Melanie Feladay

Mel could only stare in stunned silence at the scene unfolding around her. Hundreds, if not thousands of people crammed the busy streets. It all felt so real, far too real for a game. The breeze on her skin, the way her clothes rustled as people, no, players jostled her out of their way. Even the red sheen of light that sprung up around her body to protect her from their innocent shoving felt more real than holding a warm cup of tea in her hands. She couldn't believe it, but oh how she wanted to.

Please, someone tell me I've been isekai’d so this makes sense!

She pinched her cheek, giggling at how much it hurt and how her tears welled up in her eyes.

That teasing slopslinger lied to me! Trying to play this off like it’s just another game except with some timey wimey nonsense tacked on. I mean, no way I would have believed him if he told me it was this amazing, but that's no reason to lie!

She had spent the last four hours in the so-called tutorial and was now in a place called Mirror Lake Town. Of course, calling it a tutorial was beyond a stretch. And the fact less than two hours had passed in her cafe while she did all that was just too much. She stepped to the side of the busy street, running her fingers along a shop’s wall and marveling at its sturdiness, and the very real feeling of the grains massaging her skin.

Between one step and the next, her vision went black and she was falling. She came to with a gasp, the ceiling of her cafe greeting her groggily blinking eyes. Two men in dark suits stood over her. One of them held her new thetaband headset in his oily grasp.

A deep, uncaring voice shocked her to life, “You didn't do as you were told. We warned you what would happen.”

She tried to scream but his hand clamped over her mouth. It was so hot, her mouth and skin were burning. Her eyes bulged as she tried to draw breath, instinctive panic almost taking hold. Then, she remembered what she'd just been through. The tutorial that was so not a tutorial had her fighting for her life against four men this size. She died over and over until she killed them. Stabbed them to death with a dagger she chose at random.

Her panic fled like a story novel closed and set aside for the night. Her gaze hardened, and she nearly snapped her fingers in the specific way that would activate her cafe's WRAITH defense system.

The man sensed her resolve and backed up, the first trace of emotion showing on his face in the form of a vicious smirk, “That's a good look. I hope you push us again so I can savor pulling you apart one piece at a time. Sign the contract, pack up, and be gone. You have two days. Or stay. Then, you’ll be all mine. Let's go.”

The other man dropped her new headset to the floor. His foot came down in what even she could tell was an expert axe kick. It shattered into pieces that skittered across the floor. As the last piece came to a stop, they were out the door. The man looked back, that same smile still plastered to his face like some kind of sub-human mask, “I really hope to see you in two days, love.”

The door clicked shut behind him and Mel crumpled to the floor, “I-I’m so sorry, daddy.” Tears streamed down her face as she cried for her late father's dream that she was powerless to protect.

Froust 3rd sub-commander of Righteous

“We… we lost.”

“How the hell is that possible?! We put up twenty gold! Twenty fucking gold!” Froust lifted underling four by the collar, slamming the man into the auction house’s wall.

“I-I don’t know, sir!” The shorter man didn’t dare squirm or make eye contact, solemnly staring at the ground.

“I think I know what's happening,” underling six piped in from the side, his voice timid. When Froust glanced his way, he quickly elucidated, “Based on the limited information from the forums, and our results here, the only logical conclusion is that the auction houses must be linked to the closest zones. We’re definitely the biggest guild in the area, so nothing else makes sense.”

Froust did the mental calculations, quickly deciding that six was on to something. He dropped four, turning away while tapping his chin.

If that’s the case, and there’s a larger guild with more backing than us in close proximity, it won’t be long before we come into conflict. But right now, after they spent so much, we have a serious opportunity on our hands.

He accessed his contacts and made a call which was promptly answered. With a deep bow, he waited patiently to be given permission to speak, “Finally worked up the courage, eh? You’ve got ten seconds. If I’m not pleased, you're done.”

“Thank you, sir! I’ve just learned that the largest guilds occupying nearby territory spent most of their funds on a few high-value pieces of gear. If we strike fast, we can cripple them. Without the funds to replace their lost gear, we’ll have time to lock down the intermediate zones before they recover. And if we kill the right people, we’ll get that high-value equipment for ourselves.”

Morok the Viper grinned, his gaze turning predatory, “Interesting. Interesting indeed. If you fail, you won’t get another chance. I’ll make the calls, get your ass into position.”

“Thank you, sir! I won’t fail again. Who are we hitting first?”

“Those DyingNight bastards haven’t been willing to negotiate in the least. Let’s show them what we’re capable of.”

Raine KongRu

Raine stepped into his new office and was blasted by the worst kind of nostalgia. He’d spent over twenty in-game years in several just like it. Being back after the freedom of his recent adventures felt wrong on a level he hadn’t known was possible. But that was fine. He filled the feeling away at the end of a very long list of motivational reasons for why he needed to finish as quickly as possible.

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The space was nothing like the rest of ZionLine. It wasn’t supposed to be. This was no place to play games or toil away the hours in pursuit of martial prowess. This was a room designed to turn real world ideas, effort, and ingenuity into cutting edge applications and technologies. And it accomplished that by utilizing top of the line software and hardware.

With the practiced ease that comes with long years of familiarity, he booted up the room’s interface. Several transparent screens appeared in the air and he spent a few quick seconds adjusting them to his liking. The walls reorganized themselves to suit his needs, much of their space replaced by those same screens that he pushed out of the way with a flick of his fingers.

His life’s work had been the result of countless minds toiling for years. Unfortunately, this meant much of what he knew was partial information. He had overseen a majority of the project, and his hands had been directly involved in every aspect of it in one way or another. His first order of business was filling in those holes.

The cornerstone of the design rested on the back of proprietary materials that didn’t exist, because he hadn’t made them yet. He dedicated an entire wall to the chemical composition of the materials he would need. He punched in the atomic sequence and the reactions required for the monomers he knew by heart. Those he didn’t know as well were created to the best of his memory.

He then accessed the quantorithmic computing system that was responsible for governing ZionLine and fed his partial sequences into it. The hardest part was programming the quantum computer with the correct instructions for testing every known element until the missing chemical chains were filled in.

With that process automated for now, he set up another wall with the exact specifications of the materials that would soon be completed. The most important was an ultra-hard metal that became pliant under the right circumstances, allowing onboard AI the flexibility to reshape the entire machine on demand.

With the material parameters entered, he booted up the AR engineering suite—a series of 3D programs that would allow him to manipulate a virtual hologram. With it, he could painstakingly piece together the final product. CronGate’s Wide-application Intersystem Deep-space Omni-functional Wakedrive, also known as: WIDOW

He had nearly been awake for twenty-four real world hours by the time all the automated processes were running smoothly. He logged out and closed his weary eyes, only for them to snap open as a missing memory came back to him. He jumped back into his office, punched in the remembered piece of critical information, then lost himself for several more hours before it occurred to him that he was supposed to be asleep. This sleep-deprived frenzy repeated for four in-game days, broken only by workouts and short naps.

image [https://i.imgur.com/pwkMkHn.jpg]

If not for the computational power of the world's only quantum supercomputer, he wouldn't have had a chance of turning his incomplete memories into a working prototype. It fell short of the perfected piece of machinery that his team put together, only functioning at sixty percent power and efficiency. Regardless of those shortcomings, it was still several fold better than the current versions on the market. Additionally, it had incomparable flexibility, allowing it to be used in ways that the current engineers hadn’t even begun to consider.

Back in his temporary residency, Raine lay on the bed with his eyes closed. He was both exhausted and proud after finishing two days sooner than planned. Everything had gone much smoother than expected. By the end, it was so unnerving how the pieces kept falling into place that he almost started believing in Morty’s computational overlords. Knowing that was definitely the sleep deprivation talking, he spent the last half-day re-running the available virtual tests for a third time, knowing that he must have missed something, but the engine worked perfectly.

Ready to put the entire ordeal behind him, he recorded a short introductory video of the design philosophy, capabilities, and manufacturing requirements of the product. Then, he used the Ncode information Morty found to send the video to the chief engineer at Frontier—the primary competitor of CronGate. If he didn’t hear back from them soon, he had a few other potential buyers in mind. He hoped Frontier didn’t ignore it. The thought of thoroughly screwing over his old employer by giving their competition a fifteen year advantage was too juicy to pass up.

With his life’s work jury-rigged and ready to be sold to the highest bidder, he logged out and promptly fell asleep.

Richtor KongRu

“Now!” Richtor’s shouted command was all the prompting the team needed.

Kevinsbakon leaned back. The monstrous bear’s heavy paw missed his chin by a slim enough margin that his vision was momentarily crowded by brown fur and claws. A light hop brought him directly into Richtor’s already released Mend. The blast of healing energy smacked Kevin’s back ineffectually as it was only a precaution in case he messed up again.

At the same moment, a spear from his right, and a Blast from his left shot into the space he’d been a moment before, both solidly connecting with their prey. The bear roared in pained outrage and Kevinsbakon was right back in its personal space again. His shield smashed it in the snout hard enough it went cross-eyed and once more he danced out of its range.

“Swap!” With practiced ease, the group changed weapons and positions while giving ground. The bear charged out of the cave and was promptly surrounded. Deloralicious Lunged at its back, an unexpected kick sending her spinning through the air. Another Mend hit her right as she landed and she was back on her feet in a flash.

Milkdud was quick to take advantage of the beast’s opening by hacking at its other rear leg with a greatsword. The weapon bit deep, and when it turned toward him, another Blast from TwistedReligion—this time from a staff—took it in the throat. Its roar turned pitiful as blood gushed from the wound.

Richtor struck from the other side with a dagger, getting in a cheap shot to its eye right before Kevinsbakon sealed the kill with a heavy blow from his hammer. Huffing and grinning after the long fight, Richtor eyed his friends, impressed with their progress, “Only one injury this time.”

“Sorry Del, looks like we’re going to have to let you go,” Milkdud shook his head sadly, wiping a fake tear.

“So funny,” she shot back, “Must be nice doing so little damage nothing even bothers looking your way.”

“Hey! Far Sight’s saved us more times than your couch-surfing lounge ever will. We’re almost level five and I’ll have another skill. We’ll see what’s what then.”

“Going to be lounging on your corpse if you don't quit yapping, muttdud,” she stuck out her tongue.

TwistedReligion snickered, nodding at Richtor, “We’ve definitely come a long way since he dropped us off here. Have you heard anything yet? He said we should ask about our next skill.”

“No, nothing. Total comm silence after yelling at me that he was busy last time,” Richtor sighed, only slightly worried about his brother.

“He’s probably working on the big contract that’s paying our salaries. Leave him be. We’re doing fine and we can wait to pick our skills until he’s free,” Kevinsbakon added his two creds to the conversation, earning a round of nods.

“Nothing stopping us from looking through the options though,” Milkdud’s suggestion brought the smiles back to their faces.

“Stay vigilant. Forum's mentioned the war is happening nearby. Not a chance either side would let us keep grinding here if they found us,” Richtor's reminder of the pitched battle between Righteous and DyingNight brought them back to reality. With significantly more awareness, they crept through the forest, returning to their canyon full of spiders.