cool, Brian thought to himself. This place just gets better and better.
He brought the food and drink over to the desk. There was enough room at the desk for food and a drink easily.
He unwrapped the burger and took a bite. He made an mmmm noise as he chewed. He peeked under the top bun and smiled. They had buttered the buns and toasted them. It was delicious. There were no huge chunks of onion, it had been chopped in to tiny delicious pieces. The bacon was crispy without being chewy or tough. The cheese was sharp and salty.
The fries were still glistening from the cooking oil they had fried in and almost too hot to eat. Brian ate them anyway and chewed happily.
The shake was thick and creamy, the malt a perfect twist to the normal chocolate flavor.
He finally finished and wiped his hands on the napkin before dabbing his face clean. He used the napkin to wipe any crumbs off the table and on to his tray before he went to the door and set it outside.
He was full. Really full. He sat back down at his computer desk and pulled the keyboard over in front of him. With one hand on his stomach he used the other to grab the mouse and click on an icon labeled Scavenger.
It launched what looked like a game menu. It seemed that his VR base was accessible to him through the computer. He could look at items he had in storage. There was nothing listed under wearables or weapons either.
He thought that was odd. He knew he had left a knife and coat on the desk. Maybe it wouldn't show up unless he stored it in the proper storage room? He'd leave everything stored correctly next time and see if that made any difference.
There was a button for missions but he didn't have any yet. Another button for contacts was likewise empty. The upgrades button was more interesting. It showed the basic light module installed along with a number of empty slots.
It seemed that there wasn't much he could do in there yet. At least he wouldn't have to go in to VR to do everything. He could log out of the game then grab a bite to eat while managing his base and character.
He closed out the program and looked at what else was available. An icon for Scavenger Forum was off to one side of the desktop and he clicked that twice.
His browser opened up to a normal forum. There were a list of different post categories. There was a swaps post where people could post what they had and what they were looking for. There was a post for people looking to group up with others. Then there was a hodgepodge of random stuff. One post in particular caught his attention.
“Someone STOLE my lighting module!” was the title of the thread.
Brian felt a sinking feeling in his stomach but clicked on the post.
“Last session I was ambushed by a dog and killed but when I went back someone had taken everything! I know the dog didn't take it – NO POCKETS! - so it had to be one of you! If I ever find out who took my items I'm going to make you pay!” was the main post.
Responses were not positive.
“The dogs aren't aggressive in this game, what did you do to make it angry?” was a popular response.
“It ain't yours 'till it's back in your base!” pretty much summed up the general consensus.
“I don't know – should you steal other people's stuff after they die?” asked one comment.
“It's not your stuff if you left it behind!” insisted another player.
“The map is huge, the chances of you reaching the same spot twice in a game is very low. You spawn somewhere different every time. The other player had no way of knowing you'd return. Stop whining.” insisted another test participant.
Whoever had left behind the module Brian had taken was still angry over it. Brian wasn't the one that killed him though, so his death wasn't his fault. How was Brian supposed to know that the player would be back to get the items? Brian wasn't going to feel bad about it but he also wasn't going to tell anyone where he had gotten his light module from. Not that a lot of people were asking him that question.
He browsed through some of the other threads.
“Post your modules! Let's get a list going of known base modules...”
“Has anyone found a way to get Missions yet? My Missions tab is empty...”
“My wand won't work, it says it's out of charges? Anyone know how to fix?”
That last one got Brian's attention. He clicked on it and scrolled through a list of replies all admitting that they had nothing constructive to add to the conversation before he finally found something useful. Someone had posted that a NPC in game had told them about vials that could recharge wands and staves. They had yet to find one in game.
The thread devolved in to people trying to find anyone who had found a vial but without luck. That had then further evolved in to a bidding war for the first vial anyone found. The offered currency was not coin but items, a communications module, or a set of swords, another offered a full suit of leather armor. It appeared that actual currency was rare in game.
It seemed that Brian may be the first lucky owner of a vial of magical charges. Judging by how rare the vials were and how little Brian knew about combat in game he decided to keep quiet about his ownership of the vial. He'd leave it in his storage space for now until he got a better handle on whether or not he'd need it.
He browsed on a bit but was getting tired. VR seemed to really tire him out. He decided to read one more post and then take a nap. He went down the list of threads.
“Can you use armor without the armor skill? I found some armor but I can't seem to move in it or put it on correctly. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?”
“Don't kill everything! Some things are friendly in game! I was out by the library...”
Brian laughed at that last one. He had tried being friendly only to get shot at with an arrow. Some things may be friendly, but everyone he had met had been quite unfriendly.
“Magic Weapons Guide – by N3rd0gg”
Brian clicked on the magic weapons guide as he rolled his eyes at the author's chosen name. Using numbers for letters had gone out of style back in the twentieth century.
Whoever had written the guide was very excited, that much was clear. There was a lot of underlining, bold text, italics, and full word capitalization throughout the entire post, but the main information was usable. N3rd0gg explained how magical weapons required a charge. How long that charge would last could be impossible to know so when using a magic weapon one had to constantly be prepared to switch to another weapon should the magical one fail to fire off.
This added a degree of uncertainty to any attempted use of a magical weapon. Would it fire? Maybe. It fired last time, sure, but that was no indication that it would in the future. So anyone wielding a magic weapon and nothing else was taking a chance.
The author mentioned that although there were claims of vials that would recharge those weapons no one had yet to find one, so the author was going to assume the claims were untrue until proven otherwise.
Brian yawned and stopped reading. He was ready for that nap. He played about with the computer until he figured out how to set an alarm. He set it for one hour, that was plenty of time for a nap.
Finally he walked over to his bed and lay down fully clothed. In a moment he drifted off to sleep, his arms splayed out to the sides.