It was eight o’clock and the avatar of Robert popped onto the screen after I connected to Zeta 133 room 6. His gaming avatar was so friendly and comical while mine was dark serious and brooding. I tried to make it look like me, with a hint of bad ass. The contrast spoke volumes about our play styles.

“I almost thought you were going to be late,” Robert said.

“Are they here yet?”

“Yep, they are in the game already."

“I’m ready,” I said with authority.

“I got Theodore down, but I know nothing about Mackie,” Robert said.

“Did you look him up?”

“I did and I watched some streams, but I never found one of him in Slaver.”

“Well, I guess we will have to play to find out, let’s go before they give us a bad time."

“Roger that,” Robert chuckled.

The EC lowered my game visor and I felt my hands lock down into the controllers. I was ready. The Virtual Reality visor flickered and then a white light. It faded into the game lobby. I saw Robert’s gaming avatar waiting. The room was like a square box, dark and dank and made from rusting metal. The weapons panel was against a wall displaying the latest in weapon updates and associated cost. The sleek lights beckoned to it, waiting for my input.

I walked over and grabbed a 98a Harlan rifle and proceeded to load it. Robert grabbed his Second Thought Pistol and the Mark II net gun. We could only carry so much equipment unless we paid for more space. That was like a month’s salary for me. For Robert, it was several months’ salary. Robert flashed his stats up so he could see them. They floated above him and then with a flick of his hand they evaporated.

We both rushed out of the room and into a long corridor. Then we entered the entry maze, a spawn camper deterrent. It was dark and had many different ladders going up into the ceiling to a trap door. We both made our way to the middle ladder and proceeded up. Everything went black. The small letters that spelled “Loading” appeared for a second.

“They uploaded new textures, supposed to look fantastic,” Robert said over the com as we waited. I started to think if we even knew what it really looked like.

“God, the load times are awful," I stated.

We appeared on a shield-protected platform in the sunlight. We both dodged behind crates. I looked at my wrist device and scanned the map for a target.

“Bingo,” I said spotting some motion on the spinning dial of my radar, “2 o’clock by that red structure.”

I spotted the target, a human, a purist, or in this game a possible slave. We made our move. Robert rushed forward with the Mark II net gun raised and ready. His jet pack threw his body upward and back down onto some crates. I jetted up to a higher perch, watching from the distance. Not for the purist target but for Theodore and Mackie. A slave was a bonus value.

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Robert was always pretty stealthy. The target was scavenging for food in some old rusted metal containers. I saw Robert fire his Mark II but the target rolled. The nets small metal balls wrapped around an exposed drain pipe. Robert was in the open and started re-loading. The Target pulled a small pistol and began to fire.

“Shit this little fucker is armed!” Robert said as his avatar rolled behind cover.

I aimed my 98a Harlan on the target. I took a deep breath. Boom! The target fell. Struck by a stunning bolt from behind. I pulled up my gun in time to see, through my scope, Theodore caring his 98a Harlan was moving to the target's location.

“Robert got a baddy heading for the target,” I said.

“Roger,” Robert replied, “Crap!”

I pulled my sights to Robert to see his Avatar evaporate as Mackie, who was using stealth mode, stabbed him. I pulled my trigger and my shot connected, right through Mackie’s head. He evaporated.

Blue bolts came flying my direction from Theodore’s 98a. He was always a bad shot and they cracked and pinged around me. I rolled and jetted down to the ground and found cover behind a boulder and tall grass.

The spray of shots died down. I ran from cover to cover and then jetted to the top of a building out of view of the target and Theodore. I set up in my new position knowing that he had to come this way if he wanted to get the target out.

I stayed low and kept my eye open through the scope and waited. I saw him. Sure enough, he had the target in tow. I knew that would slow him down, so I took my time and targeted him. I took my breath and pulled the trigger. Theodore evaporated leaving the treasure behind.

I knew that I only had a few minutes to get the target back to my slavers bin before the round would time out. I used my jet pack and landed next to the Slave. I picked him up and jetted to safety.

“That was a good round!” Robert said as I delivered the goods to the bonus bin.

“Mackie is better than I thought,”

“No doubt, but Theodore is still as dumb as a purist,”

"I wish we could Slave him," I chuckled.

We had eight more rounds to play before the challenge was over. We kept playing and we even lost a couple of rounds because of Mackie and his stealth skills. It seemed like targets were slim Pickens. I love seeing those bonus stars over our names. The golden, twinkling insults to Theodore and Mackie.

“Well back to the grindstone with me.”

“OK Robert, hang tight,”

“You bet!”

The game had come to an end. And my virtual visor pulled away from my face. I sat there for a second contemplating the game. Three minutes of silence before the advertisements would start. I reviewed the playback on the game and noted my mistakes. It dawned on me that we were capturing purist slaves but our avatars were free of enhancements too. I never thought about that before, maybe it was the Maintenance fellow. Seeing him moving around my space. I have seen purists all the time, on media, in games, and even when my mother worried about me in my youth. I willed the EC to move around a little and it did. The reality though is that the EC took up so much space that there was so little space to move. Then again if I want to move, I can always enter the VR lounge, but this real space seemed tighter in here than before.

The screen flickered and the ads started and caught my attention. The ads for all the items that I could use or augment myself, even a little sexual stimulation for the right price. The ads suited to what I would do or like and they were all linked to my brain. They are accurate and it was always hard to not buy something. I also found them to be entertaining, sometimes more so than the show or activity themselves.

The ten minutes of ads flew by and I managed to not buy anything. I was proud of my self-control. The System stopped and prompted me if I wanted to see more ads or a new show. I wanted to sleep and for some reason, I wanted to dream. The last thought I had was does the lights stay on or do they turn off when I close my eyes? I felt the rush of the drugs, a sponsor echoed in my head as I drifted off again into darkness.