Our first aim was to try to find the tank that the army had used. A cautiously wide circle around the former home base didn't show the tank's location but it did reveal some artillery and shells that they had left behind. None of it looked too complicated to use but I didn't exactly think it would be useful against multiple level 200 enemies so I didn't say anything about trying it. The next round's opponents were people with individual power well over twice that of the first round enemy, the one who singlehandedly took on our entire combined group before we had been whittled down to a much smaller group. Granted, we had all gained a few levels since then, but giving people false hope about fighting back seemed like a bad idea. Donnie could probably figure it out too, and maybe others, but nobody said anything.

From there we went toward the police station that the aliens had holed up in. The exterior had multiple gaps through the exterior but the interior walls, which seemed to be just as fortified, had survived amazingly well. I wasn't sure if aliens just built their buildings differently or if this was specific to the police station where they had made their stand. We did find the remains of the tank after it had exploded. I wasn't sure if that had been a failsafe to get rid of it when they left or if the magic aliens had been the cause, but we weren't going to get to use it either way. There was some talk about what had happened to the war machine, but otherwise people were uncharacteristically quiet. Also, more artillery and shells but nothing that would help us against the next round's challenge.

Look, I'm not dumb. I know why they are probably uncomfortable. I shot someone right in front of them. She wasn't really dead, but full dive VR made it feel differently. The best stuff on the normal consumer market was limited to sight and sound. Photorealistic and otherwise perfect as it may be, it couldn't touch the full experience of living in this place for as long as we had with smell and touch and coffee withdrawal and all. But how do you tell someone that their feelings, their entire experience of what was happening around them, was something they should take much less seriously? I certainly don't know. All I could think to do was give them some time to cool off.

Our third stop was to head back to where the army had first appeared, in the center of the open area of that suspicious clearing. I had wanted to check it out with the hope that some of their equipment had been left behind. There was better luck this time as several artillery pieces were ready to be loaded up into what looked like a cross between a semi and a pickup pulling a flatbed trailer. Part of me wondered about the normal seeming equipment, why should it be recognizable at all, while part of me assumed that there must be only so many ways to make things that worked. Fortunately for my sanity the controls were suitably alien for my tastes. The whole thing was simple enough to use, more of a joystick control merged with an aircraft flight stick, and everyone except Dimitri could do it without any trouble now that we knew the trick. That was especially fortunate since all of us were tired of walking and would prefer to cut down the multiple hours long trek to the Market.

What we didn't find were the automatic factories or any other weapons or even the walls that had been set up for defense around the place. Instead there were piles of rubble where each of them had been. Judging from what had been left behind the walls seemed to have been made of a concrete substance with metal, but it also seemed to be bleeding this brown substance? Probably some sort of space aged magic that would mystify and confuse me. The remains of the factories excited Donnie with the rare resources that had been left behind. These two piles lacked the black goo the walls had been filled with, even the factory that had been pumping out the walls didn't have it. More weird mysteries for me to ignore.

I volunteered to drive the vehicle, if only to get away from the oppressive silence, and off we went. The drive wasn't too unbearable but I still decided to pop through the portal before too much more could be said. If nothing else, I had things I needed to do. The information broker was my first stop.

My arrival was followed by the surprise of seeing Roman, the broker, talking with a pair of black blobs. Their words were garbled and they acted surprised upon seeing me, at least as much as a black semi-humanoid blob could.

Roman just laughed, and this time I could understand him. "Now, now. You didn't think your group were the only ones participating with access to this Marketplace, did you?

One of the blobs let out a garbled hum that Roman reacted to with a dramatic eye roll and a dismissive hand gesture.

"I'd rather not waste the points letting me interact with you both simultaneously. I do have a life outside of this gig, you know. This way you can't interact but also won't get confused about what is going on when I don't talk with you either."

More unwords from the lead blob, followed by a few at a higher pitch from the other. This set off a small conversation that seemed to get more heated between the two, much to the amusement of the broker.

Finally he broke in and silenced the discussion. "Or you could just ask me!" He spoke with mocking excitement. "Don't worry, it will be fine. The outsiders interference rules keep you protected from me as much as anyone else."

That seemed to calm them down. They said some things in a seemingly more polite tone before giving me a wide berth as they left. For all that Roman gave them a farewell wave with his flaming hat.

"What was that about?" I asked the moment the door was closed.

He gave me an amused smile and dove into his explanation. "They were just worried about possibly interacting with you and ruining their Tutorial run. Nothing to worry about, for the reasons I already mentioned. I would be in as much or more trouble if I caused interference than you all might be." He shook his head sadly as he said it. Then suddenly all sadness was gone and he was back to smiles and excitement. "But more importantly, congratulations on making it through the second round! That is quite the accomplishment! And, if I know anything at all about you, you did it through skill and cunning rather than just being carried by others! That should give you a lot of credits for you to spend. Are you ready to figure out how to use them?"

"Sure, but first," I pulled out one of the shotguns and a helmet, "I got some stuff from them and wanted to know the best thing to do with it. Maybe you could even help get the armor working?"

There was a pause in his normal flowing gait but he quickly got over it. "Marvelous! Simply marvelous! How did you manage that?"

I paused, considering keeping it secret. Then I remembered the confidentiality clause and knew that by telling him I ensure that he couldn't tell anyone else. Ironically saying something would be more private than keeping it secret. "I recognized the good sniping corridor and found his nest easily. Then I just snuck into the building, bypassed his tripwires, and then stabbed him in the back. The first one, at least. Then I used their own weapons against them."

"How many did you kill?" he asked. "Were any of them commanders, the ones with lights on their shoulders?"

"I got five of them," I answered, "but I don't think I got any of the commanders." It was hard to tell at the end what I had hit, other than the defender. Even so, I knew which ones were the commanders. I had seen them yelling at and directing the others, but the chaos mixed the groups too much to be sure. "I didn't see any lights but the commanders were obvious. Were they invisible or something?"

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He gave me a flummoxed look, then sighed. "Your perception upgrade must not have been geared in that direction. There is so much intel you can get just by widening your visual range a bit I sometimes wonder why anyone would point it in any other direction. Not killing any of the commanders was a shame. They were the most valuable out of the bunch, but it was a good showing nonetheless!"

"So what should I do with all this stuff?" I asked again.

"Sell it." He waved his hand away negligently. "That is all mass-produced point-hog crap that isn't worth binding even though you got it for free, as you will just have to get rid of it soon anyways. If you can sell it to your fellow participants then you might get something good for it, but otherwise it will be worth little more than pocket change."

I frowned at that. "I know it will drop when I die at the end of the next round, but can't I use it to last as long as possible?"

He nodded along as I spoke. "That could work, especially considering your... undeveloped background. You will need to either see a specialist or make some upgrades to your gear though."

I raised an eyebrow at his words. "What do you mean by that?"

He waved my concern away negligently. "Nothing as bad as you likely are thinking. I'm sure you have noticed that people who have played The Game bring a little something back with them. Those changes get passed down to their kids, same as any other existential modifications. For anyone from an old enough society those suits are little more than self-cleaning uniforms. Self repairing too, one you get them to work. You should like that." With another hand gesture he changed the subject. "But as for using them as is, they are designed to be tailored to the individual using them and to not slow them down. One size does not fit all. Try it and the thing will tear you apart at every joint and with every motion. Unless you are secretly a shape shifter?" I shook my head no. "Pity, but that is something to work around.

"Your two choices are to either get a specialist to fit it for you or get an AI, which would require upgrading your computer, which would require having a bigger place to put it all. The first choice is expensive for something that you don't plan to keep, but technically is an option. Considering your flood of resources, however, you are likely better off just going with the second option. Do spend some time adjusting the personality for your AI before you finalize it. Nothing is worse than an AI that you can't work with."

"Right, and I'm sure you have some recommendations on where to go for that AI?" I deadpanned.

"Of course." He waved away my suspicion. "Don't be such a worrywart. You can check their credentials easily enough." He smiled with excitement before moving on, "That is all boring upgrading stuff. The real interesting thing is looking for new upgrades! To do that we need to find a direction for your growth. Give me your thoughts and I can help tell you what works with what you already have."

I nodded, "One question first. How hard is it to get credits outside the tutorial?"

He shrugged in an exaggerated motion. "It is the easiest thing in the world, so long as you don't go dying a lot. The issue becomes that people tend to take a lot of high-risk/high-reward strategies when they don't have to worry about their mortality and so they get stuck. Dying pauses your growth and just living tends to not be free, so people can get caught in a devastating cycle when they reach their limit. You can backtrack somewhat by removing abilities, try for something better, but that either costs credits or looses the credits from all the points you invested. That is more of a problem for the truly powerful when changing a build can total hundreds or thousands of points." He smiled mischievously, "But at your level experimentation is encouraged to find your personal style. Or, if I read you correctly, experimentation could get you a few minutes farther through the final round of the tutorial."

I nodded. "That is exactly my thought. Is he difference between lasting a few minutes and a few hours significant once you get into the main part of The Game?"

"It is the difference between everyone assuming you got lucky and thinking you have real potential." His excitement only ramped up as he spoke. "Lets get started."

---------------------------------------------------

My talk with the information broker took a while as I had to work around his excitement to find something good. While I wasn't against trading out my abilities later, I also wanted to find some options that I would feel comfortable using. He spent a while trying to talk me into upgrading my senses to the tier 4 version, at 64 points, but I just wasn't interested in doing it quite yet. Something to think about in the future, but not right now.

From there I went to buy what I needed. My plan was to be sneaky and fast, utilizing an unusual form of scrying combined with teleportation to keep away as long as possible. I'd gotten an AI, of course, but I also got some other miscellaneous upgrades, like danger sense and a shield and such, that should be useful no matter what. Not all my plans worked out. Apparently there wasn't a cheap healing option that was worthwhile, but I managed to put a large dent in my credits. I thought about using them just to use them, but I didn't have enough for some of what I wanted and I was assured that I could use them after the tutorial. Thankfully credits weren't lost when you die.

Getting outside I met up with Donnie. Nobody else was here yet.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked, settling down in the back of the vehicle next to him.

He glanced back at the building with the portal in thought. "I think that it is taking them a while since they either don't want to upgrade the stuff most strongly associated with their class or have to be really careful on how they use their points. Decision paralysis is a real thing."

"What about you, shouldn't you still be in there figuring things out?"

He shook his head. "I'm going more straight for my route. Getting better at building and figuring out how to build stuff. I did get a Soul Space upgrade, like what you have, to help carry all the junk and supplies I need." He nodded to the now empty space where the small pile of his 'valuable materials' was now absent. "What about you? I know you aren't upgrading your class options to their max, so how did you get out so quickly?"

I shrugged. "I have an information broker I go see. I can ask him basically anything, so let me know if you have any questions. He helped narrow down the options to something more manageable."

He nodded. Then we sat in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't really good or bad, we both had a lot on our minds.

"Why did you do it?" he asked suddenly.

I looked up at the sky. "I didn't trust her. She turned the aliens to put her in charge, stole one or actually two of our party members, and was angry rather than defeated at the end. I wasn't confident in beating the alien's 'Chief' if she sent him after us. So I got rid of the problem."

He nodded slowly. "But why didn't it bother you, everything that came after?"

I shrugged again. "This isn't reality, this is a game. We all should try to remember that."

He shook his head. "I don't mean that. It was a bit shocking but I understand this is a game. What I mean is how everyone reacted to it. Why didn't that affect you more."

I took a moment to consider the question. I could spout out some cringy line about lions not concerning themselves with the opinions of mice, and there would even be some truth to it, but it didn't feel right. Finally I settled on an explanation that, if not perfect, was at least better. "It shows me who my real friends are. I'm not always going to do things that make sense to you. I may leave you behind in this game though decisions that seem, to you, like utter insanity. That's not even unexpected, I'm literally a professional gamer playing a game. The question is what you will do about it and what I will do about it. This is what I choose to do."

"I don't get it." He spoke with a lost expression as he watched me speak. "What does that have to do with everything and not being bothered by it all?"

I took a deep breath as I tried to explain it better. "I did something unexpected and shocking out there, at least to you and everyone else. Do you talk with me about it? Do you run away from me? That means something. I took decisive measures because otherwise I loose, and that weirded out everyone else. Do I question my decisions despite, even now, understanding the clear necessity for what I did? Do I act embarrassed or guilty about doing the necessary thing? Do I go cry when people who can't keep up get upset because I do what it takes to keep going to the top? That means something." I continued looking up at he sky, though my ability still allowed me to see Donnie's face as clear as if he was directly in front of me. "What do you want me to say?"

There was silence for a while. He finally broke it with an unwelcome observation. "You aren't the most charismatic person ever, are you."

I gave him a look. Then I gave him a middle finger.

He just laughed and I couldn't help but break out in a smile. "Talk to them," he told me. "Sometimes you have to be the one to reach out first."

It took me a while to come to a decision on his advice, but eventually I nodded that I would. It was dark by the time the others came back from the Market.