Now that he had a plan, Orion felt the tension leave his muscles. Exhaustion washed over him like a tide, enough to risk sleeping in this strange environment. Orion decided to climb the stairs and camp out at the workshop. The illumination from the gate provided some comfort, and he was able to find some clothes and bolts of what felt like leather to make a crude nest to bed down in.

Orion woke up to see a rat-looking creature sitting on his chest, observing him as it nibbled on a scrap of leather. It had coarse teal fur, short tusks on the sides of its mouth, and a little piggy nose, but everything else screamed ‘Rat!’. Orion sat bolt upright, dislodging the startled pest. With a dismayed squeal the rat-thing dashed off, wheels spinning furiously.

Wait, wheels? Orion looked down and realized the creature had left little tire marks on the floor as it darted away. Grossed out by the encounter, Orion was nevertheless pleased to see that there were still living things here. Or at least animals that weren’t robot monsters.

Orion looked over his tattered space suit and sighed. The tattered fabric didn’t breathe at all, leaving him drenched in a layer of sweat. Going through the clothes pile he slept on, Orion was able to find a white and orange striped shirt and pair of tan work overalls that fit him. In fact, the clothes seemed to snap to his body when he equipped them, adjusting to fit his size comfortably.

Whether or not that was game mechanics or future space technology he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t even need to put them on. He just thought about wearing the clothes and suddenly he was sporting the new outfit. Orion checked his inventory and found [Cadet Spacesuit] among the stored items.

“I’m not exactly a fashion icon, but at least I don’t smell like the inside of a gym locker now,” Orion reflected.

The next few hours were spent outside clearing the yard. It was filled with rocks, garbage and even a few fallen branches. The wood was unusual because the bark was a cobalt color, with a lighter blue inside. Not only that, there were logs but no trees or stumps in sight.

The work proved too difficult to do by hand, so Orion returned to the workshop in search of tools. He couldn’t find any useful equipment among the piles, most of the boxes also labeled as ‘evidence. Frustrated, he sat down at one of the work benches and folded his arms. Orion pulled up the crafting menu and scrolled through the recipes, spotting a tab labeled ‘tools’. Sure enough he found crafting recipes for picks, axes, and hammers. After an hour of crafting, he’d managed to make a full set, as well as leveling up his machinist skill. He even made himself a portable workbench to make replacements on the go.

Once outside Orion placed the workbench and got to work clearing the debris. There were plenty of stones on the ground which cleared up with a few one-handed swings with the pickax. He swung the pickax down on a fallen log and it thudded against the wood with no clear result. A popup window informed him that an ax was needed to clear wood, so he quickly swapped tools and continued clearing the courtyard. Metal chunks scattered about were resistant to pickaxs and required the hammer, so he swapped off and continued.

Orion got into a pattern of walking down a row of mud, swapping tools and collecting materials. The process became very zen-like and he zoned out as he worked. He just wished he had music to listen to while he did, his old Power Metal playlist was great for keeping him motivated when cleaning back on Earth. He continued this way for a while until he got a notification window.

[Orion Starbeard has reached LV—]

The notification started but his implant sparked again, pain lancing in his right eye. He smelled burnt toast. He instinctively grabbed his temple but the metal was hot to the touch, burning the palm of his hand.

“Ow! This fucking piece of crap!” Orion calmed down, “Still, I leveled up just from mining? I guess I’ve been crafting, too. Still, that seemed awfully fast.”

Orion shrugged. It was only level two. It would get harder to level the higher he got, if Cosmic Horizons followed standard role-playing game logic.

He continued to mine, chop and hammer his way across the compound when he finally came across his first robot monster corpse. Orion strongly considered working around it, but they were everywhere, especially indoors. He’d have to clear them up eventually. The aliens he could bury, of course, it seemed really icky to farm them for materials. Even if they were just non-playable characters in the game. Orion recalled the terrified face of the dead Zylvaan, then imagined chopping it up for wood to make a table. Bile rose up in his throat and he had to swallow back his disgust. The game felt too real to go around desecrating corpses.

These metal monstrosities on the other hand, with their bulbous growths and gnarled multitude of limbs, could be safely farmed for materials. But how? Shifting his weight on his crutch, Orion swung the pickax at the twisted mound of metal. The pick shattered right as the tip struck the surface. The pickax vanished in a flash of blue light and was sucked into Orion’s body. Opening his inventory he found a pile of metal chunks, the description listing it as [Damaged Pickax].

“Dammit! A durability mechanic?” Orion grumbled, “Fine, I guess I’ll craft some extra equipment. It makes sense with the survival game aspect. At least it’ll help level my machinist skill.”

Orion crafted some spare picks, axes and even a shovel for good measure. Better to have it than to have to hobble back and forth too much. As he finished up the last hammer the world HUD announced [Machinist LVL 2: New recipes available]. Orion was once again grateful that his own personal HUD was separate from the universal game one.

Examining the crafting window he noticed some tabs to the side. The first showed his current skill stats, though every skill besides machinist was blanked out. The next contained a catalog of known crafting materials, while the last had a list of crafting recipes he knew. Apparently some came automatically with the skill, including a crude lean-to, campfire, and storage chest. Basic early game stuff. There were a dozen more that were blacked out, showing just the shape of what they would make.

Orion scrolled through the recipes. There was a survival tab, one for firearms, explosives, and one just called gizmos. He noticed in the top right corner a little question mark icon and tapped it. It brought up a search bar. With a snort he typed in ‘Peg Leg’ and hit enter. Orion sat up straighter as one result appeared. It was blanked out like the others and had question marks under it, but it was there. Heart pounding in his ears, he typed in ‘Brain Implant’.

One result. Blank and unknown materials, but it was there. He could fix Apus! He just needed more materials. Different materials. Orion equipped the hammer and gripped the handle hard enough to make the wood creak. He turned and swung his way toward the metal body.

“Let’s dance, motherfucker.” Orion grinned, “Daddy needs a new leg.”

The metal cadaver proved more difficult to smash down. It took about ten good hits with the hammer to start getting ‘Metal Scraps’. The chunks flew off and vanished with another flash of blue, the size of the heap getting smaller. He had to take a breather after about ten swings, gulping for air. The physicality of the activity, coupled with the acrid atmosphere was wearing him out even faster than normal. He briefly wondered if there was a stamina mechanic in the game, or if he was just that out of shape.

After thirty hits, the hammer stopped in mid swing. A cold sweat started to roll down Orion’s forehead as his brain tried to process a strange notification. He pulled up his message history and stared at the item that he just obtained.

[+5 Bone added to inventory.]

[New Crafting Recipe Unlocked!]

Orion backed away from the metal monster and tripped, falling on his ass. He panted heavily, which wasn’t helped by the thin air. His vision started to get a bit red at the edges. He used a breathing exercise his therapist taught him to avoid panic attacks, and eventually he was able to climb back to his feet. Foot, he mentally corrected.

What were these things? Had he been farming materials from some guy in armor? He dispelled the horrific thought with the shake of his head, the pile hadn’t been hollow. The body was filled with tubes and wires and sharp metal components that seemed almost haphazardly placed inside. There was some kind of cybernetic skeleton, though it was twisted and warped, but he certainly didn’t see bones.

Shuddering at the implications, Orion picked up the hammer again and just finished the body off. The last of the robot vanished, earning him thirty [Metal Scraps], twelve [Bones], and a few miscellaneous [Electronic Parts]. A notification informed him that he’d unlocked more crafting recipes.

Back at the crafting table Orion immediately searched for the Brain Implant. No good, it was still blanked out. Disappointed, he checked Peg Leg again. This time the icon was visible, a small cartoon picture of a piratey wooden leg. It required leather, wires, metal scrap and bone. Orion frowned at that, wondering what the final product would look like. But the discomfort of balancing on one leg far outweighed any protests he might have and selected the recipe, dumping the necessary materials on the table. It took five attempts at the minigame before he was able to construct a working leg.

The leg was about as low-tech as you could get. A leather brace, sewn together with thin wire to form a kind of holster with a strap near the top. The bottom of the leather bowl had a curved metal cap with screws fastening it together. And the actual peg was just a long piece of polished bone. It was too short as well. It looked like it would hurt to wear. But the effort of balancing with the crutch while working was playing hell on his butt muscles and spine. Why did the game devs program realistic pain into the game? He’d have to give R-

Orion paused. What was her name again? He was friends with one of the developers, wasn’t he? So why couldn’t he remember her name? Renee? Rita? No, those didn’t sound right. He struggled to think back, certain he’d seen her recently. But there was just a big empty gap in his memory.

“Come on! I have amnesia, too? How cliche is that?”

Sighing, Orion stared at the peg leg. He didn’t relish the thought of putting that on his weird staticy stump, but his armpit was starting to hurt from the makeshift crutch.

“All, right.” Orion said with resignation, “Let’s get this over with.”

He picked up the peg leg and focused on equipping it. He wasn’t even sure how that worked. Orion imagined the prosthetic on his stump and the bone and leather contraption vanished.

He stumbled and dropped the crutch, pinwheeling his arms to regain his balance. But this time, something touched the ground to support him. Orion looked down at his feet and saw a polished bone leg, strapped to the stump like it was part of Orion’s design from the start. He tapped his new left leg on the packed mud to check if it was secure. Not only didn’t it hurt, it didn’t feel like anything. Proper length, not wobbly, it was as if he’d had it for years. It felt more like a cosmetic skin for his actual leg, and if not for the total lack of feeling he’d have believed it was.

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Orion walked in a slow circle, “I’ll be damned. It worked!”

Orion ran a lap around the area he had cleared. It had been a long time since he’d run, even before losing a leg to the portal. He couldn’t recall how long, but it felt good to have a full range of mobility again. He had to pause before the red rim in his vision had gotten worse, making it was getting difficult to see. He must be overexerting himself.

Orion sat down on a fallen tree to catch his breath. His body ached from the jog, his stump was sore and certain muscles in his back and butt were throbbing. He must be overcompensating for the new leg still. It would probably take time to adjust to it, so he resolved to keep the crutch in his inventory in case of emergencies. He was definitely starting to feel lightheaded, too.

Not wanting to climb the stairs to the workshop, he decided to build a shelter in the courtyard. Looking over the survival tab, Orion saw that he’d accrued enough materials for a lean-to shelter and a fire pit. He built the new items without any trouble and went to place them. A holographic grid appeared in his vision, showing him the size of the makeshift shelter. He found he could use his thumb and forefinger to increase or decrease the size of the image like a picture on his smartphone. Finding a good spot that wasn’t blocked by litter, he placed both items. He crafted a chest as well, setting it next to his new home and dumping the materials inside.

Satisfied with his work, Orion started to kneel down to climb into the shelter. His vision started flashing red and an alarm sounded in his ears. Orion yelled and clasped his hands over his ears, but the sound seemed to be coming from inside his head. The implant sparked and started getting hot to the touch. Orion smelled burning plastic.

“Dammit! What is wrong with this thing?” Orion growled and smacked at his implant. Pain wracked his body. It felt like getting stabbed in the stomach every few seconds. He pounded on the useless metal in his temple, praying for the pain to stop. Orion’s personal HUD finally sparked to life. His corrupted window was flashing red and was covered in warning messages.

Three status bars were front and center. The first had a crude pixel meat picture, the second a blue water droplet, and the last had the initials HP. The meat and water bars were empty, and the HP bar was quickly ticking down. The message windows were filled with the same phrases. ‘Warning: You are Starving! Please eat something to regain Health.’ ‘Warning: You are Thirsty! Please hydrate to regain Health’.

“Ah, shit.” Orion said as his last few health points ticked down, “I forgot about food.”

[You Have Died]

Orion felt like he was floating, watching a curious scene from a distance. It felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he’d seen it before. The setting looked very strange, like an immense underground cavern made of grayish green rock. The ceiling overhead stretched forever, giving the impression that that sky was an endless expanse of stalactites. Sickly looking green flames hovered near the ceiling, floating lazily past the hanging calcium deposits to give the illusion of a night sky.

An archipelago of rocky outcroppings the color of old bone breached the surface, looking like the skeletal remains of some long dead titan. The few smaller islets had twisted trees with blackened wood, bare branches grasping towards the sky like gnarled hands. Dim lights pulsed eerily in the murky, bruise-colored ocean. The scene looked like some mad painter’s vision of the underworld.

The cutscene, or maybe dream, panned in and Orion saw a boat coalesce in the fog. He was hovering above the central island, a round bay and jagged rocks forming a circular lagoon. It was a plain wooden galleon with white sails, a row of cannons on either side, and a black jolly roger flapping above the crow’s nest. The pirate flag had the white image of a broken ship and a large fist smashing a hole in the bow. The ship's name, painted in ornate gold lettering, was the Deck Puncher.

Orion’s disembodied consciousness was pulled towards the ship. He saw figures scrambling across the planks, and standing in the center of it all was the Captain. Memories sparked in Orion’s mind as he recognized his Starbeard avatar, a large Orc in both stature and girth. He wore a mahogany frock coat and tricorn hat, a frilly poet shirt stretched over a round stomach, and black breeches rolled up over shiny leather boots. His broad shoulders and strong arms bulged under the thick coat sleeves. The Orc’s resembled Orion’s, but with a broader jaw, larger tusks and a flowing beard willed with twinkling stars.

‘Whoa!’ Orion thought to himself, ‘Was that what I looked like? Look at that beard! Just like the night sky—ohhh. Starbeard. I get it.’

Orion watched Starbeard as he walked to the starboard railing and watched the waves slosh against the ship’s side. Orion glanced down at the water and immediately jerked back when he noticed the glowing spots in the waves were ghostly corpses. What the hell was this place?

Starbeard turned and hitched his belt up before bellowing to the crew. “Drop anchor and raise the sails! All hands on deck!”

The sound of chains and a splash interrupted Orion’s thoughts as the ship’s momentum stopped, swinging slightly in the breeze. Two crew members grabbed rope pulleys, raising the sails and trying them off. Five members of the crew came bounding, swinging and in one case, tripping to the deck.

Orion squinted. This must have been a memory he watched, because the new figures were mostly whole, but had more pixilated chunks missing, and their faces were completely randomized. A blurry mosaic of colors obscured any recognizable features aside from their bodies.

The figures themselves were motley crew of vagabonds and misfits. One was a slim creature in a long charcoal duster coat, wide-brimmed hat and a long green whip-like tail. One was a short fellow in a leather smock over muscled bronzed skin, thick leather gloves and heavy steel-toed boots. Another towered over the rest, looking like a knight in full plate armor that obscured any other details. Perched on the massive knight’s pauldron was a petite half bird woman holding a wooden staff clumsily in iridescent black wing arms. The last was a heavily muscled woman with gray spotted skin, wearing a seal pelt mantle and clutching an anchor slung over one shoulder. Orion found he couldn’t remember them properly, though he felt comforted by their presence with no understanding of why.

Starbeard started to pace the line, “I wanted to thank you all for agreeing to this. You have no idea how much this means to me, guys.”

The tailed one folded their arms, asking casually, “So, why are we meeting here in the Sea of Souls with a brand new ship? This isn’t exactly a newbie friendly area.”

The suit of armor interjected, “Well, we’re not exactly newbies. We’ve been playing Seas of Spiritus for years. The main reason we’re restarting is because the latest DLC has a bunch of new content that isn‘t compatible with our old save files.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” The seal woman sounded embarrassed, “We really did our best to fix that but we found some weird virus embedded in the program. We think it was collecting data, but when we removed it it caused major crashes and deleted a lot of save files. We had to go back to a previous build to finish updating the game.”

Starbeard stopped pacing in front of her, “I didn’t hear about that. I’m sorry Silky.”

Silky shrugged, “It wasn’t public knowledge. We don’t want people knowing the game was hacked, or thinking we were collecting data. I’d never allow that.”

The short one patted the knight’s hand comfortingly, “It’s not too bad being down here as level one characters. SoS is mostly skill based, anyway. Our equipment is under leveled, sure, but a good strategy can compensate for that. And we know the strats.”

Orion’s attention snapped to the moment the short one spoke. That was the voice he kept hearing! He tried to float closer but the scene continued as normal. He felt an intense longing to be closer to him but was helpless to do anything except observe the conversation.

Starbeard stepped to the middle of the group. “I know this isn’t the usual way to do things. Normally, you start at the Sea of Stone and work your way towards either the Sea of Souls or the Sea of Stars. But I wanted to do something for a long time. An epic journey across all seven seas. As you know, Star-Lynx finally released the Sea of Serenity, the last realm we haven’t explored. I wanted us to travel from the very lowest sea, battle all the bosses and work our way up to the very top level. One last saga to complete our journey together. After all, this game is how we all met.

The crew looked at one another and came together to virtually shake hands and voice their agreements. They turned to Starbeard expectantly.

Starbeard beamed, “Okay friends! Let’s start the stream! Our last adventure in Seas of Spiritus is about to begin!”

Everyone cheered. But as they turned to start their stream announcements or tend to other ship tasks, Orion watched Starbeard carefully. For a brief moment the Orc’s gaze flicked down with a worried expression. It was gone in an instant, and Orion wondered if he’d just imagined it. Before he could contemplate the meaning behind that, Orion felt himself pulled away from the scene and the world went dark again.

[Memory upload at 80%]