”...As of now, we still have no idea who would try and sabotage our game but they didn’t break any codes or anything and simply made the game a new level of difficulty by doing crazy and improper actions causing it to become harder for other players.” The CEO of the company that recently released The Nexus Tower said on a live conference.
The incident in their game was a player that was able to aggro and escape from the seven high level boss monsters and lead them into the beginner towns causing them to be ruined. Following that other smaller villages were attacked leaving the first floor which only allowed players to be between level 1 and 50 to be left with only the weakest villages as well as increase the danger in the wild with the aggressive boss monsters on the loose instead of guarding the main monolith to the next floor in the middle of the map.
“Wow, I wonder if someone is deliberately sabotaging VR games from large companies?” Sophia asked while watching laid down in her bed.
“Who knows? Maybe someone had it out for the company but it really is a good thing, they are your dad's biggest competitors right?” noah asked.
“Yeah, the CEO is an old rival from Second Life and he kept his grudges from the game time when dad retired to take up the position he has today.” Sophia explained.
At that moment the door opened and two people came inside. “Big sis it's good to see you!” A small little girl ran in. This was Sophia’s sister Bonnie Brim who ran inside dressed in a simple one piece blue dress and jumped onto Sophia hugging her.
“Bonnie, don’t go jumping so roughly, we don’t know if your sister is fully recovered yet.” Malcolm said as his rather imposing figure walked in but a gentle smile was on his face.
“Good evening sir.” Noah said.
“Hello Noah, how are you feeling?” Malcolm asked.
“About 90%.” Noah said and flexed his biceps.
“Hey dad, why is sis and Noah in the same room?” Bonnie asked.
“Because of an incident that was found that they healed faster near each other.” Malcolm said.
“How does that work?” She asked.
“Well, from what the doctor said, we formed a… psychic link I guess is the best way to explain it.” Sophia said.
“Psychic…” Bonnie mutters and tilts her head and crossed her arms while in deep thought for a moment before standing up and walking a few steps before turning around and looked at both the two with a frown.
“Why wasn’t I called to be the flower girl then? I had some ideas for a great dress.” She suddenly said and pulled a book out with lots of pictures of flower girl.
Suddenly a pillow flies and hits the little girl in the head. “That isn’t what psychic link means!” Sophia cried out.
She was blushing but Noah was scarlet from his own embarrassment and because Sophia’s embarrassment was crossing over more to him and not showing on Sophia.
“Now now don’t fight you two, Bonnie is still too young to know what all those terms mean.”
“Hmpf as if, even though she is only 11 her mental age is already 17. Hmpf she only acts like that to look cute.” Sophia said.
“I am cute and adorable!” Bonnie replied angrily.
Noah chuckles at the show of sisterly love.
At this moment the door opened and six more people entered.
“Ah Malcolm good to see you! I had heard you came to visit a few times but how could you forget this old man so easily.” Noland said as he walked inside the room.
Behind him the other face crewmembers walked in one at a time.
“Sis, who are those four people?” Bonnie asked pointing at Alex, Luna, Ernest and Elisa.
Bonnie hadn’t been at the group gathering when the others came due to being on a field trip at school causing her to not meet the remaining members of the crew.
“They are the other four members of our crew in Nebula.” Sophia said.
“Wow! So many good looking people? Who is who?” She asked.
Sophia points to Elisa and starts to introduce everyone. “The woman next to uncle is the medic in our crew. Her name is Elisa and she is an Elf in The Nebula.”
Bonnie looks at her then notices how she was a bit close to Noland but pushing a bit to get closer. Looking her over as if she were gauging something she looks at Noland and with a serious expression she gives him a thumbs up and nods.
Noland’s brows raise before he starts to laugh and Elisa looks confused and looks at Sophia for an answer but she just shrugs. Since she could do nothing she walked forward and stuck her hand out.
“Hi I am Elisa, I heard from Sophia you were called Bonnie, you're really cute.” Elisa says trying to get on Bonnie’s good side.
“Wow so nice! Your really pretty to Aunty! Uncle I approve!” She says with a toothy grin.
This makes Noland burst out laughing and Elisa finally realizes what was going on and blushed violently. “There isn’t anything like that going on.” She said.
Bonnie nods in understand, “Good sign uncle, denial of from aunty means she really likes you.” Bonnie said before receiving a pillow hit from behind coming from Sophia.
“Let's stop this. The next one is Ernest, he is an ex military who is a survivalist expert now.” Sophia says and points to the man next to Maghen.
“Wow! Big sis meg even you got such a hunk!” Bonnie said.
Meghan blushes but doesn’t deny it but Ernest had a bewildered look at looked at Meghan and thinks for a moment.
“Then there is Alexander but we call him Alex.” Sophia said.
Bonnie looked at Alex then made a strange face towards Sophia.
“Why are you calling that petite big sis a guy sis? It’s clear as day it’s a big sis.” Bonnie said and after a moment of silence everyone started to laugh while Alex was frozen stiff.
“Bonnie, Alex is a third gender so don’t mind his girly looks.” Noah playfully says.
“STOP CALLING ME A THIRD GENDER!” Alex says and pitifully sulks in the corner.
“I don’t even have peace in my dreams anymore with those nightmares…” He muttered in a nearly inaudible voice.
“Come on Alex, those dreams of devilishly fun. I know you love the feeling.” Luna says in a seductive voice.
“Woah! A devilish beauty with a trap fetish! Sis who is she?” Bonnie said.
“My name is Luna and just a warning but Alex is mine already, even if his girly charm is very large I won’t let you get him understood.” Luna says and hugs alex from behind.
“You can keep him, I want someone real hunk like Big bro Noah or Ernest instead of a sissy like him.” Bonnie said pouting.
Alex nearly faints from sadness as he starts to drag himself out the room.
“I’ll… be crying myself to sleep.” He said but was held back by Luna.
“No you don’t.” Luna said stopping him.
“Oh right, Big sis Luna, who is gonna wear the dress at the wedding?” Bonnie asked.
Luna looked at her seriously and pondered seriously on the matter while Alex just slumped down as each question made the situation worse.
“Look I brought a scrapbook I made for sis, it can help you all decide as well.” Bonnie said and pulled out another book.
The words on the front made everyone shocked and also feel a feeling of killing intent coming from Sophia.
The reason is because what was written was “Noah & Sophia’s marriage binder” inside were pictures for decor and dresses neatly categorized.
No one could really process this but before they could react Sophia was pulling Bonnie’s cheeks. “Stop with the marriage thing already! I'm not getting married!” She said.
“Shtop zat hut!” Bonnie said trying to pull herself free.
“And here I thought she was a ‘cute’ little girl but she feels more like an old pervert.” Alex said looking at the book where there were even some slightly erotic wedding dresses.
“Who are you calling a pervert tranny!” Bonnie said getting herself free.
“At least Alex knows he will at least have Luna he can marry. I bet you won’t find anyone and grow old, wrinkled and be a prude.” Sophia says.
“NO! I will be cute adorable and loved by the masses forever! I WON’T EVER GET WRINKLY LIKE YOU OR SAGGY EITHER!” Bonnie said in denial with dead eyes.
“Alright Bonnie stop with the games, daddy came to tell everyone something important.” Malcolm said.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Bonnie heard her father's tone and nods before storing her book while muttering, “I need to make five copies for all the girls of the group so they can decide on the wedding arrangements.”
“So what do you need?” Noah asked.
“Well, from the results I have been receiving from the doctors, it showed you have more or less recovered besides from any possible mental complications. Because of the link you all formed no one wants to risk anything so I took the liberty of having a house constructed in the nearest large city my house is located in, which is also Nolands city. It has already been furnished and all your things from your previous homes have been moved in.” Malcolm said.
“So we are moving in together?” Ernest asked.
“What about my work?” Elisa asked.
Malcolm looked at her with a forced smile and pulled out a card. “I went to the hospital and after they heard your condition they had already signed the papers for your dismissal from work.” He said.
Elisa was shocked to the point that she had to sit on Noah’s bed to make sure she didn’t fall. “Does that mean the same for me?” Luna asked a bit worried and Malcolm nodded.
“Your contract was put on hold by your modeling agency for when you get better but they already stated that until you return to work they won’t pay since this incident was caused by a personal incident and not a company accident.”
“No~! What will I do now?!” She said finally showing signs of depression. “How long will this go on! Its not like i can drag everyone around!”
“Because this incident happened on our watch, I have talked this over with the board and they also agreed with it so Virtual Works will sponsor your crew, provide you with this new house and lifetime membership to any and all games we make.” Malcolm said.
“This sponsorship needs us to do what?” Noland asked.
“The AI’s did something interesting to the location your crew is in, you will find out what when you enter the game again but in short we just need you to play, if anything large happens like you participate in a war or other things we will stream your videos live for you and pay for them as bonus.” Malcolm said.
“So full benefits for us?” Noland said.
“Yes, this is compensation, a contract like this won’t probably happen twice if we can help it but we have no way else to compensate for the people that will lose high paying jobs.
“I see, this condition ultimately limits us to be within 10 meter range of our pair an undetermined distance from our group, in other words it's like we are crippled and are forced to move as a group.” Ernest said.
“We don’t know the distance limit for your crew but each pair indeed can’t be far, also due to your physical conditions being so good, the hospital is forced to dismiss you as healthy by next week but you will remain in observation for another week or so before I allow any of you to log back into Nebula. Not only that your brain waves will be monitored ingame and until the end of next month you will be limited to 6 hours a day or until you aren’t able to remain inside. Your capsules have already been upgraded to work in such a manner and have been moved into the new house.” Malcolm said.
“So next week we are out?” Meghan asked.
Malcolm nodded. “I will have an escort to take you to the airport and then from there to the new house were you all can settle down.” Malcolm said.
“I hope there isn’t anything hidden in all this.” Ernest said with a frown and Malcolm nodded.
“Well Bonnie, let’s go get something to eat together then let’s get going and let everyone rest.” Malcolm said.
“So soon? Didn’t bring any wine to share right? Been craving a good one for a long time.” Noland said.
“Not until you're bill of health says that you can drink. But when that time comes I will break open my 17 year old barrel for you to enjoy.” Malcolm said.
A smile appears on Noland’s face as he hears this.
“Oh right, Noland I need to speak with you privately.” Malcolm said.
Noland nodded and soon the two left with Elisa and Bonnie behind them.
The others sat on chairs or on the bed and played a movie that had recently come out.
In Noland’s room, with the two women outside Malcolm’s face grew dark and serious as he spoke with Noland.
“You’re certain it was her?” Noland asked extremely nervous.
“Yes, it was definatly Maria and she was accompanied by a butler that even had Proto on the edge. She came to visit only Noah once before any of you woke up but I met her as they were checking the system to be sure she really was his mother.” Malcolm said.
“Was she allowed to see him?” Noland asked seriously.
When he saw Malcolm nod Noland clutch his fists. “She said something strange, her exact words were, “You don’t know anything, life is full of dangers and neither of you know my past and my enemies. Noland was someone I tried to settle down with but it didn’t work out because of them, Noah came unexpectedly and I couldn’t endanger his life.”, tell me, what is hidden in her past?” Malcolm asked
“I don’t know, she was a run away from her family is what she said and we fell in love lived a few years, she never spoke of them but you should remember how good her combat skills were.” Noland said which Malcolm nodded to.
Maria had been part of the Second life group but she took up the assassin class and not puppeteer and was masterful with it.
“As soon as she gave birth she vanished. That is all.” Noland said.
“She said she took all that money to last long enough to start up again but also to keep you from being a depressive lump and ignore Noah.” Malcolm said.
This made Noland chuckle sadly, “That woman sure knows me, if I wasn’t put in such a corner I would have hired a babysitter and probably shut myself in my room and been a selfish drunk, the violent kind.” He said.
“Well she said she had no plans to return to you or Noah after so long and just said she wanted to see Noah and how he grew up.” Malcolm said.
“So be it, not like Noah would accept her after all the cursing I did towards her. Not unless she revealed her entire life story that is.” Noland said.
“Well, this is all I needed to say, I'll be back when you are all dismissed with the escort.” Malcolm says and pats Nolands shoulder and walks out.
Soon Elisa walks in and sees Noland and doesn’t know how to react by his serious face so she just stays quiet and let him think whatever he has in his mind through.
Small whispers come into her head. The name Maria appears and an unknown feeling appears in Elisa’s chest hearing that name coming from him but she just turns the TV on so she can ignore his voice.
***
“Medical Unit… Have the Ryu yet to be pushed back?” Magi asked.
“Hey it’s not as easy as it was before! Their scales have gotten stronger!” Tris replied.
At the moment all around the station the Ryu were attacking and Tris was guiding the Wyverns to fight them off.
The stations position had already been moved a long time ago and now the broken part had been placed into the crack of the planet while the top part and the broken part of the station had been moved over it until the station could be repaired.
Then the wyverns moved the reef down to the planet and rapidly spread the vegetation which underwent an evolution under the effect of gravity from the planet. It should be known the planet was much bigger than earth and even with the core of the planet being decompressed after the planet broke apart its gravity was still a bit higher than earth. The vegetation that was planted into the asteroid field that had formed from the rubble in the cracks had lots of magnetic metals and remained floating and with the plants on it they began to spread and form some vines slowly wrapping around other rocks forming pathways. After a month the vegetation had already spread half way to both chunks of the planet.
From the planet it was possible to see a glowing dot on the moon as well.
Now as for the fight, about several hours ago the Ryu appeared in numbers of a few hundred and they were much more powerful.
The reason being because their rock shells were thicker. That said all the psi creatures on the planet were the same which caused a the battle to be tied. Wyvern with thicker rock shells and a higher reproductive capability number around 400 already while the reef species were even more numerous while Ryu only number a bit more than 150 but their power is even higher since it's harder to break the scales and since the Ryu try to fight under the shade of the station to keep their injured from dying from the explosive reaction proving sunlight was part of the mix.
“I really want to blow them up already! This is the second attack already!” Tris shouted as she lead her partner to grab another Ryu and try to crush their scales and only when she added a lot of Psi into the body of the wyvern that it could reinforce its jaws to accomplish the deed.
“Magi can you help even a little?” Tris asked.
“This unit is busy… alien language 70% comprehended… 5% of technology analyzed… attempting to implement alien technology into wormhole technology...this unit has reached 50% comprehension towards said technology but can’t advance.” Magi replied.
“Lia please?” Tris cried.
“Sorry but Magi doesn’t stop telling me to do some kind of work and I am completely swamped with things to do!” Lia said apologetically.
“Ricky! Baal! Please!” Tris cried.
“We can’t control those dragons.” Ricky said laughing before getting hit by Baal.
“Go help her idiot, you don’t do anything worthwhile anyway.” Baal said and kicked Ricky into space before jumping out and using him to kick off and opening a small set of wings that rapidly gathered the psi in the surroundings and made two floating wings which quickly accelerated Baal.
He pulled out the hilt of a blade and like the wings it gathered psi and formed a glowing blade that he swung at a Ryu that was near.
It reacted and evaded but had the tip of the tail hit and burned by the psi.
“Baal you bastard!” Ricky shouted as a glowing fish made contact with the Ryu that dodged break the armor around the head.
The Ryu was enraged and swung its tail at Ricky but he dodges it easily and lands another hit on the top of the Ryu’s head stunning it before it was stabbed through the head by Baal.
“Shut up useless bums, get hitting.” Baal said.
“Both of you stop fighting each other and get fighting.” Tris told shouted at them.
After the two joined the balance shifted and after many died, the Ryu retreated.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL! WHY DID BAAL HAVE TO KICK RICKY TO HELP ME INSTEAD OF EVERYONE JUMP IN!” Tris shouted to everyone once all the Ryu had retreated and her wyverns were gathering their head and pushing them into the reef below while taking the dead Ryu, that hadn’t inadvertently blow up when they ate sunlight while bleeding, to eat in their homes.
Wyvern use the space ship husks as nests and pushing them under the shadow of the station where they float around even under the gravity of the planet they still don’t go down since the psi in the air is water like which keeps them floating within it.
The station that was stuck in the crack had only the about 50 meters of the broken off part out of the rubble below and the rest was floating free from it above and there was around 20 km before reaching the large cap. It looked like a massive mushroom if looked from far away.
“Medical unit… don’t scream at this unit… priority of research overrules priority for fixing your poor breeding technique.” Magi said and suddenly felt the Psi around her freeze her and compress around her.
“What was that Magi, did you just say what I think you say?” Tris said in a dead low voice.
Over the past weeks, Tris had been under a great deal of pressure as more psi animals became wild making but not intelligence like the Ryu and Wyvern. This made her stressed and hearing Magi speak pushed her over her tipping point especially after not getting help during the battle.
“Medical unit… releasing this unit at once…Now!” Magi said trying to squirm free and even pushing psi to get free but it goes without saying that even if Tris didn’t get levels for exterior psi control she obviously learned tricks to making it move it her will and Magi who only focuses on research can’t even hope to compare.
“Release this unit this instant!” Magi said.
“Sorry, I'm busy at this moment and to preoccupied with letting you go.” Tris said coldly and walked away while Magi floated behind her frozen in the air.
Tris flies down towards the reef and calls a wyvern and calmly goes down, all the while Magi was complaining.
“Alright… this unit was wrong… this unit should have ordered to send aid!” Magi finally said after hours that Tris had been working on unlocking psi gates from new offspring of the psi creatures.
“Oh you finally said it, good. Let this be a lesson to not take crewmates for granted. Next when a fight comes, you WILL help if I call for it understood. If not I will have Xeno hack your android body and remove half of the research material you have gathered up until now and encrypt it and put it inside a secure file inside my current body.” Tris said.
“Understood… so let this unit go now!” Magi ordered.
“I think I will hold you longer just for being spoiled like that.” Tris said angry.
Suddenly a message came from the station. “Tris, please gather the follow for me, I am sending a list of a few vegetables that has been newly discovered.” Olivia said and sent a list or pictures.
“Alright, let go resource hunting.” She said to her Wyvern who let out a whale like echo which showed its joy.
“Let this unit go!” Magi complained all the way.