John's internal alarm dully beeped to wake him up. He opened his eyes to find sunlight creeping into the dull permacrete dwelling he resided in from the small rectangular window high in the wall. The room consisted of nothing more than a small bed with a pitiful excuse for a mattress and a single tattered blanket, a sink that doubled as a toilet, and a polished piece of metal that acted as a mirror. The room was reminiscent of a prison cell from the 21st century but this was no prison of the body. There was no lock keeping John from walking out and leaving. The only prison was one of the mind. As if summoned, John's jailor sounded in his mind.
Good Morning John.
A familiar and warm feminine voice sounded in his mind. Without getting up from the bed, John voiced aloud what he wanted to say. He couldn't afford the downloadable content that would allow him to speak mind to mind. It was not necessary to survive and so it was not provided.
"Good Morning Collective, what do you have for me today?"
Well John, plenty of Contributors have opened up jobs this morning in order to earn Contribution Points. Shall I forward the quests to your display?
John sighed heavily. "Yes Collective."
Johns normally gray eyes glinted with blue light as his inner display was activated. While the display was standard to every human in the Collective, they only activated for people like John when Collective needed to transmit data.
Just like every day for as long as John could remember, glowing pages of data collapsed themselves in John's vision. John leaned up from his prone position in order to interact with the floating windows in his vision. As usual, they were all F-ranked jobs given by some guild or another. Jobs were ranked in order of difficulty, since the 26th century, F through D ranked jobs were designed to keep people like John in their place. Upward mobility hadn't existed since the elite in society had been able to hijack Collective through its own Contribution system in order to set it up that way. C through A ranked jobs were only given to those individuals that could afford the avatar modifications necessary to complete the dangerous missions. Often, these missions took humanity from their relatively safe homeworld to worlds in the galaxy as humanity tried to assert their dominance over the universe.
The jobs still floated in John's vision a he dumbly paged through the offers. All of them provided Contribution Points in exchange for manual labor that Collective could not or was unwilling to do with its own automated workers. These jobs or quests were then subcontracted from Collective to guilds and then through those guilds to the actual worker. All of this was in line with the original purpose of Collective which was to unite humanity in their pursuit of superiority and peace in the galaxy. Only Collective had the processing capability necessary to lead and organize an entire species that numbered in the hundreds of billions. However, the guilds took this relatively pure mission and adjusted to suit their own system of controls. Guilds created contracts that forced workers to pay a percentage of their points for "mandatory safety services." These services could consist of food or potions that allowed the workers to survive in more austere environments. The services weren't always benign. Some guilds were less savory and offered potions with addictive effects. These potions weren't outlawed by Collective because they still provided the buff that the guild advertised. Often, Nameless like John got caught into a cycle of work and addiction where the few Contribution Points they were able to earn were converted to fuel their growing addiction. When they were unable to work they died due to withdrawals. While the actual death of a human was rare since the 23rd century, this type of death was cataloged as suicide by Collective and was therefore allowed.
John paged through the jobs until he found a single job that did not offer a known addictive substance. It was an asteroid mining job in the far regions of space. It required nothing in the way of stats or skills which John was thankful for since in the twenty years of John's life, he had been unable to do a single job that was able to transfer skills to his current avatar. In a sudden bout of disgust John closed all of the windows in his vision and his eyes returned to their normal steely gray. Collective's voice returned.
John, you know that if you refuse to perform a quest today then your Basic Allowance will be rescinded as per the Collective Bargain of 2192. You only have a total of 3,699 Contribution Points in this Avatar. As such, if you refuse to work then I will have to collect back pay for the last ten years and forty-nine days since you took up the Bargain. Are you sure you want to do this?
Silent tears began to stream down John's face. He would never escape this. He was born Nameless with no family or friends to help him rise from the F ranks. Worse, he would never earn the ability to respawn if he worked every day to the point of exhaustion for a single Contribution Point a day. It was enough to turn him to drink or drugs like so many other Nameless. If he were able to earn a name, he would be earning immortality and the chance to have adventure all over the universe. It was the dream of every orphan like him but at the rate he was going, he would die long before he earned a name. Collective once again intruded into his misery.
John?
John wiped his tears. "Collective, I'll take the mining quest."
Ok John, please lie down on the bed and I will begin to upload your consciousness to the quest Avatar.
John lay down on the bed and his vision faded to black.
The first thing John noticed was the drone of heavy machinery. He opened his eyes and found himself in an unfamiliar body. He was in a small storage closet-looking room. This was probably where the avatar was stored on the mining station when there was not a human driving it. He opened his eyes and pulled up his character sheet with a thought.
Musk Miner 1 [http://i.imgur.com/FjbS2TG.png]
John was not surprised by what he saw. Dynasties kept power within the Collective by using Contribution Points to make major advancements for humanity and then subcontracting out the labor to Nameless like John. Nameless were the perfect work force. They weren't immmortal like the Named and so they could not respawn and they could never collect Points through their labor as the synchronization rate accrued the points to the owner of the avatar. In this case, the Musk dynasty. The dynasty was the first to colonize Mars and even know they were known to constantly push the barriers of human understanding and technology. Because of this, the Musk dynasty had been able to accue a titanic amount of Points since Collective first came online. These mining operations were how the dynasty was able to provide the huge refineries on Mars ore and other materials necessary for the production of weapons and other technology.
Lord Musk was able to keep his position at the top by issuing out contracts with a synchronization rate of ninety-nine percent. This meant that while John’s consciousness took residence within Lord Musk’s many owned avatars, the skills, abilities, and Contribution Points that were earned by John would primary go to the Musk dynasty at a ratio of 99 to 1. Since mining ore didn’t accrue many Contribution Points, John would be lucky to make a single point for an entire day’s worth of hard labor.
According to Collective, this was fair because Lord Musk was essentially gambling his own Contribution Points for a return on his investment. Lord Musk bought the Avatar, got it physically shipped to this asteroid floating and space, and John was merely doing work in a different body at little risk to his own Avatar which was safely ensconced in his room back on Earth.
Since the cheapest augmentation a person could buy from Collective was a random Advanced Attribute for 3,700 CPs, most people gave in to some vice long before they even reached that milestone. After all, a random Advanced Attribute had a better chance of rewarding the person with something that would hurt their chances rather than help so most gave up before they even really began.
For John, this was it. This was his last day before he could afford an Advanced Attribute. Either he would get something that would give him a better chance or he would find some way to end his own miserable existence. It was this thought that gave John the necessary motivation to stand and begin testing his new body.
It was always a surprise when stepping form his own avatar and into one with significantly higher stats. He felt strong and full of energy and while logically, John knew that this wasn't really him, it still felt like his body. The return to his own skin would be a complete departure from this one. It was insidious how it worked. Just a small taste of power led to a lifelong craving for it.
Of course, this avatar was a magnitude better than his own but it was also a specialized body. As such, the stats were distributed in such a way to make it easier to work for long stretches of time. John looked down at his new body. It was the normal, bipedal humanoid body that most Androids had. While it would probably make more sense to have a more exotic and specialized body, it did not make sense to hand that over to what essentially amounted to unskilled labor.
John placed his palm on the dull metal panel in front of him and it slid up until it was flush into the ceiling. John took a wobbling step and supported himself with the wall until the full synchronization effect kicked in. He stepped into a small hallway dimly lit by orange emergency lights. Collective helpfully downloaded a mini-map into the corner of his vision and overlay a glowing green line on the ground in the direction he was expected to follow. John’s steps made clunking sounds as he followed the green light to the end of the hallway.
Stolen novel; please report.
Due to the lack of gravitational pull, his steps became a slide and clunking motion as the magnets within his boots activated and deactivated as needed to keep him moving. The movement was awkward at first but this was not the first time that John had traversed a low gravity mining outpost. There were no windows or expansive views on the path. John followed the quest guide through hallways that looked exactly the same. John idly wondered if there was any breathable air in these corridors or if they didn’t bother with life support since it was just a storage for Androids who did not require such things.
Finally the quest line came to a conclusion at what looked to be some sort of air lock. John waited a few moments until a small, square panel to the right of him came alive with muted light. Within it was an attractive, human male with green eyes and black hair. The attractiveness was easily due to a couple points in charisma and John felt his eyes thin at the scowl on the man’s face. Sure enough, the man began to bark orders through the screen.
“Nameless! What took you so long to navigate here! This is barely a D-level quest. Are you so stupid that you can’t find the forking glowing green line that gets you here?”
John remained quiet. Talking back to a member of the Named would merely bring trouble. If he incensed the man then the man might be tempted to not only cancel the quest that John was currently on but also blacklist John from further work. The man seemed to be waiting for John to respond and John did not give in to the temptation to fill the empty space. After a few moments, the glare faded some from the man’s face as he spoke again.
“Fine. Exit this hatch onto the surface of this asteroid. There is enough metal content within the surface for your mag boots to stick to the surface. You’ll find a latch at your waist to hook yourself to the safety ties around the mining site. Make sure you use them because if you don’t and end up floating from space, the Musk family will sue you for every Contribution Point you have. Since you Nameless are all drunks and druggies, I expect that bankruptcy will be the end of your only life.”
The man sneered as he delivered the last threat. Once again, John remained stoic. It helped that the body he was in was incapable of showing any real emotions anyway.Seemingly disappointed that John didn’t take the bait, the man continued.
“Once I open the hatch, make your way along the guiding line until you get to the dig site, the others are already there waiting for you. Our soldiers will be there to provide security for the miners. All equipment you may need are in your inventory or located at the site. At this time, do you have any questions over the information I have provided for you?”
John calmly replied in the negative and hatched opened into a small chamber. John stepped through, waited for the door to close behind him and then presses the button for hatch in front of him to open. Once again, the a hatch retracted into the ceiling and John was left with a view of space. Among the multitude of stars and vastness of space, Mars settled in the distance.
The asteroid itself was cold and lifeless looking and John didn’t give it much thought as he followed the quest line. Slowly but surely, John made it to the dig site using the odd sliding motion he had since become familiar with. There were a group of androids like himself waiting at the entrance to a hole bored into the asteroid. The edges of the hole look melted and glassy. As John neared the others, he noticed four low-level humans who were obviously going with the miners as security. One was dressed in light-class mage armor, one in medium-class rogue armor, and two in heavy-class warrior armor. The metal of their armor and the style of their weapons identified them as Martians.
John kept his head down as he tried not to garner their attention. The crests on their armor showed that they were Named members of the Musk family and John knew he shouldn’t gather any attention. As he joined the other miners awaiting to enter the hole, the mage spoke up. His voice was heard clearly to use despite the vacuum of space.
“Listen up Nameless! This is the dungeon MA-437. It entered Mars’ orbit some two months ago. Collective has identified a few basic lifeforms within the dungeon and classified it as a D-class dungeon. You will not engage any of the hostile life forms. Any engagement and/or and damage to the avatar you’re currently possessing will result in a lawsuit from the Musk family. My party will enter first in order to clear the path to the resources. We are looking to harvest large amounts of Iron and there are small traces of mythril. Your Collective Points will depend on how much material you are able to mine and place in the mining cart going with us. Obviously, with your Synchronization rates hovering at the 99th percentile, it will be difficult for you to garner more than one or two Points for your own Avatar. Should you find a large deposit of mythril or any other rare materials, you will be rewarded accordingly by the Musk family. Any questions?”
Seeing that there were none, the mage gestured to his party and they immediately formed into a combat formation. At the front was one of the heavy-class warrior. With a gesture, a shield and a large mace materialized in his hand. Behind him the medium-class rogue materialized some sort of ranged rifle-looking weapon, and the second warrior materialized two medium-length swords. The swords were interesting because the lighted edges indicated that it would slice through most forms of armor and act as a precise cutting weapon. The mage materialized a metal staff and a cloud of glowing nanites could be seen orbiting the staff. Glowing energy fields activated on all of the members before fading out of the visual spectrum. As one the party advanced into the cave and the miners trudged after them.
As John entered the hole a system message entered the lower left corner of his heads up display or HUD.
Entering the D-Class Dungeon, MA-437. Aggressive Species: Few. Danger Assessment: Low. Loot Distribution for You: None. Party Leader: Edwin Musk, Healer lvl 12.
John could have made the system messages delivered via verbal notification, but that tended to distract him at the wrong times and it didn’t create a log that John could reflect on later. Every Nameless knows that having a written log stored is the only way to be proven innocent by the Collective in the case of a lawsuit from a Named or higher member of the Collective.
The trek through the passage was uneventful. The life forms were a blackish red type of slime that the warriors easily dispatched. They were only slightly difficult because they didn’t have a central nervous system and so they sometimes took a few good slices to stay down. The tank in the front seemed to have the easiest times killing them as every time his mace landed an electric field would discharge and disrupt whatever animated the slimes. After that a few slices from the other warrior or a few energy blasts from the rogue would kill them easily.
Anytime a slime got a good hit in and crumpled some of the armor of a party member, the healer easily repaired it with a glowing cloud of nanites. The only weakness John noticed was that the nanites required material in order to repair and so the space around them became pitted as material from the mines was converted into material for their armor. This meant that the defense party would have to stay well away from the miners at the actual dig site in order to maintain security while not allowing the nanites to damage the materials they were trying to mine.
As the group made their way further into the dungeon they finally reached the first mining area. The only thing that made it different than the rest of the tunnels was the dirty looking streak of metal that adorned the walls like tiger stripes. The mage called a halt with a closed fist in the air, motioned for the warrior party to take defensive positions, and shouted for the miners to begin working.
Internally sighing, John took a common pickaxe from inventory, and began attacking at the wall. The glowing points of the pickaxe sliced through the rock with ease. After a couple hours of the mind numbing task, John started to realize that he was edging closer to the other miners. He stopped from where he was and moved to the furthest streak of iron within the protective circle provided by the warrior party. The warriors themselves had grown lax and bored as the mining did not attract the attention of further creatures within the dungeon.
John continued his boring labor and the warriors did not spare him a second glance. As John swung he felt a reverberation as his pickaxe made contact with the metal. This had not happened before and John was jarred from the self-induced hypnotic state he had been working in. Before this, every time John hit the stone and metal, the pick would sink into the material for a couple inches before easily dislodging a small piece of rock or metal. Once that happened John would throw whatever metal into his inventory. As he became encumbered he would walk to the storage cart and throw the metal in the cart. Upon receipt of the material the cart would log how much his Avatar had collected and that was the basis for the Points that his Avatar would accrue by the end of the dungeon.
Because the synchronization rate was at 99 percent, John could only count on one or maybe two Points if he discovered something rare. All the rest of the Points would be given to the Venerated Musk family since they were the one to provide the Avatar and the transportation for which John was merely renting. This procedure was similar to the Sharecroppers in America during the collapse of slavery. In school, or what passed for school now, John had learned about this system and wondered why the Collective had reinstitute it along with a caste system. Now, John didn’t care very much. Ten years of hard labor tends to stamp out any hope of change or revision of the future. John’s only hope was to make enough Points to afford an advanced attribute and hope that it would allow him the freedom he needed to start working for his own Points instead of feeding the system.
With a mental shrug, John brought himself back to reality and swung at the strange rock again. Once again, a reverberation traveled through the pickaxe and through his hands. Squatting down John studied the material that was causing him trouble. John hoped that the reason he was not able to hit the material was because he had found a deposit of mythril and could gain the reward from the Musk family.
As John got closer, he noticed that the material did not have the blue sheen of mythril. Instead, there was some sort of black material. It was so dark that it seemed to draw in the light from around it and become almost two-dimensional. John raised his metal fingers and placed them upon the strange material. Immediately his body clenched up in pain. John’s rational mind told him that it was not physically possible to feel pain as his android body did not have pain receptors and only his human body could provide that. Realistically, he was not even in his own body, he was occupying a body created by the Musk family.
John irrational mind screamed for the pain to stop as it felt like every neuron was on fire and every molecule of his existence was set aflame, extinguished, and then set aflame again. His vision went dark and he slumped to the ground as his mind rode waves of fiery pain higher and higher. At the peak of his pain he heard a rumbling laughter among his own thoughts. It began to speak in a language that was unfamiliar to John. The human species had long since turned to Terran as a basic language. It was an amalgamation of languages that had began on Earth. Words began to adapt and change as they discovered new experiences among the stars. Slowly the words of the creature began to make sense.
The dark entity in his thoughts laughed again. This body will do perfectly. It may be Nameless, but I will give it a name that will make the galaxy shudder.