The next time that Edge opened his eyes, he found himself on the other side of the galaxy, wearing a body that wasn’t his own.

It took him a moment to realize that he was looking out through the eyeballs of a puppet that had been cloned for his exclusive use. His new home for the duration of his stay on Ord.

Although you were allowed to select the gender, the appearance of each puppet was randomly generated, and they all began their runs at age twenty-five. He had been lucky that its body was close to the same size as his own, or making the transition would have been far less pleasant.

The technician on duty had helped him to sit up, then ran a battery of tests to make sure that everything was in working order. She gave him a few minutes to get used to the change, before tossing him a pile of clothing and a backpack. Then she kicked him out of the facility with a perfunctory, “Good luck.”

Edge got dressed and walked out the front door. The moment he was outside, he set his gaze upon the heavens, looking up at a sky subtly different than the one he’d known all his life. He stood there with a shit-eating grin on his face, basking in the fact that he had done it. That he was standing on the surface of an alien world. The lawless planet that he’d dreamed of exploring all his life.

Whether his run ended today or a decade from now, culminated in triumph, tragedy, or somewhere in between, would be determined by the choices he made from this moment on. Though he’d never say no to a bit of help from lady luck.

He found himself standing beside a large group of tourists. Everyone who had been simucast in the same batch. He took in the faces of women and men from across the galaxy. People here to make their fortune or die trying.

Some began chatting right away, trying to build connections right from the start. Edge didn’t bother. There wasn’t much point in making friends unless you were going to the same starting zone, and his destination was one of the least chosen.

Even then, a random stranger was just as likely to stab you in the back as lend a helping hand. He had no desire to trust his fate to another. Not when for the first time in his miserable life, his destiny was in his own hands. He would head to the Ivory Plains alone. Meet his future on his own terms.

Instead, Edge started reviewing his plans and working out. He needed to get used to the subtle differences that came with piloting flesh and bones that had different proportions from the ones he’d known all his life. He also needed to condition his new body as quickly as possible.

To simulate the natural ability of human bodies to grow stronger with regular exercise, all puppets could improve their physical attributes up to five points each through a process known as conditioning. Points gained from conditioning resulted from the gradual accumulation of biological reactions, rather than a core’s magic manipulating the body.

With conditioning, the extra points on your profile were the recognition of changes that had occurred, rather than their catalyst. Although this was a slow process, it let even uncored individuals perform at a level far above their starting, baseline stats.

While he put his puppet through its paces, Edge’s mind was hard at work. He was already planning out his next move. Reviewing how to minimize the risks he took over the next few weeks, when he would be the most vulnerable. He wouldn’t have much time to think after his tutorial came to an end, so he needed to do it now.

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This was the only period of guaranteed safety that he was going to get, and he wasn’t going to waste a second. The Prison World administration provided no support for tourists beyond the tutorial, basic starting gear, and a week’s worth of food.

Following that train of thought, he opened his bag and saw fourteen mealboxes inside. Magicyte-infused rations that could support his puppet for half a day apiece. The only other items were a canteen, a pair of boots, and a utility knife.

Edge watched his pack like a hawk, clutching it to his chest instead of strapping it onto his back. While the wardens would step in if people tried to hurt each other before heading out, they wouldn’t do anything to stop them from stealing from, manipulating, or tricking one another.

Not long after that, the bus arrived that would take everyone to their tutorial. An experience that would teach them the basics of the System, magic, and skills. He already knew all the relevant information, but he was still bouncing with excitement as they drove down the road.

The bus dropped them off in front of a tall tower with no windows and only one door. Then a warden’s aide came by and showed them how to use their Guides. When Edge opened his menus for the very first time, he broke into a broad grin as he read about the quest to climb the tower.

Each person was led through the entrance one at a time. Inside was a series of rooms, each designed to illustrate a simple concept. There was a tutorial on mana, cores, beasts, skills, basic combat, Guide functions, and System currency.

At the top of the spire was a simulated enemy, a combat dummy in the shape of a person. It was there to help new arrivals get used to the idea of fighting and killing their own kind. The twist was that if you didn’t win, you wouldn’t get the reward. A way of weeding out the weak right from the start.

Thanks to his training back home, Edge won the match easily, and was offered a range of basic skills.

He picked slash without stopping to consider his options, having already made his decision long ago. While there were strengths and weaknesses to each skill on the list, slash was a combat skill that was decently powerful for its rarity and incredibly mana efficient. A perfect choice for a new puppet with limited magicytes and no credits to his name.

When he was done, he was asked which starting zone he wanted to be transported to. Edge had chosen the Ivory Plains, one of the first people in his cohort to make their decision. Without further ado, the world dissolved in a flash of white light.

The next thing he knew, the endless prairie was stretching out before his eyes. He wanted to simply take it all in, but his trial had already begun. Half of all tourists died before the end of their first week, either to carnivorous beasts or predators of the human variety.

Edge needed to make some credits fast. Earn enough to get some decent gear and more food, then acquire a second skill as soon as he could. Once he was stronger and had reached the limits of what conditioning could offer, he could start searching for a core. The next major barrier to surviving on Ord.

He made his way to Puppet Town, adrenaline surging through his veins all the while. He narrowly avoided being hunted on two separate occasions before stepping through the gates. Those first few hours passed in a blur, filled with the high of surviving his first test.

Edge introduced himself to some of the settlement’s major players, people he had been watching on the feed all his life, thrilled to be a part of it all. But he soon discovered that there was nothing there for him to do. Puppet Town had little to offer someone without credits or something to trade for them.

He had already known that he would have to work if he wanted to live. He solicited advice from the few people who were willing to offer it, including the Sheriff and Ann. He traded a mealbox for the right to spend the night camped inside the walls, before heading out early the next morning.

Over the next few days, he was able to make enough credits to keep himself alive, hunting some of the weakest animals on the plains to sell their meat. But it wasn’t even enough to keep his supply of mealboxes from slowly dwindling away.

At that point, Edge had no choice but to accept a medium-risk contract. He had chosen a resource request that would take him to the other side of the plains, searching a distant sub-biome for plants with alchemical properties. It was a roll of the dice that he would have preferred to avoid. But if it worked out, he would be in good shape to survive the next month.

He was almost at his destination when the anomaly had occurred, upending the old world and beginning the new.