There was an overzealous sound of cascading trumpets that filled my head before Angie nearly shouted in excitement.

“Congratulations! You have reached Level 2, please return to your Safe House to assign stat points and additional attributes!”

“New Achievement! Progression Time! You have leveled up for the very first time. Congrats! If you couldn’t even do this, then we would have wasted a lot of time and money augmenting you. Thanks for not being a waste, keep it up. This is a Wood Level achievement. Reward: Leveling up is its own reward! Get back to your Safe House so you can see why already.”

“New Achievement! Quippy Longstockings! We got a regular jokester over here. You completed a mission by taking down the final opponent WITH a quip! Honestly I’m not sure how we determine what constitutes a joke but I’m pretty sure what you said wasn’t very funny. But you know what, I bet those NPCs you saved are sure to remember it when they are telling their families about it over dinner. This is a Silver Level achievement. Reward: You have received a C:Tier Loot Box.”

I had been so out of breath, I didn’t even care that Angie was rattling off achievements. That wasn’t to say I was getting used to it necessarily, just that I didn’t have it in me to really care. I took a moment to stretch before I looked around at the civilians that were warily starting to stand up. I offered them the most confident smile and wave that I could before one of them shouted a cheer and the group burst out, applauding my victory. More than a few of them were holding phones up, clearly trying to get a picture or video.

The front doors of the bank were pushed open as cops came rushing in, guns raised and I instinctively threw my hands in the air. I might have been the hero here, but a ski mask in a bank?! It really was a recipe for disaster.

Much to my surprise though, the cop leading the way dropped his gun as he took in the fallen bikers.

“Dang, you new Augments always make a mess,” the man said, walking forward and holding out a strong looking hand. “Lt. Nester, 10th precinct, got a name yet?”

“Lt. Nester. This is a Non-Sentient Friendly NPC. Again, we aren’t going to get into this just yet, honestly I’d prefer if we never got into it. Just know it makes integrating you guys into “normal” society a lot easier. And no, his squadmates don’t know. Hey, stop judging me, I can feel you doing it already and it’s uncalled for. Lt. Nester is a very happy man and he just so happens to work for the 10th precinct. This will make him your local police contact.”

“Ummm, no not yet, it’s uh… it’s actually kinda my first time out,” I said with a nervous laugh before I shook the Lieutenant’s hand. It was hard not to find myself coming up short at the idea that somehow this game had plants… in the police of all places.

“It’s really not that big of a deal Augment, with all of you running around, most police forces really only deal with domestic disputes and traffic stops. Hell, I’d argue the guys we put into place are more effective than them. But again, with so little to actually do that’s not all that hard.”

“Well I suggest you start thinking about that. We got some protocols we have to follow and can’t exactly give you any police info if we don’t have an official name to put on the records. SInce I haven’t met an Augment yet that’s wanted to go by their real name, I’m gonna assume I can’t do anything else with yah just yet,” Lt. Nester said turning and waving in a team of EMTs that rushed in to start checking in on the civilians and downed bikers.

“Yeah I uh… I guess that makes sense. Do you guys need anything from me, how long have these guys been causing trouble around here?” I asked.

“Sorry bud, you’re gonna have to come find me when you have a name before I can read you in on that,” he repeated before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thickly stuffed wallet. “Here’s my card, come down to the 10th when you’re ready and ask for me. I can point you in the right direction… and uh… you’re also gonna want to put together a better look, if I wasn’t already aware of an Augment on the scene I might have thought you were the bank robber here.”

“Mission Tutorial Completed! Reward: You have received a B:Tier Loot Box.”

I took the business card and it vanished from my hand, causing the message, “New Contact: Lt. Nester” to flash in the corner of my HUD. I didn’t linger any longer, already noticing a few of the Civilians lifting their phones to get pictures of me before I rushed out of the bank. Honestly Lt. Nester really didn’t need to point it out. It had to look a bit silly, a dude in a mask just casually jogging away from a failed bank robbery, but for now it was the only way I was going to get around.

“Isn’t there a vendor or somewhere I should be going? I mean, I know leveling up is important and I have these loot boxes to open, but like, the cop was right, there’s a few things I really should try to get in order. Hell, what the hell am I going to even call myself? Can I choose anything?”

“Not necessarily anything. Like, as much as I might love calling you a baby back bitch, it really wouldn’t help your merch sales down the line.”

“Merch sales?”

“That’s a topic for when you hit level 25 Augment.”

“Okay, so don’t pick anything that could hurt… potential merch sales… got it,” I muttered out loud. I ducked through an alley when I was confident I had put enough distance between the fight and myself before finally slowing to a walk. When I was sure no one was looking, I pulled off the mask and strolled back out to the main sidewalk as casually as I could.

“As for vendors, we can discuss Sanctuary Square after you complete your level up process. Now that you have created your initial abilities and leveled up, we can finish the last of the wave onboarding steps and you can truly start getting out there.”

“Yeah, about that… Why would I even WANT to keep getting out there? I mean, look I know I probably would have died because of whatever happened with The First and that fight back there was cool but I never wanted to be a superhero… This has been bothering me since I woke up, are the augmentations like… compelling me to participate in all of this? Do I really have to?”

Angie seemed to pause at this for a brief moment, her usually flippant attitude wavering. “While the augmentations aren’t compelling you to participate, it is the job of myself and the game AI to motivate you to play. As I have said multiple times, you have super powers now, the trade off should be-”

“It’s not worth it!” I said, having to hold myself back from screaming it even as I wandered into the lobby of my building. I stopped to look around, glad that Jon wasn’t currently working in the small lobby. I took a deep breath and returned my attention inward. “I am not a killer. I don’t care if you guys are claiming those bikers back there were non-sentient, they looked pretty damn real to me. I tried to take them down non-lethally but my ability just… it made several of them actually die. How am I supposed to deal with that?”

“The same way every other Augment has since Axio started this project… by surviving and growing stronger.” Angie said, and I could have sworn I heard a bit of sorrow in her tone. It only lasted for a moment before her voice picked back up, almost amplifying in pep in response. “But hey, we haven’t sent you out there like a pig to slaughter. In case you didn’t realize it, your augmentations provide you more than just the theoretical ability to wield your super powers. For example, your powerset The Perfect Planner is described as an Offensive, Close Combat class. To facilitate this, you have been granted a skill rank of 5 in a random close ranged fighting style, you can see which after your full stat menu has been opened at the completion of the full onboarding process.”

“Okay that’s cool and all, you guys basically Matrix uploaded a skill into my brain, seriously, what the hell is the point!? Couldn’t the company behind this be making millions of dollars selling this technology?”

“That would imply money is the primary motivation at play, Augment.” Angie quipped back, making me pause as I reached for the handle to my apartment. “This is all largely a moot point, there is nothing that can change your circumstances as they stand. You are an Augment now, meaning you are obliged to participate in Infinite Ascension. So far, you have been compliant, but if you did try to “sit it out”, I’m afraid that would only result in tragedy. There’s nothing within your augmentations that would allow us to just “disable” you, but needless to say, you would be… handled.”

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I swallowed what little spit was in my mouth as her meaning really set in. While I know she had alluded to this multiple times already, I don’t think I had really taken time to actually let it set in. “So… So you’re saying everything, all the comments about sending threats my way, the lawyers collecting my… my remains for testing… Was all of that true? I can actually die playing this game?”

“My apologies Augment, no it wasn’t all true.”

“Ok, that’s a-”

“We don’t actually employ any lawyers.”

I let out a long, slow sigh as I bit back a slew of curses that I wanted to shout. I really should have known that was coming.

The moment I crossed the barrier into my home, my HUD lit up, several new windows popping up in rapid succession that each vanished as I instinctively shoved the notifications to the side. Though I knew I could easily dwell all night on the threat to my life I was now aware of, there still were a million other things I had to deal with. I’d make sure to take the time to freak out properly before I went to bed.

“What the hell was that?”

“All of your missed and held notifications. First, let’s address your new stat selections for leveling up and what will happen in subsequent levels,” Angie said and one of the windows that I’d dismissed pulled back. It was the same stat sheet I had first been shown, though this time the numbers were all filled. “Each level you will be granted 4 stat points that you can distribute as you see fit. Please Note: If you choose to use all of your points to increase a single stat, the third increase in a single level will cost 2 stat points.”

“Why would I ever do that when I could just wait to level up again?” I asked aloud, finding the apartment still empty. It was only a bit shy of 5 in the afternoon, meaning Jon was probably still working on the project. I had helped him once before on a freelance IT job, and it took him nearly two days to finish wiring a building roughly the same size as ours, though that might have been because he had to keep reminding me how to set up the wires.

Still, even knowing that he probably wasn’t going to be home soon, I wasn’t going to risk getting caught in the main area of the apartment. I headed for my bedroom, locking the door behind me as a wave of peace seemed to finally come over me. I dropped onto my bed and fell backwards, starting to just look up at the ceiling when my eyes caught a piece of furniture I hadn’t seen before.

“Um… what’s that?”

“We will discuss that in a bit. And though you leveled up quickly this time, levels will come far slower the higher you get. Some equippable items require minimum stat levels before temporary boosts to utilize and sometimes you just need to bite the bullet and drop 3 points into a single stat to get there. It happens more often than you’d think.”

“I guess that makes sense… Is that all that comes from leveling? Stat points?”

“Nope it just depends on what the level is! There are special things that happen on random Odd levels, but other than your Hidden Power getting revealed at level 15, I’m afraid I can’t ruin the other surprises. On Even levels, you will also receive an Ability Augmentation. Ability Augmentations must be activated immediately upon receiving them and can only be used to target abilities currently on your hotbar. When used, you will be given 3 possible options for modifying the selected ability! If you do not immediately activate the augmentation, I will randomly select and upgrade an ability for you, or as with your powerset selection you can always just say, “Surprise Me, Angie!” Please Note: You may only modify an ability with an Ability Augmentation once every 10 levels, up to a maximum of 3 times. Now please assign your stat points and then your Ability Augmentation will become available.”

The stat sheet shook, as if demanding my attention now that Angie had finished her explanation. It would have been really easy to just dump all of the points into Luck given how many of my abilities already seemed to be relying on the stat, it still wasn’t going to matter if I couldn’t take a hit. I sat up in my bed and the screen followed.

“So theoretically, if I put points into, let’s say Strength… will I actually get stronger? Like, let’s say for example, I can curl 25 pounds with one arm. If I added points to Strength would that go up?”

“That’s exactly it! But, and this is a fun fact that you should definitely remember, your physique will only change if you choose to have it match your achieved stat points. Some players will choose not to have their physique change for a variety of reasons, though most player’s reasoning tends to come down to wanting others to underestimate their capabilities. Strength is the only stat that can have this effect on your physical appearance however, though certain parts of your physical appearance can affect your Style score under certain circumstances, but I don’t think you’ll ever qualify for those.”

I mentally dropped 2 points into Strength and a point into my Luck before hesitating with my last one. I was still stuck on the idea of increasing my Luck just to boost my abilities, and that was definitely important, but my Toughness was only a 2 and if the simple bikers were able to chunk my health down by a quarter with only a punch, I could only imagine how bad it will hurt when I have to fight one of them that was also augmented. I dropped my final point into the stat and I saw +100 flash over my health bar.

“Is it just health that Toughness adds too?”

“No. In addition to the health bonus, each point in Toughness increases your natural resiliences and your Stability substat. These various character stats can be seen under your larger character sheet. But you will have some time for that later, we will need to be immediately moving on.”

Just as Angie promised, another new window flashed open, though it remained blank as my hotbar moved from its normal position into the bottom of the screen.

“Warning: You can only begin the process once you select an ability, there’s no “scrolling around” to see what modifications can be made to your various skills. Select one, and three modifications will populate this screen. You have 30 seconds to select a skill and a subsequent 30 seconds to choose the modification.”

A timer immediately filled the center of the window and I cursed under my breath. What the hell was the point of giving us practically no time to consider damn near any of our choices. This was really on me for not taking literally any time since the end of the fight to look over the skills. I knew my passive skills were useful but without a gun, my Sting Like A Bee ability was the most offensive skill I had.

The icon, an actual bee, briefly filled the Ability Augmentation window before a brief description, without Angie’s color commentary, appeared. Directly below it, the now familiar spinning text boxes filled the rest of the screen.

“Sting Like a Bee: Activated Ability. You gain a 2% chance (increasing by 2% for every 1 point of Luck you have) for your next 3 Unarmed Strikes to strike Weak Spots and inflict an additional 25% damage! Additional effects may also occur. This ability has a 30 second duration and a 2 minute and 30 second cooldown.”

“First Modification Option! Passive Upgrade! All of your Unarmed Strikes now have a 1% chance (increasing by 1% for every 1 point of Luck you have) to strike Weak Spots. This Passive Ability does not stack with the activated version and is not in effect while the ability is on cooldown. You don’t get to have your cake and eat it too, at least, not this early on.”

“Second Modification Option! Time Adjustment! This ability no longer has a time limit for use and will only go on cooldown when you have thrown all of your enhanced unarmed strikes. And when we say no time limit, we mean, no time limit. If you have one strike left after all of your enemies have been dispatched, this ability will hold that one strike in reserve until your next fight, even overnight, and then go on cooldown immediately after being thrown.”

“Third Modification Option! Highlighter Perk! When this ability is activated, possible weak spots will be highlighted on enemies within your local area. Hitting one of these highlighted areas grants an additional 5% chance of dealing critical damage and causing an instant KO. Given you’ve already gotten the Low Blow achievement, I feel it’s my duty to tell you these highlighted spots won’t always be where you expect them to be.”

A timer was rapidly ticking down in the corner of the screen as I quickly read through the options, trying to see which, if any, had the best advantages. I was leaning toward the first. MY passive abilities were useful and adding another one wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sure I’d lose the passive during the cooldown period, but that’s how I always would be if I didn’t choose that modification.

The time adjustment also had its benefits. After all, hadn’t I just been racing earlier to throw the last of my enhanced strikes before the timer had ticked over to the cooldown? Even so, I didn’t like the idea of only having one of the enhanced strikes available going into a new battle and given what I had seen of Augment fights before I had gotten dragged into all of this, I didn’t think this was the best choice.

But the Highlighter perk was interesting. Anything that could cause an instant KO, even at a low percentage, was dangerous, especially if I was considering the long term implications of the game. Even though part of me was still wanting to desperately buck at my new reality, this was essentially a video game, sure I might not have been given a choice on if I wanted to play it, but it was a video game. And if it followed the same pattern as other games, the enemies would only continue to get stronger. The ability to one shot any of them would be-

“Times Up! I have rolled the dice for you and your Sting Like A Bee ability has been modified with a Time Adjustment. Now, before we move on to Sanctuary Square, let’s open those Loot Boxes.”

“God damnit Angie!”