After touching my new helmet a bit I discovered that the cr had coated my entire head, ears, and neck with the thinnest layer of cr armor. This gave me a clue on how to start using my cr to clean off the rest of my skin without injuring myself.

I was just starting to spread out and direct my new mass of cr into a film covering my hand when I heard something that instantly put me on guard and made me freeze time. It was the sound of someone whispering the word “Ready?”

So, was it Cavii who had found me or another PVP group? If it was players then I would have to get very creative to survive the next few seconds. Everything thus far could paralyze me, spear me, and slice and dice me in a matter of moments. What could players with possibly hundreds of years under their belt do to me? I had no idea.

I wasn’t looking in any particular direction, I had been focused on how the tiny cr was flaking crusty matter off of the back of my hand at the time when I heard the whispered words. The sound had come from the down tunnel a dozen feet from me. The good thing about the tunnel system was that the path that I was on was a continuous curve around the outer edge of the mound so unless they already had a key that allowed them to see through walls I might be able to blend back against the wall and hide with my Blidda's natural camouflage.

Who was I kidding? All I needed to do was lay down and I would be invisible to anyone looking directly at me. I was covered in muck, the floor, walls, and ceiling was dripping in everything vile... so that is exactly what I did. I left quick time and dropped to the ground with a splash, making sure that my head and helm copied the surrounding colors as best as possible. I stilled the blades of my Blade Barrier and made them into a deadly invisible trap hovering in the tunnel. My skin prickled and warped slightly, taking on the sludge-like appearance of the biological remains around me.

Once I was prone I used my Prime Speed Control key again, giving myself time to develop a new plan of attack from a different position. Because of the way my eyes were situated, I had a perfect line of sight down the tunnel with my two upper eyes. How was it having four eyes? Not really that different from having two, the field of view was just a lot greater than normal.

“Invicta is there a way to see an enemy's cr or a way to trace where the owner of the cr is located?” I asked.

-Not as far as I am aware. New developments might have occurred in that department since I was separated from the network but from my knowledge, they couldn’t detect cr if all of the currency banking tabs were turned off.-

“Gah! So I have been basically walking around waving my location and wallet in the wind?” I asked. That was probably how Magus the 2nd was able to rob me.

-Yes… I thought that was on purpose.-

I went into my settings and found the banking tab. There were tons and tons of options available within this tab. I had to ask and work with Invicta to figure out which ones were the right ones to turn off and what the ramifications would mean once they were disabled. Basically, from what I gathered, having them on was an easy way for a Citizen to pay for their instant purchases or events without having to go into their settings and authorize the purchase. Kind of like taking out your wallet, I supposed.

With these options off, it was as though the money or cr was hidden away. You had to physically have the cr to do this, however. Money saved within the Banking System, like the 5 million cr that I hadn’t transferred to my habitat, still resided within the bank and wasn’t a giveaway to my location.

“How can I have cr make a sound?” I asked as I had an idea forming inside my head.

-Simply create the size and design of the speaker specifically for the function and volume that you desire out of cr. Then program it with the sounds and tones that you want.-

“So… what are keys for then?” I asked as I thought about the All Sound key.

-Keys have the designs of advanced creations within them. In addition to all the required coding and sensitivity levels needed to achieve the highest known results.-

So keys could be cheat sheets and design specifications for hundreds of years of research into a specific subject and technology. Got it. Keys were highly valuable then.

-However, you don’t need to create anything if you want to make noise. I had observed the Last Engineer utilizing his helm in such a manner. You can speak through the helm if you want. I also observed him linking a remote piece of cr and sending it away from himself several times so he could talk to allies in another area. It worked as a two-way communication device in a pinch. Once he also used this method to flood the tunnels with sound, confusing all those players who had purchased All Sound keys as to his location.-

Oh, that was very clever. My idea was a lot more simple. I singled out 10k of my total 610,000 cr and went back into its settings to leave its currency options in the “on” position. Next, I had my helm link to it and occasionally play a continuously looping sound of me breathing heavily. I programmed this little heavy breather to head off down the tunnel when I next turned off my Prime Speed Control key. It was going to take the most random trip through the mound possible.

Since I was laying on the ground, the area that my Bullet Defenders needed to cover was a lot less than before. Still, only having 4 of the dime-sized defenders did not suit me so I dedicated 180,000 of my 600,000 cr towards it. Giving me 40 total little Bullet Defenders guard against projectiles. I had learned that in this game, everything breaking my skin would probably kill me.

I dumped the last 420,000 cr into my Blade Barrier, redesigning it to have several layers of offset blades rotating in different directions. At present they weren’t spinning. Simply waiting for me to flex them to begin their dance. I turned off my Prime Speed Control key and watched as all my cr split to perform the actions that I had planned. The little heavy breather went racing off down the hall, sounding like a fat kid chasing an ice cream truck.

My other cr split and went to their respective positions as either blades or defenders. The defenders tried to take on the colors that they moved over, making them appear more as though I had flies hovering around me rather than a pocket full of change.

“Did you hear that?” I heard a voice whisper. My helmet was amazing at increasing the sounds that I could hear.

“Yeah, he seems to be running away from us. I am tracking his cr moving south.”

“Do you think he heard us?”

“No way, I think he might be the shmuck playing as a human. I checked the registry and someone picked that race.”

“Ok, let's go after him. I am telling the other team on this level that he is heading their way. Ready?”

“Yup. Lift.” The second voice said.

Lift? What was this command to lift for? - I wondered.

I heard them more than I saw them. Something tall came up and out from the path leading down. They had constructed thick shield walls out of the trees that they harvested from outside.

“Oh my. What is that smell?” The first asked as they came up and into the tunnel. It was a group of 8 players working together and all 8 were marked red on my PVP map. The two in the front and at the back were each holding large half-circle barriers that they could either hold open and block off access from the walls or slam together to block access to the middle. It wasn’t as secure as a Spartan shield wall but it looked formidable regardless. It would allow them to block off the sides of the tunnel and to fight enemies within a small gap in the center, limiting the amount of area that the enemy had access to. The 4 players in the center were also carrying shields that looked like tall planks. These mainly were there to catch any stray flying teeth I guessed. All in all, I was mildly impressed. They were using their environment to their advantage. I wondered how much cr they had managed to collect thus far. If they had enough then they could impregnate the walls of their shields with any excess… thereby actually making them useful against players and resistant to incoming damage from Fomys spawn. I wondered how their setup would go against my Blade Barrier.

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The four main shield holders were Herv and the core group was made up of four different species. It looked like they picked the core players for various traits that would allow them to hunt other players better. One of them was a Jaz’era Prime so I had to be very careful with what sounds or movements I made. There was a Yelvos, a Skii, and lastly a Gurn. Ah! These guys were really clever. The Yelvos was a creature that seemed to be built around smelling things. Its head lacked a mouth and was solely made up of flaps of skin that served as sniffers. They continually opened and closed all around the head, testing and tasting the air around it. As far as I knew it was unable to speak, having no vocal cords. Its shield was mounted via a yolk around its neck since it slithered along the ground with small appendages. I wondered how it managed to survive in the wild. The information that I had read on it said that it actually was a good farming and mining species. I just couldn’t see it though.

The Skii was another oddity. Well, they all were very strange in many regards, but that's beside the point. The Skii was a silent stick bug creature. Its skin had little sails all up and down its body that were continually flipping in different directions. Skiis didn’t have traditional eyes, they used those flaps to see all the light around them. I wondered if it was a hard race to play because every surface of the Skii was essentially an eye. These players had gotten around the need for keys simply by building their groups up with different species that would facilitate similar effects.

The only problem that I could see with this whole setup was… who was the second voice speaking? The Jaz’era were deaf and the Herv carrying the shields hadn’t opened their mouths yet. The Gurn, I was pretty sure, was the first voice, simply because it hadn’t stopped saying how gross the smell was. “Eww! Ack! What the heck happened here?” It moaned as it covered its nose with one of its four hands.

Gurn were spore-like creatures in the shape of a stretched-out ball of cotton candy. They had a semi-humanoid body underneath all the soft-looking fluff covering their frame. They were the “Doctors” in a sense in this game. They could neutralize toxins and promote healing in most tissues that they came in contact with simply by pressing their bodies up against their patients and using their spore-hairs to manipulate and penetrate the target's cells.

The owner of the second voice didn’t reveal itself at first. The whole group shuffled their way through the piles of blended spawn, coating the fur of the Herv, much to their apparent disgust as they each started moaning the more they had splashed on their legs. The rest of the players were each affected in their own way as they made their way closer to me. The Jaz’era didn’t seem to be affected at all while the Yelvos almost seemed ready to pass out from the stench. The Skii walked like it was trying to walk on its tippy toes to avoid all of the puddles. Lastly, the Gurn seemed to be trying to hold its hair up for some reason, keeping three of its hands raised while the other blocked its nose.

There you are!- I thought as I saw the spore-like fluff on top of the Gurn compress like something was moving up there. A moment later a Xeath appeared standing on the Gurn’s head, flaming evil eyes and all.

“Pick up those shields higher and let's get past this mess as fast as we can. The other team says they can hear Kevin approaching their position.”

“Cavii, I know that name from somewhere.” The Gurn said as it trudged forward slowly, keeping the Xeath, Cavii the Champion, positioned high up on its head.

“Yes, you have said that ever since this game started. I don’t care, He took what is mine in this game. Hedje, our scout, managed to get one of the motes back when he was doing a sweep down this very tunnel. Who plays in the Fomys feeding path anyways? Such a retard.”

“Mom says that you shouldn’t play Xeath so much, it makes you mean… and selfish.” the Gurn replied.

“Shut up Sela! I don’t care what your mom says or what my parents say. Xeath’s make me powerful and it makes people obey me! This Kevin didn’t obey me so he will have to pay. Now shut up and do your job or I won't go sky falling with you later.” Cavii said as she stomped on the soft cotton-like material of Sela’s head.

“Ouch Cavii!” Was all it took for Sela to say before I couldn’t take it anymore.

I stood up like a corpse rising up in front of them, solidified goop slowly sliding down my body and arms. I knew it would give the Gurn an opening to harm me but I didn’t care, I marked it as friendly instructed my cr not to harm her.

The Jaz’era was the first one to notice me and it let out clicking sounds in warning, lifting a curved arm to point at me. I had turned on my Prime Speed Control key, cutting the speed down considerably to let me have time to dodge anything thrown at me from this PVP group a moment before I pushed myself up.

The effect was creepy at best because I was dealing with a body that didn’t respond in the time frame that I expected it to, causing my limbs to jerk and move as though I was truly returning back to life, albeit as a zombie.

I didn’t try to say anything, knowing that it wouldn’t be understandable while I was slowing time down. I was angry and I didn’t realize what effect rage would have on my Blade Barrier ability or on how my Bullet Defense would act.

Everything surged outwards when I flexed my abilities as hard as I possibly could.

I tore the tunnel and the side of the mound to pieces.

In slow time I only had moments to realize what my rage had created. Everything around me became a target for my anger, the Blade barrier extended into the walls around me, cutting through the mound to the outside as it spread outward toward the PVP group.

Half of my Bullet Defense went zooming off toward the group, punching through the two Herv in the lead before beginning to circle the Gurn like a protective parent, shoving the Xeath off its head and towards me.

Seeing Cavii’s mouth fall open slowly in surprise, transitioning into a shout of fear at seeing me rise up like death in front of her, to shock at seeing the walls blown outwards from my weaponized cr expanding, and finally to surprise at being pushed forward from behind by my Bullet Defense disks was all I had hoped to see and more.

The Herv in the front only had brief moments to feel the puncture wounds from the Bullet Defense passing through them before they met their demise at the impossibly sharp filaments of my aggravated Blade Barrier.

Oh, no... that is not something that I want to see in slow motion. - I thought as I turned off my Prime Speed Control key. I will be trying to erase that gross memory from my mind for quite a while to come.

The final moment of the PVP group was spent watching a gruesome creature rise up from the alien blood and guts in front of them to seeing their world explode in a blossom of death.

“No! Control it!” I shouted at myself in fear that I would hurt Sela in the midst of it all.

She had disappeared from my sight the moment the blades sprung outwards towards the group, shredding everything in their path.

I grabbed my anger tightly under control and willed my cr to return back to within 10 feet of my body.

“Ah crap,” I said as the air in front of me was filled with player vapors and blended dust and mud. It looked like a tornado bomb had gone off all around me.

The wind from outside the mound sucked the dust and biological mist outwards, quickly pulling at the particles suspended aloft. It seemed that my cr blades would turn everything to vapors and dust with ease.

I held my breath as I waited for the rest of the dust to get pulled outwards.

A lone little Gurn stood atop a circular patch of tunnel floor where my cr had completely avoided touching her in its devastating path.

Something on my map caught my eye and didn’t make sense. She was blue, not flagged for PVP… which meant that my CR wouldn’t have touched her regardless of anything that I had done. Why was she not flagged for PVP? I thought I had seen 8 targets...

Oh… that was how Cavii used her, as a shield from other PVP’ers. You couldn't do anything to a non-PVP marked player, which would let Cavii go invisible and get a free kill regardless. Then Sela would be used to heal any wound that Cavii might have sustained. Cavii just used her friends and the people around her to get what she wanted.

“Wooo! That was awesome! I mean, a little scary there at first with you all being a gooey and scary monster and all but then boom and wow!” Sela said as she looked around at the damage and at her feet where she was standing in a little circle.

“Cavii is going to be so angry. She seldom dies to players.”

“Hi, Sela. My name is Kevin.” I said as I started to have my cr clean off my skin for me.

“Wait… I remember you now. You are the falling man!” Sela said as she threw up all of her four arms in delight.

Wait what? This was the plastic bag girl?