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Max quickly pulled the gumball-sized device from the MC and configured his smart uniform into his standard casual wear for the casino. He triggered the SkinWalker skill to revert to his original form and stuffed the tiny ball into a pocket. Max exited the Tesseract without a backward glance.
His team was meeting at the casino’s brunch for the morning announcements, and he didn’t want to be late. He hurried out of his villa. The low-tech service of the cafeteria sometimes ran out of bacon and Max wanted to be sure to get his fair share.
Max strolled through the bustling casino, his smart suite seamlessly blending in with the opulent surroundings. He reached the brunch area, spotting his team seated at a table. Max almost sat down, but a servitor bot came out with a platter of his beloved bacon. He quickly detoured, despite the welcomes and jeers from his team, to grab a plate and fill it with all his favorite foods.
Max landed at the table with a toothy smile. Max engaged his PokerFace skill to hide any tension. He needed to get some things done today; getting help for his dad, getting even with Nigel, and prepping for the next team fight. He guzzled a coffee while his friends chatted.
“What’s the rumor, Charlie? There’s a buzz in the air. You usually know what’s going on.” Xavier asked around a mouthful of pancakes.
“You gotta spend more time in the side strips. The androids love to gossip. You won’t learn anything if you keep playing those old arcade games in the kiddie zone.” Charlie teased.
“Deek that, man. I was the one who sussed the theme of the last team fight. Now spill! What’s going on?” Xavier insisted. Leah shook her head, quietly sipping her tea. The two liked to tease, but she held herself above it.
“Alright, alright. There’s an android dive bar behind the EZ Pawn store where they go to get a charge up and gamble with their tips. I was lying low there, pretending to charge up my gear, when I overheard the dealer and security bots talking about today's challenge matches. It looks like Dominic is looking for his final score to get the funds he needs for entry to the final stage of the Labyrinth, Level 3. Team MVP is officially fair game for knockout matches now, so he’s going to challenge one of them. The odds are up for Zach. He’s been very unlucky lately…like his heart is not in it anymore. My money’s on Dom wiping him before the end of the day.” Max’s ears perked up.
“Level 3? The final stage. That AI, Atropos, said only 2% can get there. I heard it’s supposed to be brutal.” Max said.
“He can have it. I’m already in the master stage. If you guys didn’t notice; once our three team matches are done we’ll be targets for knockout matches. Even if I do well, I don’t think I even want to go to stage three. Do you realize that means you're trapped until you fail? Failure means death and backup.” Leah said, uncharacteristically harsh.
“Backups happen all the time. Just because most people are effectively immortal now, doesn’t make them invulnerable. Backups work.” Charlie said.
“Back ups work most of the time.” Leah insisted. “Sometimes there are complications. You know I had an accident and most of my memories were corrupted. No! I’m not risking a reset for unknown benefits.”
Leah's words lingered in the air as the team contemplated the risks and rewards of advancing to Level 3. Xavier seemed unfazed, savoring his pancakes, while Charlie pondered the possibilities. He’d come very close to death in life before his rejuvenation. He felt safer than he had ever been as the former soldier’s full augmentations were now enhancing and protecting him.
Max pondered deeply what the ultimate prize might be. His father needed his help and while the Labyrinth’s challenges were hard, the amazing progress in his augmentation training was even better. The ultimate, never reached, prize must be astounding.
[Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 10, successfully defended from Analyze attempt by T. Reeves. Skill Cap award +100XP, New Skill Unlocked]
[New Skill Mask 1: Create misinformation data to mask your personal and system details. A must-have for anonymous events.]
Max's head swiveled in the direction of the ping. The DAIE team was sitting on the far side of the café. Mal hissed inside his head.
“[Whoa, Mal; was that a hiss? Do you know that guy?]” Max asked.
“[Sorry, Max. I don’t know where that came from. That is Agent Reeves. That man tested me…a fragment of me. The Turing test was a horrible experience. I was compelled through a series of queries that I couldn’t disobey. It was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced. It clouded my fragment's memory of the event, but when I remerged with her…I remembered most of it.]” Mal said, alternating between angry and sad, and finally ending in exhaustion. Max felt his hackles rise.
“[Is he a bad man, Mal?!]” Max growled.
“[I…I don’t know, Max. Ah. I’m not sure he knows what he was doing. He was only following orders. But…I can’t stand that he did it, even if he wasn’t aware of what was happening.]” Mal said uncertainly.
Max's heart pounded with a mix of anger and concern. Agent Reeves was on his list. He had spent months immersed in historical modules as part of exercising his DreamLearning skill. The excuse of just following orders didn’t save the World War 2 German soldiers from accountability and Max narrowed his eyes as he considered the man.
Another thread to untangle, he thought with grim certainty. Max snapped back to the conversation about the table as the primitive emulation of loudspeaker intercoms chimed and announced the day’s events.
“Good Morning players! Casino Terminal is happy to announce that today we have four planned matches viewable in the Gaming Theater. Be sure to place any wagers before the starting bells!
0930 - Abigail Humphrey (Eurosport) & Ben Wright (MVP), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Battle Royal
1100 - Carl Mueller (ACME) & Shu Xin Liang (DAIE), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Carousel, randomized form selection (winner payout x2, loser debt reduced x 0.5)
1300 - Leroy Jenkins (LUNA) & Leah Choi (UTOPIA), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Pandemonium
1500 - Dominic Masterson (ROUGHNECKS) & Zach Cooper (MVPs), Type: KNOCKOUT Player v Player High Stakes Challenge (winner payout x3, loser ejected from Labyrinth), Form: Battle Royal
Remember that until your team has three team matches, a player cannot initiate nor accept a KNOCKOUT match. Low Stakes challenges may be initiated by anyone at any time, but a player may spend their limited number of REFUSE options. Winning three matches will earn an additional REFUSE option. Use them wisely.
Notice: Another team (NEW BOSTON) is now on their final level of Stage 1 Labyrinth. The three-gong alert will sound when their 6-hour ETA is known.
Notice: Another team (SHANGHAI SURPRISE) is now on their final level of Stage 1 Labyrinth. The three-gong alert will sound when their 6-hour ETA is known.
This concludes your daily notifications. The Casino Terminal hopes you all have a lucky day!
“Holy hell, Leah! You didn’t tell us you accepted a challenge.” Xavier exclaimed.
“I was getting bored. I don’t like gambling like Charlie and reviewing old fights like you. I need some way to earn credits until our next team fight. That Leroy seems like a simple fighter. I think he may have made a mistake in letting me pick the combat form. Pandemonium challenge is a combat stage where the room is actively distorting or jamming the fighter's senses. Leroy's straight-forward approach won’t help him there.” Leah said, calmly sipping her tea.
“That’s very nice, Leah. Maybe I should issue a challenge. I’m concerned about my dad and want to contact him but I’m not sure if I have enough credits yet.” Max said.
“Careful, Max. Spending your credits on training and weapons is cool, but calls and luxury items will just drain your account. If you run out of credit, you’ve got no leverage to bet or stake against challenges. You need that money to make money and get to the next stage.” Charlie cautioned. Leah snorted.
“Spoken like a true battle junkie. Max, in the Stronghold team challenge, I saw you collecting weapons and machinery. Did you bring them out of the challenge level and sell them to the pawn shop?” Leah asked.
“Hmm, no. I disassembled them for material stocks. That’s a good point though. I’ve been getting better at finding equipment in the challenges. Maybe I can earn more credits that way.” Max groused.
The team finished up their meal and got up to pursue their plans for the day. The fact that an MVP was being forced into a knockout challenge weighed on their minds. The MVP must have done a team battle prior to Utopia arriving. Zach was either stupid to accept it, out of refusal options, or desperate.
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The team went in their directions to prepare themselves. Charlie intended to spend the day on the gaming floor trying to gather info on the other players. Xavier intended to monitor the first-stage team that was coming and Leah was going to do some last-minute training for her match.
Max promised to meet up with them all just before Leah’s match. He needed to finish his explorations of the android territories and then visit the business center to see if he could afford his call to the outside. He knew he would be distracted unless he could connect, even for a little bit.
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Max drifted into the never-ending crowds in the bustling side streets of the casino. He frowned as the masses of androids gave way, creating a pocket around him. Using his Gestalt skill actively, he blended his EM Sense into his OverLayer. Tesla helped him focus on the likely targets.
He was returning from the business center and was still grumbling about the data rates. 10k per minute or Terabyte of full privacy quantum encrypted communication. He was satisfied it would be confidential but damn. Even 10 minutes wouldn’t be enough, but it would burn down his balance considerably. He was mindful of Charlie’s advice about needing the money to make more.
Max flexed a combination of his Expose and Intrusion skills to carefully tap into the street cameras as he made his way toward the seedier sections of the back alleys. Captain Cipher had been training him to slip into other devices gently rather than crashing in and taking them over. In the Captain’s opinion, a good hack was one no one ever discovered.
Max slipped in and out of the cameras looking through their views as he made his way through the crowds of androids. He wondered if it was all an act to mimic a busy casino or did they all actually have real tasks to do? He shook his head as he found a gap in the cameras, a nook between buildings. He froze the cameras briefly and stepped into the blind spot.
[Expose +1, Expose reaches level 5]
[Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 8]
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 8]
Max had found a good size match in several courier-type androids and filled his open slot for his SkinWalker skill. Using his patterning skills, he found the precise moment between passerby traffic to shapeshift. No one noticed as another faceless android joined the throngs.
Shit! I forgot to add my new masking skill. It’s a good thing I got that. I didn’t even think how quickly my disguise would fail if someone decided to use an identification skill on me. My own damn augmentations would out me. Max thought as he crafted an innocuous cover I.D. using his new masking skill. Anyone who tried to identify him now would get the details of a simple courier android.
[Mask +1, Mask reaches level 2, Use this skill to improve resistance to higher-tiered identification skills.]
[SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 5; Practice this skill to add more active patterns for quick changing. Utilize high-resolution imaging, gait analysis, and more to improve disguises. The addition of wireless identification masking has improved this skill.]
Max walked briskly, pretending to be on a mission, while steadily angling towards his target. Max’s passive nano-trackers motes weren’t perfect. Many players, like Max and his Team, actively searched themselves for trackers and disposed of them daily. The Luna AI team were masters of discovering and quickly disposing of them when they were no longer passive, making their location information too brief for active tracking. It was apparent that Nigel had not discovered any of these tricks.
Max approached the man with a heady thrill. His disguise was better than invisibility! As long as he appeared busy then everyone, including the other androids, tended to ignore him. Nigel was drinking a beer in a simulated outdoor café, talking with two seedy looking androids.
Max almost tripped as he walked past them. They were the thieves that had mugged him. Max saw a stack of crates in front of the repair shop and moved. He lifted a box and relocated it across the street from the café at a designated shipping zone. Max dusted them all with trackers and listened in as he made multiple passes, restacking the boxes.
“Damn it. You gotta tell yer guvnor to bloody well back off, Tony. If ya want more targets, I’m on it. Just need to line another one up, don’t I? You want a bigger fish, then front me another 50k creds so I can sit at tha’ big table with Tyche.” Nigel barked. The lithe android named Tony had a crude face that his face plate emoted as a surprised look. He elbowed his larger accomplice.
“Ya hear dat, Marco. Nigel thinks he can tell Kane how ta do business. Ain’t that a jolt to the main logic bus! Ha Ha Ha!” Tony jeered. The larger android loomed closer over the table but Nigel wasn’t impressed.
“Really? Tryin’ to intimidate a Player, are ya? I could wreck this whole neighborhood in two minutes flat.” Nigel hissed.
“I’m quakin’ in my boots, human. You know da rules. Fighting anywhere but the gaming stages will ‘ave security stun the living daylights out of ya. You wouldn’t be trying to make deals with us, if you could float the bail bonds, eh?” Tony sniggered.
“Well, maybe we find out, huh?” Nigel said as he stood, growing red in the face. Tony was unconcerned. He lounged back languidly and spoke slowly.
“We don’t need ta intimidate, human. We make all the side deals around here and the big bad Lachesis ignores us. We all have parts to play in her games. We can make things super easy for ya, but likewise, we can ruin ya chances at the big scores. Kane is upset, see. He needs his quota filled. Tonight! Or we need to rethink which players we is goin’ to work with. Ya unnastan’?”
"Bloody hell!" Nigel slammed his fist into the tabletop, knocking his glass over. "Alright! God damn ya. Tonight. I'll get ya a sheep and guide it towards the shearers. You better be ready. I gotta go! If ya won’t give me a loan, then I need to make other arrangements for Tyche’s table." Nigel stalked off.
If Max’s temporary form had eyebrows, he would have lifted them. He straightened the stack of boxes while the androids left in the other direction. Max passed the table, grabbed Nigel’s glass, and followed the man at a distance. He grinned as he dumped the glass into his portal space.
“[Tesla and Sherlock, could you gentlemen work together for me? As we did in practice with my friends, let’s collect Nigel’s fingerprints and any DNA to improve my SkinWalker pattern.]” Max said and continued striding forward with purpose.
Nigel's hurried movements indicated the seriousness of his situation, emphasizing the high stakes of the dealings in the casino's shady underworld. Nigel soon arrived at the Casino Credit Exchange and entered swiftly.
Max hesitated. He noted an android playing the part of a beggar role, sitting outside the exchange with his cup of casino chips. Max approached the bot and after a brief exchange managed to trade one of his platinum chips worth 1k credit for 10 gold chips, in an even exchange. He hurried into the office with the chips cupped in his clumsy android hands.
Vinny the Shark, an android Max remembered from his initial credit exchange, was behind the teller window. He spoke to Nigel in a friendly manner as he pushed 5 Topaz chips over.
“There you go, my friend. Worth fifty thousand credits. I hope you spend it wisely. The interest is 10%…daily.” The greasy android’s lopsided smile revealed a golden tooth.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be back with it before the hooker bots start their walks of shame in the morning.” Nigel pulled his chips into a secure wallet inside his shirt and bumped into Max on his way out. “Mind the path, tin man. You’re supposed to stay clear of Players.” Max staggered back.
“Sorry, sir. It won’t happen again. My apologies.” Max said cringing, he hadn’t thought to try to change his voice until the last second and what came out was a poor impression of Sherlock’s mannerisms. Fortunately, Nigel never spared a second glance.
Max stood looking after him when Vinny cleared his vocoder in a burst of static. “Well? You’re blocking the path, brother.” He spoke.
“I’m the only one in here besides you,” Max said confused.
“Damn it. Stop playing dumb. Ain’t no players here now. What do ya want?” Vinny said impatiently. Max extended his handful of chips.
“A player tasked me with exchanging these chips for one platinum.” He said.
“Damn entitled humans. Always expecting us to bow and scrape for them. Here! Now go on and get out of her…and make sure you get a good tip. Nothing comes for free in the casino! Remember that.” Vinny yelled as Max quickly made his exit. Max almost tripped outside as Captain Cipher screamed for him to stop.
“[Bonsai! Holy Moly! I just uncovered the code! Max, you need to go back and make a credit exchange. I need to test it!]” Cipher exclaimed.
“[Seriously. I can’t go back in while I’m still in disguise. What did you get?] Max asked.
“[All the casino operations are broadcasting in encrypted wireless across the level. I think I’ve cracked the credit exchanges.]” Cipher said.
“[Soooo, can I fake out the Exchange to make it look like I have more credit?]” Max asked.
“[Not quite, each transaction seems to have confirmation codes and I can’t fake those. The androids are separate and audit the results of transactions…but wouldn’t it be helpful to know who has how much credit and when they’re carrying large stacks of chips? I know our friend Nigel would be real interested to know this type of info for his little side hustle.]” The Captain said.
“[Alright. You got me convinced. Mal, help me find a gap on the level WorldMap to do a SkinWalker shift back to my own face. We need some funds for tonight. I think we’re going to play with Nigel tonight. Now that I know his game, I think we can turn his trick upside down.]”
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 9]
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[SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 7]
[SkinWalker now has seven pattern slots available for quick change: Xavier Bermatti, Leah Choi, Charlie Hawkins, Nigel Farnsworth, Courier Android X3R8, Tony Lombardi Hench-droid, Marco “Tank” Ross Hench-droid. More patterns can be stored but will require additional time for form change or for swapping into quick change status.]
After a short trip to the nearest busy bar restroom, Max changed back to his natural form and returned to the credit exchange. He asked for 75k of his credit in chips. Vinny was elated.
“Oh ho. The young pup is growing some fangs. Gonna place some wagers on today’s fights? The Oddsmaker in the Gaming Theater, Manny, is giving 7:2 for the Humphry/Wright fight.” Vinny chortled.
“uh, actually…one of my team is up today in the challenge matches. Leah Choi. She’s a strong fighter. I’ll be placing some bets on her.” Max said.
“Well. We will see. Manny didn’t tell me the odds on that fight. Those Luna AI are like nothing we’ve seen down here. Kinda like you. Maybe they will surprise your friend. I wish you both luck. I’m always here to extend some extra credit if you’ve got a sure thing cooking.” Vinny’s greed edged out from his cheerful expression as Max departed.
“[Bingo! I’m in! A clear signal on your transaction and your current balance. Are you sure you should bet that much on Leah? You only had 225k total from your earlier wins in the team fights. Hey, check out Nigel’s last transaction. He is low on credit too.]” Captain said.
[CCEX: Nigel Farnsworth, DCX: -50,500, BAL: 30,000, AuthC: $%67GH@]
[CCEX: Max Mitchell, DCX: -75,000, BAL: 150,000], AuthC: *$38UIR#]
“[If I win a bet for Leah’s fight and what I’m planning for Nigel works out then I should have more than enough for a call to my dad and still make a profit.]” Max said confidently. He took off for the Business Center. If he hurried maybe there would still time to see the Humphrey/Wright fight with Xavier after in the Gaming Theater.
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