“So, I’m a mid-tier citizen now, just like that? What sort of resources are we talking about?” I questioned, my mind starting to catch up.
“Yes, the social rank prize upgrade was announced in the amended ToS with the update around a year ago. As for what resources are available, I can’t exactly give you a list, but will hear you out and personally see what I can do.” She continued smiling at me, her eyes still darting off to the side every few seconds.
I sighed, of course she couldn't just tell me what she could do for me. “I’ll see what I can come up with, I have… a lot going on right now. I assume you’ll be in touch one way or another?”
She nodded in reply, her smile never faltering. I caught the slightest hint of relief around her eyes, “Yes, of course. You can ping me directly through the service desk, or have any of the posts do the same. Again, the Council thanks you for your service and continued diligence Mr. Spenser, I’m sure we will speak again soon. I will let you return to your affairs.” With that said, she turned on a heel and briskly left the booth, the privacy screen letting her pass right through.
That left me alone in the booth with the two guards in their powered armor, one of whom raised a hand and gave me a thumbs up
I laughed a little, reminded of my first encounter with Tev, and gave them a wave in return. They turned around and followed Katie through the screen, as I made my way to the import counter to collect my things as they emerged from the trap-doored conveyor belt from the Impex. I jumped up and sat on the counter to pull on my new mag-boots and armored undershirt, checking over my pockets to make sure I had everything. Mourning the loss of my backpack once more, I shoved the block of bacon into my first hoodies’ front pocket, then pulled the larger obnoxiously bright red one over top of it.
Ready for my exit, and wondering what my new escort perk would look like, I pulled both hoods up over my head and dropped the screen.
Turns out, the escort thing was pretty cool. The two guards from earlier were waiting outside of the booth when I exited, now both carrying giant mirrored riot shields that they used to block any view of the fenced in area of the public side of the big room.
I lifted my head for a moment and gave them a big grin, giving the one I thought had gestured to me earlier a thumbs-up of my own. They shook their head, lifted the pool-table sized shield off of the ground, and started moving. The other one followed suit, but also flashed me a thumbs-up in return, keeping their hand low and near the grip of the rifle currently hooked in place to their chest piece. I moved to keep up with them, and the thumbs-up guy pointed down at the floor between them, so I slid into place in the little formation. Keeping my hoods up and chin down, but stealing occasional glances, we made our way out of the Link.
They continued blocking the view of me with their big shields all through the fenced in corridor to the travellers station, the guy in front keeping his rifle in his hand, at a low ready position. The guard behind me seemed more relaxed, only keeping his hand near his rifle's handle as we walked the gauntlet.
As we turned the corner and neared the curtained off doorway to the station, I heard a familiar honk through the curtain and thumbs-up guy pushed a heavy armored hand into the small of my back and shoved me into the curtain.
I stumbled through into pitch darkness, taking a few steps to recover and bouncing off someone in the dark. They cursed at me, and I took a few more steps away from them, backing towards where I thought one of the support pillars should be.
A moment later, the lights started clicking back on far above, illuminating the massive station and allowing the flow of people and goods through the station to start flowing once again.
The lights-out alarm had confused me during my first year of using this side of the Link. I’d spent time worrying that it was used to cover-up the Shepherds when they had to black-bag someone. It made more sense as a distraction to let VIP’s slip into the crowd at the station, kind of. I still thought it was a clunky way to do things and scoffed at the realization, and joined the crowd heading to the exit arches and pushing through one of the many large doors.
There was a strong patrol already trundling down the most direct route to my home, so I decided to follow it along. I don't know if Katie had arranged for it, but they led me all the way to my street before getting caught up with a small group of purists who started throwing scraps, trash, and insults at them from the roof of one of the side buildings.
“Alien slave scum!” Yelled a ragged looking woman, while a lean shirtless man with wild hair and a bushy beard screamed “You’ll all burn in hell!”, as he threw a brick down at the patrol, which harmlessly bounced off one of their shoulder pauldrons.
I crossed the intersection and started down my street, keeping my head down and skirting around the scene. I kept my eyes sweeping back and forth, and itched to look back behind me at the scene.
As I was passing the last burned out shell of a building a few doors down from home, I saw a familiar group of guys posted up on the stairwell to one of the abandoned buildings. Most of them were standing and watching the soldiers down the street as they scaled the building to round up the purists, but one of them, an athletic and well-fed looking man with olive skin, dark hair, and an L-shaped facial tattoo that hugged the side of his face and jawline, stared daggers at me. We locked eyes from across the street, and he tracked me as I approached my building.
I considered my options, the safe play was to skip my door and keep walking, circling back later and hoping they would not be there. I could also confront them here and now with the patrol so close, try to get them all arrested. After the day I had gone through though, I just opened the gate and went inside. I was too fried for patience or picking a fight, and chose apathy. Maybe I could get Katie to do something about them.
The door clicked as I reached for the ringer, telling me Rin must have been keeping a close eye on the cams and on edge today. I went through and locked it behind me.
The living room was quiet, but Tevin was still waiting inside, his game paused and muted as he watched me come into the room. His leg was propped up on the table with an ice-pack covering his splinted ankle. He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off before he could get any words out.
“Damn man, they don’t even let you grunts wait it out in sick-bay anymore?” I offered him a smile, craving some banter.
To my surprise, he grimaced and didn't take the bait. “I just rolled it, didn't wanna deal with the paperwork”, he gave me a look that I couldn't quite read and went on. “Rin says you’re in trouble, what's going on?”
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I sighed, and flopped into the hard plastic chair that served as overflow seating near the couch, putting my feet up on the steel coffee table.
“A whole bunch of stuff I don’t understand, man. It’s been a fuckin’ day.” I looked away from the big guy, watching his paused game-menu.
“Like what? We’re on the same team, right? Keep me in the loop, bro”. I laughed, Rin and I had talked him out of excessive use of the word ‘bro’ only a few months after we had all moved in together. These days it was an in-joke that he only broke out to spark a laugh during a tense moment, most often when Rin and I got into it with each other. I leaned away, acting out my half of the bit and acting like I thought he would slug me on the arm.
“Yeah, bro. There’s a lot going on”. I sighed, grateful for the laugh. I took a deep breath and let it out before getting into it. “So, I got pinged for a payday, you knew that, but I don't remember anything after linking-up. I just woke up at home, a little beat up and covered in gross.” He nodded along, probably having gotten this much from Rin before I got home.
“It got weirder though. I think they might have hit me with some sort of beta system they’re testing out? I’ve been getting like… prompts and guides through the day, little highlights and quests, and they led me to the biggest payday I’ve ever had”. I offered him a grin, and pulled the block of bacon from my pocket.
He looked so confused as he caught the bacon, I laughed again before continuing. “Anyway… It leads me to this huge bounty, bigger than anything else Rosso even has listed. When I get to negotiating, he gives me a stack of credits, and a f’n Accord. I’m a Citizen now.” I beamed at him, I could see the wheels of his mind turning as he listened and nodded along.
“I still don't really know what's happening overall, but I think it might be a good thing, whatever it is.” I finished my little speech and looked at him.
He took a few moments to reply, and I could see concern on his face. “Well, as long as it stays a good thing.”
I noticed Rin step into sight at the threshold of the hallway, where he leaned against the wall and facing me as he stared at us, his hands stuffed into his loose pants pockets.
Rin spoke from across the room, causing Tevin to startle and snap his head in his direction. “You are in over your head. Whatever happened with your payment, I still have no idea, but the higher-ups are all talking about you. We both were reassigned to protection duties today, care to guess for whom?”
I gave him a confused look, surprised, Katie hadn’t mentioned bodyguards. “The CLE lady, Katie - I think, didn’t say anything about personal guards, did they really assign you both to me?”
“Yes. They did. They back-burnered the project I have spent the past 2 years on, and told me to run cyber-detail for your dumbass. Me… Your personal IT babysitter. A waste of resources tantamount to treason, if you ask me. Whatever you blundered into, it had better be good. Tell me more about these highlights.” His voice was flat and his eyes scowled at me as he spoke.
Not wanting to push the conversation into yet another lengthy debate between us, I told him everything. The lights at the mountain, the quests and caves, the strange messages and the new equipment I’d bought. I only left out one thing and the details around it, the fact that I had a second Heart of Stone stored in my bank, and that the messages had mentioned duping it at all. That fact had finally crystallized in my mind, and I was both hungry for more, and terrified that even thinking about it might get me banned from the Link or whisked off to the labor camps… again.
They mostly listened, Tevin laughed a few times and Rin scowled and pried for more detail. We moved to the kitchen table about half way through my story, and Tevin once again did the cooking, adding the meat I had returned with to our normally vegetarian fare.
“Why didn’t you follow the highlights for the blast-boots?” Rin questioned immediately as I finished my story.
I looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. “Because they’re even more dangerous than the other options? C’mon, isn't that obvious?”
“No, it is not. Whatever is pushing you around has to have a plan of some kind, and know more than you. Do you even realize what a LE purple title items’ rarity means? It’s more than halfway up the scale. There are five before, and only three afterwards. Items like that have hot-wars between minor factions fought over them, and are mainline items in negotiations between major ones. These lights lead you to something like that, and you might have ruined its plans by going against its advice. Why follow some but not all? Either commit or ignore, you are half-assing it.”
I considered what he said for a moment, while Tevin started to loudly hum as he cooked in the background. “Yeah, it's what…” I listed out the scale that I had memorized during my first weeks in the Linked-worlds.
“Gray for Trash
Black for Bulk
Green for Commodities
Cyan for Luxury
Blues are Rare
Purple is Special
Reds are Collectable
Orange is Legendary
and Gold is Unique”
I continued on, “I know it was a hell of a score, what I don’t know is what it wants. I just know I don't want a broken ankle when I can just buy the better boots.”
Rin shook his head, Tevin tossed something that sizzled into a hot pan. “Mostly correct, except for the details and the shortsightedness. Purple is not only Special, but can be either Special or Limited. Limited being the rarer of the two, the Hearts are Limited, as in non-renewable. Pair that fact with the crafting material Tag, and it leads me to the conclusion that the Stone is almost certainly a crafting material for an Engram of purple or higher quality. Maybe even for starship construction or something of that scale”. He fixed me with that look that made me feel like an idiot and continued with his lecture.
“Forget your fucking ankles, you take stupid risks daily anyways. You have something pointing you towards serious power, and humanity absolutely needs it. I refuse to allow you to squander it. So, follow the damn lights next time.”
We lapsed into silence after that, while I thought over what Rin had said. Tevin's cooking, as always, was amazing. Tonight's prep took him a little longer than normal though, leaving Rin and I to awkwardly sit across the table from each other. I scrolled the news, and Rin kept his eyes on the torrent of data that constantly streamed across his tablet, occasionally tapping out notes.
Tev could find a way to make whatever ingredients he had on hand into something delicious. Today, he had picked up a couple of eggs on his own after getting sent home with his new orders. He used the eggs, some bacon fat, and lily-flour to make these little bread rolls stuffed with finely chopped veggies and bacon bits as a side for the left-over veggie soup from the night before.
Tevin finished cooking eventually and joined us at the table, changing the subject to his excitement of getting to tag along with me from now on and being home every night.
I kept mostly quiet, letting Tev steer the table talk, while Rin continued to watch his data-stream and occasionally look at me with his laser eyes from across the table. He was real hard to get along with sometimes, but I knew he was right.
We ate and parted ways for the night.
I climbed into bed and caught a whiff of the mess I had woken up in the morning before, which felt like a week ago. Cursing and grumbling to myself, I stripped my bedding and threw it into the fresher. Then I took another shower and slept on my bare-mattress, using a pile of mostly clean laundry as a makeshift blanket.