Guns are loud. Like, really really loud. It is something you don't understand till you feel the ringing in your ears and the physical force as the sound changes the feel of the air you are breathing. At this point I'm really glad that I got some experience with my weapon before the battle, even if I ended up running through about half my ammo. The biggest thing I learned, though, was how to aim and how to fail at aiming. Once I learned the sights, how slightly off they appeared to be, I could hit precisely every time; so long as I kept my weapon anchored onto something solid. Standing wasn't too bad, but moving was a no-go for anything at any real range. In a related note, predictable bullet sway as you move is crappy programming by lazy developers.

At least I didn't feel weird about what I was doing. Not long after I started a bunch of others decided to practice as well with our various abilities and it became a thing. Then a few of the paramilitary guys from the first group decided to "show us how it's done". Trigger was an ok guy, mostly. He really loves guns and wants everyone else to love them too, just don't try to touch his guns. Apparently he had been ordered not to kill any of us, which seemed to be the only thing that saved a particularly handsy nerd from anything more than a punch to the side of the head.

Probably the most mind-twistingly weird thing was when someone set up a swinging chunk of wood to serve as a target. Now I've played enough video games to understand the difference between projectile and hit-scan weapons: in first you have an actual projectile moving along that needs to lead the target and can be theoretically dodged or mistimed; while hit-scan weapons automatically hit whatever is in the crosshairs when the trigger is pulled, like a beam of light except faster. I know this. And yet at short ranges the bullet feels like a hit-scan weapon even though I can clearly see that it isn't when I fire at something farther away. The cognitive dissidence was hard to get away from.

At this point I was focusing on other things as I hung out with the small group that had fallen together. Geeks and nerds that we were, we didn't exactly tend to get together in a large group for no reason.

"I think I'm ready for the fight later today. Afterall, all I have to do is survive." I commented to Tarah Cafferty, a surprisingly normal girl who had gravitated to hang out with Donnie and me. Her specialty was in communications technology, which apparently translated into having a handheld communications disk that she could focus until it became a serviceable ray-gun... somehow? Life was really unfair sometimes. She didn't have any fancy clothes or a colorful costume, but she did have a high tech backpack with several satellite dishes and other attachments that she could attach or deattach at will. According to her she had gone for a holographic interface because the good cybernetics were too expensive. Other than that, she looked completely normal: Brown hair halfway down her back, glasses with brown eyes of a different shade, and a rounded face that fit well with her short stature.

She was also a tease, and not in the good way. "So, are you all ready to take care of your 'little problem'? Are you ready to pound some baddies and level up? Are you ready to..."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." I answered back. "Or better yet, come up with a better idea if you can?"

She gave me a grin. "I already gave you a plan. My equipment picked up some merchants only a few miles away. Just go grab yourself a five-finger discount or two and then pay them back afterward. You already saw the prices they were advertising, affording it after the first task should be easy!"

I rolled my eyes. "Look, no. I'm not going to try to steal from people with 50 times as many levels as me. Granted, that is less impressive than it sounds, but it is still a bad idea."

Donnie answered back from her other side. "Do you really think your plan will work? 'Just kill a bunch of stuff and level up' sounds kinda..."

"Look, I talked about it with the robot before. Leveling up is all about overcoming challenges and the entire battle counts as one challenge. As long as I participate I'll get Experience for it. I do something impressive and I'll get credits. The thing is that the XP to level up scales exponentially, so the difference between 1 and 5 is the same as 6 and 7. The first battle is supposed to give me just barely enough xp to let me catch up to level 5. This means that, so long as I don't die, everything will be fine."

"Yeah, but are you really going to be ok? You have so few levels at this point, so won't that hurt your ability to participate?" Donny was quickly revealing himself to be the cautious type, though he meant well.

I shook my head. "Levels don't mean everything. My strength and other stats are way higher than the 10 that I was told that they were, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stand and walk and do everything else like I have. And class levels would be worth even less at this point. Afterall, what could I do with a class that is all about making a computer do things with other computers or linked equipment when there aren't any computers around or equipment?"

"There are a few," Tarah responded, just to be contrary. "I and a few of the other techie people have one, and so do some of the military jerks."

I let out a sigh. "I'm not going to screw everyone else over to try stealing their equipment. Besides, I don't have the peripherals to even make the attempt."

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"What about the General's people?" she asked knowingly.

"The mercenaries can be ok, but I'm not sticking my neck out for them. The military can go hang for all I care. The VIPs should be lit on fire before they hang."

"They aren't that bad." Donny said, not sounding the least bit convinced of his words.

I gave him a look. "One of them wanted to experiment on me when they found out about my low level, and the military was ready to help them do it. If Mack hadn't shown up when he did, who knows what would have happened!" I shook my head and tried to calm down. "Look, we are here to talk with the old man. The other aliens say he knows more about what is going on and is willing to talk with us. Can we just drop this for now?"

Neither of them agreed but they didn't bring my troubles up again either. Eventually we made our way through the underground levels of the structure to reach where the aliens were located at the bottom, they wanted their privacy and so they took the most inconvenient place. Thankfully each level had a full set of amenities, including food dispensers and restrooms, so there wasn't any real drawback except for the long walk to get out. The robot by the front entrance, the one that refused to answer any questions other than about the next tutorial round and tutorial rules, was the only other difference between the levels. It took some time to find our way to the old man as he had placed himself in an out of the way spot in a random level, so much that even his group mates weren't sure where he had gone. Even once we had found him there was some awkwardness as we weren't sure what was the right form of greeting, but he just laughed. He then shook our hands, gave us all a hug, and then clasped his hands together and lowered them slightly in our direction. We tried to apologize for the awkwardness but he just laughed it off and continued with the greeting. Only when we were finished with all that and seated on some metal chairs did he continue.

"Welcome friends. My name is Vyvax. You wished to ask me questions?" He looked like a typical old man, wrinkled and thin skinned, but otherwise indistinguishable from a human if you didn't notice the slightly blue tint. His hair was brown with a bluish tint and just full enough to not count as 'wispy' but otherwise kept short and out of the way. His clothes were simple browns that covered is chest and arms while his legs were covered by a blanket of the same material that overflowed onto the rest of the bed where he rested. The only other things in the room were some empty shelves, a simple backpack of sturdy make, and half a dozen metal chairs that had been stacked for space.

The three of us looked at each other and I, as the most outgoing one who wasn't likely to insult the man, chose to speak for our group. The group had a strange culture that prioritized the current task: When you were greeting each other you were doing nothing but greeting, but when you decided to get down to business everything was turned toward that business. For that reason I decided to be blunt and direct. "We saw your group appear and wanted to know how you all got here together, or rather how your group got here at all? Getting in The Game is difficult and expensive where we come from, and your group comes with children." I tried to use diplomatic language; after all, this guy was the groups 'most learned esteemed elder'. But seriously, our group of nerds were all upcoming experts in our fields or rich kids that had just hit adulthood. Seeing children of every age above toddler was unexpected to say the least.

He nodded along, not only not taking offense at my question but also indicating himself with a hand. "And we come with the old and infirm as well. I understand your question. Most others in my tribe would not. Tell me, what do you know of my people's past and abilities?"

I looked back at the others before answering. "We know that you all have some sort of magic that allows you to move things telekinetically. We also know that your people were nomads, but there were cities with higher technology and such. Someone mentioned people coming from the stars and gifting everyone 'eggs of rebirth' to help you grow stronger." I tried to think of anything else that might be relevant, but came up blank. "As far as I know, that's about it..."

He nodded toward me as I spoke, only stopping to raise an eyebrow at the colorful name I had given to the Pods. "I once chose to leave the tribe and go into the city to learn. I continued to learn even when I returned. The cities are evil places, miracles of plenty to the strong but death to the weak. And those who have strength do nothing with it but to increase their strength and steal from the weak. It is why my people are nomads. We are not strong enough to be at the top, but this way we are not crushed at the bottom.

"You have noticed the 'magic' of my world. It is the bane that gave so much power to the strong that they would think nothing of crushing others, and it was the bane that brought the men from the stars. They came because we had magic already, and so would not be tempted by lesser gifts elsewhere. They came to make foot soldiers of us in their little war against those with other gifts, people like you three. I see the metal and light that you use to give you strength, and they would have me see you dead." He looked each of us in our eyes. There was a seriousness in his expression, and something of a warning in his tone. Words that were not human and gestures that were alien somehow were translated in perfect clarity. Then he continued.

"At this time I do not have the power it would take to kill you. At this time I do not have the power it would take to spare you either. We were given our entry into this 'Game' for free to further someone else's ends. I suspect you are made to pay for yours for similar reasons. Even so, you must aways remember: There are only two things that really matter. The first is the choices you make." He reached under a nearby blanket and pulled out a metal cube which he set down on the bed in front of us. It was no larger than a grapefruit and, for a moment, it simply sat there in front of us in all its silvered glory. Then it unfolded to reveal legs, manipulators, and a camera that looked at each of us.

"The second thing that matters is having the power to make your choices matter." The tiny robot chose that moment to leap off of the bed and rush at Tarah, who jumped and kicked her leg out with a small shriek of surprise. The tiny robot went flying, falling to its side several feet away with a few sparks before folding itself back into its cube.

He looked at us with the wisdom of experience. "Will you be truly ready for the coming battle?"