NATE MERCER’S APARTMENT, SAFE HOUSE. HELL’S KITCHEN, NYC
NEIGHBORHOOD: CLAIMED BY GUARDIAN: LOOPHOLE (CONTESTED)
CITY: UNCLAIMED (CLAIMS BLOCKED BY TIMER)
CURRENT PHASE POINTS: 6680
END OF PHASE ONE: 03D:00H:00M:00S
----------------------------------------
While the resale shop was pretty cool to see, appearing much like Greg’s Gears and Gadgets had with it's long counter and wall display, there really wasn’t much for me to buy. That wasn’t to say the place had scarce pickings or anything like that. In fact, there were just so, so, so many weapons and various pieces of clothing hanging on the walls behind the counters. It just happened that there were unfortunately little options within my price range that were actually worth buying.
The closest thing I saw was a Belt of the Thinker for 10,000 credits. I couldn’t necessarily argue with the price since it did come with a +8 boost to Intelligence, +2 to Ingenuity and a perk called Quick Wit that would have allowed me to halve the remaining cooldown on a single ability every hour. Still, that didn’t mean I felt bad about sinking my credits into books and the Revolver. If my fight with Pinky had proven anything to me, it was that I needed a lot more offensive options to take down harder to hurt enemies. I ended up leaving the resale shop without buying a thing and headed back through the portal home.
I made it back to the apartment only a few minutes before Axio’s daily announcement and Jon joined me on the couch curiously as the chime hit six. The living room TV flickered to life and Jon’s eyes lit up with glee. He was just about to say something when the Infinite Ascension logo briefly flashed on the screen as images of Augments started to appear in tiles around it. It took until I appeared on the screen for me to realize that it was the current top ten. Our portraits hung like baseball cards as our powerset names and scores populated under them.
Though I still felt a weird vibe just thinking about it, I briefly looked at Tempest’s Wrath. Her amber eyes sat behind a plain black mask and a scowl rested firmly on her face, but that wasn’t the portrait that kept my attention for long.
“Is that a fucking pigeon?” Jon asked before I could vocalize a similar question.
While I had seen the name a few times on the list, I suppose I had mostly just glossed over it as some sort of weird joke that made sense in context. But as weird as it was, in the eighth window with 6070 points was a portrait of a common pigeon.
“Maybe…. It’s a shapeshifter?” I offered, though even I wasn't convinced.
“Into a pigeon?” Jon said and looked at me with a raised brow. “I mean, I know a lot about Augments and I get that shapeshifters are common enough, but would they actually give somebody the option to just turn into a pigeon? Let alone be strong enough that somehow they are in the top 10?! Angie?”
“There are a good number of shapeshifting types, however I do not have a current list of all of them and neither will your current database in the Command Center, now hush, Axio’s about to speak,” Angie said and a familiar bit of feedback pierced the air before a tap of a non-existent microphone stopped it.
“Goooooooood Evening Augments! What a wonderful first day we’ve been having wouldn't you all say? I know I for one have been having, at least for the most part, an absolute blast with all these new features. Now, we’ve got a handful of quick things to get through and I don’t want to hold you all up when you have all clearly been having so much fun! First things first let’s get the unpleasant stuff out of the way. To the three of you that haven’t finished your tutorials yet, yeah, that’s gone on long enough. This is not a joke. This is not me being flippant, or silly, or anything of the like, and yes for the last time Augment #392, this is all real, how are you not getting this? You have exactly one hour to complete the tutorial before I decide to do something about it. I suggest you stop listening to my wonderful voice and get out there now to complete it. You won’t get a final warning.”
My gut turned as I thought about the conversation I had had with Axio. While he had called it ridiculous to ask if this was some sort of show, he hadn’t necessarily denied that it was entertainment. It was impossible to listen to him make this announcement and not feel like he was having a sick sort of fun toying with the lot of us. Still, I couldn’t necessarily ignore that he had seemed to refer to the fact that he was bound by some sort of rules though, so I found myself in a weird position where I wasn’t quite sure what to make of him.
“Now, with 72 hours left on the clock, just over 10% of you have already covered more than half of the necessary points to complete this phase! I certainly hope you all aren’t trying to rush across the finish line just to coast the last few days, remember those of you in the top 10 will receive a S:Tier loot box at the end of Phase One, so keep on pushing! I won’t promise that the points will help you in Phase Two, but the extra experience and levels sure will. And if you don’t think you can pass by one of those eager beavers, you can always just try to hunt them down and take them out of the game permanently. That would be fun to watch AND you’d gain enough points to maybe wind up there yourself!”
Axio let out a dry laugh and I felt myself tense up. Even if he was bound by some sort of rules making him do this, it definitely seemed like he was enjoying himself. Besides, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about being used as a guinea pig even if I did appreciate the fact that Jon was clued into everything and could help me in more ways than just thinking about ways to use my powers. No, I knew it would be irresponsible to assume that Axio didn’t have his own agenda, even if I couldn't even begin to figure out what it was.
“The bigger problem we’re facing is that more than 50% of you haven’t even managed to cross 2500 points yet! Now maybe I’m overthinking this, but the math suggests that means you guys are not putting in quite enough effort to complete this relatively simple task I’ve put before you and I just have to wonder… Did I not express myself well enough? Did you not take me seriously when I warned of a Critical Level threat for not completing this? You know what, I think we’re going to have a trial run with all of you that haven't crossed that threshold just yet. A Minor Level threat has been deployed to each of your locations. Honestly, you all should be thanking me, it’s sink or swim time after all and if you stop that threat, you might just have a chance at not dying by the end of the weekend!”
“What are the-”
“Shhh,” I said, cutting Jon off.
“The rest of you, I’m sorry but I’m all out of favors and help. I've doled out quite a few of those at this point and my generosity has been all used up. But that's okay, you guys are doing well enough already that I think you’ll survive without any extra motivation. There’s three more days, so keep on getting stronger. I’m going to need each and every one of you at your very best for Phase Two because that… well you know what… let’s not worry you all with that just yet. The day’s still young, so get out there and have some fun. Good luck Augments.”
With that his voice clicked away and the portraits of the top ten all vanished. There were a few beats of silence before Jon let out a laugh.
“Sheesh that dude is way too serious for his own good.” Jon said as he hopped to his feet and stretched. “Are you ready to hit up the Dojo? I think it’d be smart to spend some time working on some new moves for you tonight to get you working more fluidly.”
I found myself looking at him almost incredulously as he wandered around the couch and toward the fridge.
Stolen story; please report.
“You… You did hear all that right? Nearly half the people in this year’s wave of new Augments might end up dead by the end of the night… How are you so calm?”
“I mean, we’ve been over the whole statistical chance of dying thing already, so I think that's a moot point. Besides, you have that Acceptance Matrix thing, I don’t. I think the better question is how are you that worried?” He asked, looking back at me. “Trust me, I get what he said sounds scary, I really do. But I’ve been reading up on the threat levels. I’m literally gonna be up half the night here just trying to go through as much as I can. That said, a Minor Threat is at worst something similar to Sal. I’m not hoping they die or anything, that would be messed up, but if that’s the game… ”
“Really?” I asked. Angie let out a giggle as I stood up.
“Yeah, you really have been pretty bad about probing for information, you know that, right Loophole?”
“Hey I was distracted trying to clue him in. Though clearly that was completely pointless since he just went and figured the whole damn thing out on his own,” I said and rubbed at the side of my head. “Even still, I get that you find all of this really cool, I do. Maybe just… I don’t know, pretend to be worried about the crazy A.I. dude in the sky that could send kaijus our way if I don’t do a good enough job.”
“Kaijus?” Jon asked, his eyes visibly lighting up. “Wait, are you telling me there’s gonna be something like Godzilla!?!
“Right?! Isn’t it going to be so cool to see a giant monster destroying a city?!” Angie practically squealed.
“Holy shit, how are you actually excited about that!?!”
“Come on dude, you gotta admit giant monsters are pretty cool. Though I’ll admit that them destroying cities might be less cool. And now that I think about it, I think one would practically crush you right now which would be even less cool,” Jon said and tapped at his chin. “We’re gonna need to get you leveled way up before we try and get one of them to come our way.”
“Yeah, we’re not gonna be trying to make that happen anytime soon… or, you know, preferably at all,” I corrected him and he rolled his eyes as he cracked open a soda. I followed him into the kitchen and peered inside the fridge. “You know… maybe I should go and exchange some of my credits for cash… we could actually have some food in this fridge for once that’s not just leftovers from Tio’s.”
“You? Buying groceries? Now I’ve really seen it all,” he laughed and patted me on the back before walking out of the kitchen and back over to the door to the Command Room. “There’s some ramen in the pantry and some pizza rolls in the freezer if you need a quick bite. Maybe later we can exchange some credits and I’ll do a grocery run in the morning. Once you’re done eating, go ahead, absorb those new books and head into the Dojo, we’ve got some abilities to create. Plus, I think it’s time we start getting you moving around faster.”
“Aye aye captain?”
“He’s cute when he takes charge.”
“He barely does anything and you think he’s cute…” I sighed and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration.
“Hey it’s not her fault I look as good as I do,” Jon called from the Command Room.
“Don’t encourage her.”
“Eh fair enough, I did already have to ask her to tone it down a bit,” he admitted.
As I stood by the fridge, my stomach growled, reminding me that other than a few random snacks and a hot dog from the vendor I had prevented from being robbed, I had barely eaten. I grabbed the pizza rolls, tossed them into Jon’s air fryer and then snatched a package of ramen from the pantry. As the food started to cook, it reminded me of the buff Gio had gotten after he… well... ate one of his apparently disposable men.
“Hey what’s the Well Fed buff?” I asked as I started to prepare the ramen to go into the microwave.
“Here let me see if I can pull it-” Jon started before Angie cut in.
“Well Fed. This is a buff granted when you’ve eaten a well balanced meal for your particular diet. For an Augment like you, that means eating something like a good serving of your Grandma’s famous seven cheese lasagna and your vegetables mister. Apparently for a snake man that means the head of one of his recent cohorts… This buff grants you a 10% increase in Damage and a 25% increase in Stamina for two hours. Once a meal has been confirmed to give this buff, it will be noted for future reference.”
“Huh… that was oddly helpful Angie, thank you,” I said and she sighed.
“Sometimes I think you don’t listen to me or something. I’ve told you, if you ask a question related to the game, I have to answer. It’s not that complicated, Loophole.”
“To be fair, when 90% of the stuff you say are jokes about me or random attempts to lust after Jon, I kinda have to tune out some of it,” I explained. I walked over toward the Command Room while I waited for my food, passing the oversized gym locker that had appeared next to it after I had added the Training Dojo to my expansion slots. I materialized the two books I had that I already qualified for on Gravity and Thermodynamics and absorbed them, gaining a Level 3 Knowledge stat in the two subjects.
It was such a weird feeling when you were expecting it to happen. When I had absorbed my previous books, I had just let the knowledge disappear into the back of my mind until I had actively wanted to use it. But the book on snake venom had proved that it was more than just some key that unlocked additional abilities in my repertoire. I had the knowledge and when I knew I was gaining it, the sudden random facts and figures filled my mind.
“Huh… did you know that Gravity never actually stops pulling you down? Like if we dug a hole straight down to the center of the earth where our own gravity well is, you’d just bob back and forth forever. You know… assuming you didn’t melt when we passed through the molten core,” I explained.
Jon just let out another laugh as he turned around in his chair. “Sheesh, where the hell were these when we were in high school? We coulda both had straight As.”
“There are protections and rules in place that prevent the augmentation of anyone under the age of 18 thank you very much,” Angie chirped up. “And as I’ve said, those books only work if you’ve been augmented.”
“Huh… that’s oddly ethical all things considered,” I said and heard the ding from the air fryer.
“Yeah, I still have so many questions about all of this but even the access I have basically doesn’t tell me a thing,” Jon said as I wandered back to the kitchen. “Like, does this mean all the conspiracies about the original studio were right?”
“I’ve told this to Loophole but I guess it’s worth repeating for you. I am not authorized to speak on the motives or goals of the developers… and it would be in everybody’s best interest to not raise those questions as they draw unnecessary attention,” Angie explained. She hadn’t actually added that second part when I had brought it up before and it almost sounded like it was a last minute addition this time.
“Eh I figured but I guess it couldn’t hurt to ask, not like knowing changes anything anyway,” Jon said with a bit of disappointment.
It only took me a few minutes to scarf the food down once it was finished and without much else to say I found my way over to the locker. Now, I had never actually gotten shoved into a locker in high school, hell I had never even seen that happen outside of cliches in movies or shows, but the idea of choosing to walk into one still felt a bit silly. I stepped into and through the locker.
“Did… wait did the system let you change how it looked?” I said, almost stunned.
When I had first entered the dojo after setting it up, the place was actually strikingly similar to the cell I had fought Pinky in. But now, the door opened into an actual dojo. The more I looked around the more I was positive I had seen this particular location somewhere before and I heard Jon start to laugh over an invisible intercom.
“Yuuuuup, I figured if we are just uploading new skills into your brain, we might as well take a little inspiration from somewhere else too. The system made it so easy, I just had to find the scene in the Matrix and bam, instant dojo,” He said as I walked toward the center of the space. “And before you ask, it’s only the dojo. I can move things like the doorways and your Display Cabinet within my interface, but don’t expect the apartment to be getting a makeover anytime soon.”
“Okay yeah… this is pretty cool,” I admitted as I took in the space. “I could practically sleep in here.”
“I should remind you, the Pocket Dojo expansion does come with a two hour continuous use time limit to prevent just that. If you want sleeping upgrades, you have to purchase those separately, thank you very much,” Angie said.
“Yeah, we’ll be circling back to those later,” Jon added. “Okay, now let’s get to work. The night’s still young and we’ve got a whole new ability bar to fill up.”