Chapter 13

Ryker

For the next few hours, I decided to give everyone else time to deal with the news. I started exploring the compound aimlessly to get a feel for the simulation and find its boundaries.

The first place I went to was the dojo. I had been eyeing the structure since we had gotten here, but I wasn't prepared for what I found inside. It was the most stereotypical setting of what you think a dojo should look like. The wooden floors had been polished to a mirror shine, with straw mats in the center of the room where I assume we will be expected to train. On the left wall, there were full-sized head-to-toe pictures of men and women that couldn’t be more different from one another. They varied in gender, age, size, and ethnicity. Despite their differences, they all had the same presence about them that exuded perfection of their art and lethality in its execution. Looking to the right wall, I could see wooden versions of every kind of weapon I had ever seen or heard of and some that were completely foreign to my eye.

I made my way to the back of the room and slid a paper door to the side, finding a hallway that was way longer on the inside than was possible compared to the view from the outside. Paper doors lined both sides of the long walkway, and I tried the first one that I came to. Inside, I found a simple yet functional room big enough for one person to sleep in. There was a pallet laid along one wall with a stack of clothing a top it, that had a note safety pinned to the fabric. Bending down, I opened the note to find a handwritten message with familiar handwriting. “Dear Ryker, I see you were the first to find the sleeping quarters. We abide by the age-old honored custom of first come first serve. So enjoy your room for the rest of your time here... I know I will.” I couldn’t help but let out an exasperated groan. The rest of the note had the expected doodle hearts and confetti glitter falling out of it.

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Deciding to change, I took off my dusty work clothes and checked what Ruby had laid out for me. It was... hard to describe. At first glance, I thought it was the usual stuff—pants, shirt, underwear—but that's not what I got. I grabbed what I thought was a shirt and lifted it up to find the rest attached. I was holding a matte black onesie that looked like it wouldn't have fit me when I was 6. Turning it around, I examined the odd material that seemed hot and cold to the touch at the same time. It also had a crazy amount of stretch to it. Then I found a discolored circle near the navel area and rubbed my thumb across the raised surface. I saw the material ripple out from where I touched it. The thing jerked in my hand, and I tried to drop it, but it latched onto my arm and started to crawl up my bicep towards my chest. I tried to rip it off, but in the next few seconds, I was handily bested by the slippery onesie. It tugged and grasped at my skin and adhered itself directly onto my body, and after I finally admitted defeat to the alien fabric, it finished its work and covered every inch of me from the neck down.

I turned in a circle, trying to see what I looked like when a mirror formed into existence on an empty portion of the wall next to me. More A.I. wizardry at work, I assumed. Examining what had been done to me, I looked in the mirror and didn’t hate it. The outfit was skin-tight across my arms and chest but formed itself into a baggy material from my stomach down to my calves, where it became tight again and wrapped around my ankles and feet. It adhered to the ninja/samurai theme that I found functional and quite appealing.

After donning my new attire, I passed by a few more of the open doors in the dojo and found the bathroom, a set of showers, and even a room that had an entire hot spring bath in it. I was preparing to leave when I noticed an almost imperceptible tug on my attention towards the window at the end of the hallway. As soon as I looked outside, my eyes locked onto the mysterious 10-foot-tall metal and glass vat that housed the dark liquid. My curiosity was immediately piqued, and I made my way out of the dojo to investigate.