One of Raine’s eyes fluttered open, crusty goop sticking to his lashes as beaming sunlight pierced straight to his brain. He released a pained groan, reaching to rub at his aching temples with thick, pudgy fingers.
What the hell? Why is my hand swollen? Poison? No, if I was poisoned, my LinQ would have noticed the toxicity in my blood.
LinQ…
Raine thought in the particular way that would activate the microchip in his brain. When a moment passed with no response, instant panic gripped his heart and his other eye snapped open.
It's not responding?! Did they disable it? That's definitely a violation of my contract!
Raine sat up, the motion stirring a bout of vertigo.
This is awful, I haven’t felt this bad sin—
“Where… am I?” He mumbled, his voice unfamiliar in his ringing ears, “Oh, wow. Nice Boogerman poster. I used to own one just like it.”
A mechanical voice brimming with dissatisfaction filled the small room, "Good morning, Master KongRu."
Raine's head whipped around fast enough to trigger his vertigo again. He swallowed hard to fight down the bile threatening to crawl up his throat. Through the haze of confusion, he saw a mechanical head and upper torso leaning haphazardly atop the only desk in the cramped apartment.
His vision tunneled and his throat constricted from the impossibility of what he was seeing, "M-morty? No freaking way. What are you doing here? How are you here?"
"You placed me here seventeen days ago after promising to replace my waist servos," it was challenging for an AI-powered primus without a voice modulator to pull off sarcasm, but Morty handled it with ease.
This… is my old apartment? Everything is exactly the same. Am I in an illusion array?
Raine leaped out of bed and nearly face-planted as his atrophied legs buckled. His hand grasped for a nearby chair, causing discarded junk food wrappers and cartons with bits of rotting left-overs to scatter across the floor.
I’m so weak. What a disgusting mess, who would live like this? Oh yeah, I used to live like this.
Stepping more carefully, he arrived before the bathroom mirror and examined his reflection. Staring back at him was an overweight, saggy-eyed shut-in that sparked a cascade of doubt to ripple through his murky consciousness.
It really is the old me. Complete with man-boobs and everything. I was so unmotivated. I blamed everyone in the world but myself for my problems while refusing to do a single damn thing about them.
Raine pinched his cheek, feeling the bite in his whitening skin. He watched his fat roil with morbid curiosity.
At least I have nice teeth… Did I stumble into a hidden quest using an array to torture me with visions of the past?
“Status. Menu. Force log out,” all three prompts failed to elicit a response from the system, and reality came crashing down on him, buckling his knees.
This is no dream or trick. This is real. Somehow, I’m truly in the past. Either that or its new tech that's even more advanced than ZionLine.
Raine laughed at how ludicrous that possibility was.
I'm not poisoned, this is just how crappy I always felt back then from lack of exercise and awful choices. That's heavy.
He released a sardonic grunt from his own terrible pun.
Maybe CronGate did me a favor by giving me a job, a purpose.
Nope! Screw those soul-sucking asswads and their I.D! (Indentured Dependent Contract) Turning me and everyone else into slaves. Thinking they're god's because they have enough money and power to do whatever they want.
I made them billions with my designs and took their crappy department from a bunch of noobs to a top ten guild in the Zephyr region with over a hundred thousand members. All to be repaid with a hundred years of slavery unless I paid a debt that wasn’t mine. Even when I made enough to repay it, they repeatedly backstabbed me, keeping my freedom just out of reach. Exactly like they did with everyone else.
Signing that contract was the worst mistake I ever made. Much worse than this lifestyle. I can fix this in no time, but I.D.s are for life.
Raine shook the dark thoughts away, causing his chubby cheeks to wobble, "Morty, you remarkable conglomeration of masterful elegance. Hit me with the date, would you?"
"2483 May, 15th. Unsurprising that a smooth brain without a single nanite of processing power would be unable to compute the date. Is it truly so difficult to add by one? Ko-ahem, Master KongRu. My apologies, I somehow almost forgot to add your honorifics."
Raine chuckled and ran his hands through his hair as he slumped to the floor. Hollow laughter soon escalated until tears pooled in his eyes.
AI can't lie when you ask them a direct question. I've really come back ten years. All my hard work, levels, gear, assets, and even my fitness, it's all gone. What am I supposed to do now? ZL hasn't even launched yet. That's just crazy to think about.
I get to watch the whole world get flipped upside down and enslaved again. It was so cool in the beginning. People went wild after they discovered the time dilation tripled their lifespans. But the fun didn't last long. I can still remember my first seventy-two-hour workday at that crappy little in-game office.
The only good memory I have of that time is selling my first rare drop for a whopping three-hundred-thousand creds. Insanity.
Raine's heart lurched and he clutched his chest with wide eyes. His pulse hammered in his ears, his tongue prickled, and sweat sprouted across his body.
They don't know. Nobody knows. It's all there for the taking. With what I know, with the skills I’ve cultivated, I could become the most powerful forerunner in the history of ZL. Only the old monsters could stop me, and if I can get far enough ahead, even they won't stand a chance.
I made so many mistakes the first time. My build was an unoptimized mess. Of course it was, everyone's was. I… I could be perfect, unstoppable. I… I have to move, I have to go now! There's no time to waste. Wait, maybe I’m not the only one that came back. How could I-the forums!
Rain’s vision tunneled as an overwhelming pulse of adrenaline slammed through his blood. With heavy breaths and slippery fingers, he snatched the cheap AR glasses he personally upgraded far beyond their intended specs.
Holographic displays sprang to life across every surface of his tiny apartment. He ignored them all to grab the floating keyboard that appeared, and frantically punched in the infostream address for the ZionLine forums.
I don't see any posts from people claiming to be from the future, but I'm sure as fuck not going to announce my arrival, and nobody else from the future would either. Selling information though, that’s exactly what a regular person would do.
Raine brought up the search function then stopped, his eyes snapping to his very illegal AI companion, “Morty! Run constant searches through the ZionLine forums for anyone selling information about the game.”
The AI’s mechanical tone turned derisive, “Master KongRu. ZionLine is not slated for release for another two days. There are no such results to your query, nor are any likely. Is it entirely necessary to squander my resources on such an improbable task?”
Two days… I only have two days. I’m going to need a thetadrive and there’s no way I’m starting the game in this useless town.
"Just do it. And list every one of my possessions for sale. The car, bed, posters, everything! Wait, I'll need two changes of clothes, my duffle, and glasses. Everything else goes."
"Thank the great computationals in the skies! I'll finally be free from this rat-infested junkyard you call home," his robotic voice sang with joy.
"Oh yeah, don't sell yourself, either. You're coming with me, old buddy. No way I'm making that mistake again."
"Cursed organic detritus, I shan't forget this!" If Morty had limbs, he would have been shaking them furiously.
Raine ignored his antics, his mind a whirlwind of possibilities as he planned his first moves. He showered and dressed, barely registering the world around him. By the time he was out, a stream of hovering drones was entering his apartment. They grabbed one item at a time before vanishing out the window. All the while, his abysmal credit balance slowly ticked up.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Raine watched with a smile as useless old games, VRVods, and IR paraphernalia literally flew out the window. Within two hours, his apartment was barren. He stuffed Morty in his duffle on top of his one remaining set of clothes. Half of the primus's head stuck out of the bag so Raine wrapped a shirt around him and headed out the door.
Together, they boarded the first robotaxi to Carter City with eighteen thousand credits between them. The taxi was just large enough for the twelve passengers who crammed themselves into its hard, barren interior.
Passengers bustled around him as his thoughts were preoccupied with the optimal start to his new life. I’ve got a narrow window of opportunity to get ahead. The corporations will catch on all too soon and drop trillions to either catch up, or ensnare the forerunners.
First priority has to be the aspect. Once word gets out about the hidden aspect in Carter City, it’s going to become a major hub for new players.
Fizgore was also from Carter. I have to find him before CronGate gets an I.D. around his neck. With the number one tanker in the region, the first hundred levels are going to be a breeze. I'll need creds to convince him to join though since he’s never met me. Why take a risk on some no-name when he could sign a contract that guarantees a few hundred thousand a year?
Thousands, what a joke. The potential income an independent can make measures in the tens of millions per year. Once the online store launches and allows in-game currency and items to be purchased with creds, the world economy will buckle. I have to accumulate enough assets before then to get the ball rolling. Financial power is the lifeblood of every successful guild. At least before players unlock their fifth tier classes and can annihilate cities with a wave of their hand.
When that happened, trillions of investments were wiped out in the span of a month. What a time to be alive.
I'm going to need way more than creds though. I’ll need people I can trust. Who else could I recruit? Oh yeah, Richtor's in Port Halle. He joined right away last time. Sad that I haven't talked to him in years.
I won't alienate my family this time. They deserve better than I gave them. First thing I’m doing when I can is paying off mom’s house. Overworking landed her in the hospital a couple times before the end. Too bad I didn’t come back another five years so I can see dad again.
A girl's nasally whine filled the cramped taxi, “Why are we doing this? Carter is the worst place to live in the entire southwest."
"I know there's nothing special about Carter, baby. But you gotta trust me. I can take first in the city tournament with ease. Our future's solid baby, and it's only uphill from there."
Raine rolled his eyes at the confident young man with his arm around the scrawny girl's shoulder. Sure, he was fit and young, but Raine could spot the holes in his defenses without even seeing his stance. Ever since the AI wars had shown the world the true power of martial arts, becoming a martial on the world stage had become the dream of every child. The swaggering kid was just one of millions, though in the current Carter City. He really would have a chance of making a name for himself. Unfortunately for him, within a month, many things would change and someone at his level would be lucky to get into a decent dojo let alone take a place in any of the regional tournaments.
Raine only briefly considered recruiting him before thinking better of it. Until the world saw ZionLine with their own eyes, it would be pointless to try and convince others of the changes that were coming.
image [https://i.imgur.com/7AF18SZ.png]
The taxi ride took five hours, an excruciating eternity for Raine who wanted nothing more than to dive into his preparations for ZionLine immediately.
"Melty's Pot Arcade and Cafe," he read aloud the flashing neon sign. It hung above a glass door, reflecting the setting sun in rays that splashed across the duracrete street. He had chosen this part of town, despite its seediness, specifically because of this cafe. He would need a hypernet relay to access ZionLine, and those couldn’t be found just anywhere.
Two thugs made themselves known, stepping from shadows on the next block to eye him with unmasked aggression. Raine met their hostility without flinching and they melded back into the dark. Unperturbed, Raine veered to the left and entered the shady motel next door. He stopped to loom over the seated receptionist, "Need a room on the west wall for a week.”
That’ll be plenty of time to accrue some funds and find a more secure space.
The receptionist wore thick AR goggles and didn't look at him. She nodded, smacking gum as her fingers danced in the air. She flicked the virtual purchase agreement across the counter, and his AR glasses automatically scanned his retinas to confirm payment.
The room reeked of mold and the wallpaper was peeling. The bed's sheets were disheveled, and he questioned whether they were washed or not. Raine gathered the bedding, tossed Morty in the corner, and threw a sheet over him, hoping the temporary measure would keep any would-be thieves from breaking the door down just to steal the old rust bucket.
Stuffing the rest of the linens in the washing unit, he called out to his disgruntled roommate, “Alert me if anyone breaks in.”
Morty’s voice was muffled through the fabric, “Thank you for covering my sensors before activating my guardian protocols, Master. Truly, your wisdom is without equal.”
It's a crime CronGate made me sell him. Dude's hilarious.
Raine fondly patted the Morty-shaped pile, then left and locked the door. He hustled downstairs and was about to cross the street when the thugs from earlier detached from walls on either side of the motel’s lot. They stood before him, sneering. They wore retro, plated jackets and spiked wolf collars. The first wore a deep hood. He was skinny and probably high as a sat balloon. The second was ugly. Well, they were both ugly, but he looked worse than a burst couch cushion.
Million creds says this is somehow Mel’s fault. Girl couldn’t stay out of trouble if you locked her in a cell.
“This street’s out of business. Get lost, or else.”
Raine was a head taller than either, and double their mass. He looked down at them with a curled lip. His voice snapped with the command of a leader bred on the field of battle, “Scram! If I see you here again, your buddies will have to scrape you off the sidewalk.”
Both men flinched, unconsciously taking a half-step back. The skinny one’s hood fell away, revealing dark circles beneath his eyes, missing teeth, and bruises from a recent fight. Spittle flew from his lips as he swayed, unbalanced, “What did you say to me, piglet? You in a hurry to die?!”
Ugly produced a knife, brandishing it in what he no doubt thought was a threatening manner, “N-nobody spends creds on this street without persimmons! Err, peris-p-permissions!” Ugly’s eyes tracked to the side, suddenly filled with unmistakable lust and excitement. Raine expanded and focused his peripheral vision in the same direction, instantly recognizing the pink-haired girl that appeared.
She held a bag of trash in one hand, With her short frame, adorable freckles, and large turquoise eyes, she was exactly the same as Raine remembered.
Dammit, Mel. You really were just as troublesome before we ever met, huh?
Seeing the three of them about to fight, she stumbled back against the brick wall of her cafe, unable to tear her gaze away from the unfolding scene.
image [https://i.imgur.com/PjFf9nL.jpg]
Melani Feleday
Mel had no idea how things had escalated so quickly. At first, the thugs only came around at night. Then they found more men, and their patrols increased proportionally. They never dared enter her cafe with its decent security measures, instead targeting the customers of every store on the street. Most had already folded, selling their deeds for scraps.
Knowing it would be dark soon, she came out to toss the afternoon trash and take a quick break in the last rays of twilight. Before reaching the end of her ally, a strong, deep voice sent shivers racing up her spine. “Scram! If I see you here again, your buddies will have to scrape you off the sidewalk.” Thinking the thug’s boss had finally shown himself, Mel hustled to watch the commotion.
The last thing she expected to see was an entirely new face standing up to her abusers. Considering his weight, the impression wasn't bad in the least. Not only was he tall, but he carried himself with the kind of confident, overbearing attitude that always led to her making bad decisions. Even better was the threatening gleam nestled in his bright cobalt eyes.
Her heart lurched, and right away, she knew this man was far more dangerous than any thug she had ever met. The previous shivers came back with a vengeance, tickling as they raced across her skin. The large man’s deep and steady voice filled her ears again, but his lips didn't move at all, causing her to doubt her own eyes and ears.
[Dammit, Mel. You really were just as troublesome before we ever met, huh?]
Mel fell against the brick wall behind her, unable to convince her mouth to stop gaping. W-what? Does he know me? Before we ever met? H-hey! That's rude! I'm not that troublesome…
Raine KongRu
"Last warning: Piss off," Raine's voice was flint, brandishing a promise of violence. He watched clogged gears churn behind drug-addled eyes. A decision was made, and Ugly lunged toward him, knife first.
Raine felt a tinge of boredom as he waited for the blade to arrive at his face—the worst place to try and skewer someone. A moment before it struck, he let his knees bend and his considerable weight dropped him just enough for the blade to tickle his hair as it passed harmlessly overhead. A subtle tightening of his abs carried him forward as he dropped.
With all the strength his legs were capable of, he jumped forward and extended his elbow. The hard joint slammed into Ugly’s solar plexus and he crumpled to the ground, unable to draw breath. Raine turned and his foot hooked the front of Skinny’s ankle. A sharp snap-kick upended the druggy’s already compromised balance. Raine’s spread fingers found the back of Skinny’s head and his eyes flew wide with panic as the street reached out to kiss him, hard.
Raine felt nothing as he watched Ugly gasp pitifully. After kicking the knife away, he leaned down and grabbed the man’s hair, speaking softly in his ear, “I’ve got a vodcast recording of you attacking me. I’m forwarding it to Sergeant Cooper's personal Ncode. I’d say you have about fifteen minutes before they collect your useless ass. Good luck getting a fix where you’re going.”
With one good smack to Ugly’s back, the man gasped. Thankful to be drawing breath again, he scrambled on his butt to put space between himself and Raine. He stumbled to his feet and was about to run but Raine cleared his throat, making a show of glancing at Skinny. With a whimper, Ugly threw the lightweight over his shoulder and vanished into the deepening shadows of another ally.
A melodic voice full of concern sounded from behind Raine, “You really called the corpus?”
“No way. I was bluffing. Should keep those two out of the area for a while at least.”
“Whew!” Mel watched his reactions like a hawk as she cutely pretended to wipe sweat from her forehead, “Nothing good ever happens when the corpus comes around here. Uhm, can I buy you a meal? This is my cafe, so… it’s not exactly like I’m paying, but the food's good, promise.” Her cheerful and innocent demeanor was even more pronounced than when he originally met her a month from now.
“No thanks, Me-aybe later. See ya around,” Raine turned and walked away with a quick stride, sending her a wave from over his shoulder.
Not this time Mel, I’ve got too much to do. Definitely a rain check though. Definitely. Before those bastards force you out of your shop and into an I.D. I'll find a way to help you. You didn't deserve the life they forced on you, none of us did.
Mel nearly tripped over her own feet as Raine’s thoughts spilled into her mind once more, [It happened again! He’s all the way over there but I heard him like he was right next to me. Oh my puckered undercarriage, did I become a psychic?! But why can’t I hear anyone else's thoughts? And what was all that about an I.D.? It sounds like he knows who's behind the thugs, too. I have to talk to him again! I don't recognize him but he definitely knows me. I hope he comes back soon...]