The smell of coffee woke me up, real coffee, not that caff crap that was more popular in the wider Linked society. Coffee was a rarity in our home, something we three roommates took turns importing on occasion.
I rose from my bed like a zombie to seek out the delicious aroma, shuffling with half-closed eyes to the door to the hallway. Sore and tired, I reached for the handle to open it and froze in place, my eyes locked onto my muddy and bloody knuckles.
Memory flooded back, and my heart started slamming in my chest. The last thing I remembered was Linking up for payment day. My mind cleared as adrenaline hit me, and I tried to make sense of the situation. Had I been mugged last night and forgotten what had happened? I would expect to wake up in the hospital, like the first time I was mugged. Even then I had remembered the event, and what led up to it, as much as I sometimes wish otherwise.
I stepped back and took stock of myself, looking over my clothes and noticing I was still fully dressed, even wearing my boots, and I stank. Frowning, I pulled my shirt off and examined it, noticing a couple of foul stains that I sniffed and pulled away from.
“Oh Gods”, I gagged and lowered the shirt away from my face, that needed to get into the fresher right away. I shook my head and pushed through the door, immediately heading for the shower.
I stopped for a moment to check myself for injury in the mirror beforehand. No new bruises or cuts on my face or upper body, I leaned in close and stared directly into my own gray-green eye, more gray than green in the stark lighting of the bathroom. I raised an eyebrow at myself as I straightened, mystified. I looked back down at my hands, bringing both of them up and clenching my fists. My left hand was a little sore, and a smear of blood ran across a couple of my knuckles. I picked my shirt up from the counter and looked over it again, there were some gross stains, and a couple of small brown spots that looked like they could be blood. I decided that a shower and a cup of that coffee I was still smelling would help me figure it out more than questioning myself in the mirror.
I stripped down and tossed the soiled clothes into my section of the fresher and pulled it down, revealing my cleaned clothes from yesterday in the top compartment. The shower calmed me down a little, but not much. I hoped the guys might know something.
When I emerged later, cleaned and wearing fresh clothes, I saw Tevins’s door was closed, but Rins’ was open and I could see him seated at his ‘command center’. He looked over at me as I walked past, “Nick, what happened last night? I buzzed you in, but couldn't leave my desk”.
I shrugged and leaned against the doorframe, “I was hoping you would know something. I don’t remember a damn thing after Linking up for payment day.”
Rin smashed a button on his keyboard, hard, and stood up to stare at me, shock on his face that quickly turned to anger as he crossed the short distance to me. He poked me in the chest, his dark eyes glaring into mine. “Don't fuck with me, you skipped and got mugged again”.
Wide-eyed, I leaned away from the smaller man. “Hey, don’t start something neither of us want to finish. Seriously though, that's the last thing I remember. Getting jacked sucks but I’m not that insecure”. I shot him an indignant look.
He looked back, I could see him thinking, studying my face for tells. His finger still raised and pointing at me, he shook it at me, “That is impossible. You only left…”. He glanced back at his plethora of screens before looking back at me. “13 hours ago. You should still be locked into payment”
I stared back at him. “What?”
His eyes narrowed further, “You only left 13 hours ago, it takes 28 hours to-”
“I know how long it takes, it’s really only been a half day?”
He continued to watch me closely, “Yes''. After another tense moment, he finally put his finger down and stopped glaring at me. He turned back to his desk to grab a mug from a separate side table. “Okay, let's say I believe you. What else do you know? We’ve suspected that there could be harmful side-effects from the Link. Do you have any other blank spots of memory?”
We moved to the kitchen, both sitting at the small table with freshly steaming mugs in front of us. “No, I don’t think I lost any memory other than how I got home. I remember growing up and all that, and dinner last night; veggies, noodles, and flatbread. I remember walking there this morning with Tev, he must still be out on assignment? And I know it's the 582nd year of the Second Council of Arktria, and you haven’t left the apartment in like… 6 days now?”
“Anything stand out this morning?” He kept watching me with hard sunken eyes, I’d never seen him this focused on anything other than his work at his desk. The direct and unwavering eye contact was starting to get to me.
“Uh, yeah, I was covered in shit and blood when I woke up”.
“You shit yourself?”
“No! Not… gah. It was smeared across me, mostly on my shirt. The only blood was on my hand”. I raised my left fist up, flexing and turning it to show him. “My left is a little sore too, it feels like I rocked someone's jaw”. I kept watching my hand, already built up anxiety now gaining pressure.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Interesting. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it. I Linked up, then I woke up here like that”. I kept flexing my hand, frowning. This was starting to scare me, was I going crazy? I made myself look away and picked up my coffee, blowing on it before taking a drink.
Rin took awhile to reply, picking up his own mug and sipping it in silence. “I still don't think I believe you. I’ll check the feeds I can get into and see if I can spot you walking home”. He got up and walked back towards his room.
“How long will that take?”
He gestured vaguely with his free hand, his mug in the other. “Not long, I have other things to do first. Go to work, Tev should be back tonight and we can all go over it”.
I watched him disappear down the hallway to the bedrooms. I had hoped he would have some better answers, but a pledge to help find some answers was better than nothing.
I sat and stared at the wall for a while, trying to calm myself down and grapple with the memory gap. I couldn't afford to go crazy or have a breakdown, or whatever it was that was happening to me. Rosso was a good boss, but I’d lose my spot to someone else if I was sent off to rehab.
I finished my cooled coffee, and got up to finish getting ready for the journey back to the Link. My guaranteed access window was approaching, and I’d miss the chance to Link for the day if I was late. Plus my social ranking would take a hit, something I wanted to avoid if possible. I had worked my way through the Civilian tier and up to Conscript D2 since I got my contract. Rosso would let it slide, but every faction was in charge of their own Social Ladder. The Council that ran our Nation had become increasingly desperate to establish ties and relationships with other Minor Factions, especially the non-human Ambassadors. They’d revoke my contract and replace me as soon as they thought I was unable to gain our faction Reputation with him.
I went back to my room to grab my gear, and after a frustrating five minutes spent looking for my backpack and jacket, I left the house without them. Instead pulling on a faded hoodie and grabbing a poly-bag that I just stuffed into my pocket. I shoved the still simmering anxiety within me into its corner of my mind and left for work.
Out on the street, I was surprised to see a patrol squad of armored Shepherds, centered around a big 8-wheeled APC, working its way down the block. I gave them a nod of respect as I passed by, grateful for the extra security.
Making it back to the Link plaza was easy enough, and I let myself mourn the loss of my street jacket and old backpack along the way. They were not expensive items, but would still take some time to replace. I would have to buy them new and age them, cutting and rubbing and washing repeatedly until they looked worn and ragged. I could try to buy some replacements off one of the Transients that camped around the Link, but it would be risky. Falling from the Civilian rank was often just a delayed death sentence, and I couldn't really blame them for selling off that kind of info. I’d do anything to crawl back out if I were in their position as well.
Caught up in my own mind, I pushed through the ever crowded Travellers Station and ran the gauntlet with my hood pulled down low. I skipped my morning chat with Rosso and simply waved at him on my way up the mountain.
It was meditative, drilling and chipping and hammering away at the granite. Each strike insignificant against the grand scale of the stony heights, but knowing that our persistence would eventually carry the entire thing away soothed me. I’d get there if I refused to stop.
I emptied my mind, and attacked the mountain under the afternoon Sun. Distracting myself with the work and physical effort. I was hoping I might find some gold mixed in, and had kept a large pile of ore that likely held some amount within.
A few hours in, I was cutting away another clean slab of the mottled pink, gray, and black stone. Working to break away the far side of the vein in an effort to expose more of the possible ore. After I drilled and feather wedged the slab, a few minutes with a sledge hammer sent it toppling down the sloping ledge, coming to a stop in the pile of tailings I had built up to catch it. I was surprised when I saw a persistent twinkling and pulsing point of light shining on the fresh stone face. Something I had seen before, but not since the short and mostly useless tutorial they put me through when I had first Linked up.
I tossed my sledgehammer to the side and leaned in close, running my hand over the light and screwing up my face in confusion. The light stayed for a moment and then faded back out. I touched the stone again, wondering if the light would return. When it didn’t, I stood and picked up my drill from where I had set it nearby, frowning and moving over to start splitting the slab into pieces small enough to move.
The light flashed again in the corner of my eye, still on the same point of the cliff face. I looked over and frowned even harder, crouched atop the slab of stone. I got up and returned to the light, which faded slightly as I approached and then dimmed greatly when I reached out to touch it again. I pulled my hand back, and the light returned.
I examined the rest of the stone, curious as to why the game was prompting me like this. Was this some sort of mining skill thing I’d unlocked? I had a few months to go until my yearly free Status-Report, but according to my own calculations from the xp I had gathered, I should have gained at least 3 levels in the skill. Maybe I had gained the 4th level which would push me up to 20 and unlock a milestone?
Testing a theory, I raised the drill bit towards the twinkling light, which flared and grew brighter. I smiled to myself and started to drill, this had to be some kind of skill-trick I’d unlocked.
After I had finished the first pilot hole, I saw another light and drilled that one as well. I drilled where the light prompted for the next half-hour, eventually realizing it was guiding me into shearing off a sizable portion of the cliff face. I was slightly apprehensive about it, but decided to take the risk and follow the prompts. It was rare that the game UI highlighted anything like that, and if my memory was correct, it was supposed to lead to something valuable.
Another hour later and I was pushing the final shim into place and picking up my sledge. I questioned if this was a good idea or not one more time, before shrugging to myself and raising the hammer.
After far fewer strikes than I expected, I leapt back when I heard the crack run up the mountain, away from the brink of the ledge and against the stable cliff face that shielded my little ledge from full view on the path. Almost ponderously, what looked like half the mountain started to slide down and lean away from me.