“What’s Evel of the EVE team doing?!” the commentator’s shout burst into the room. “The core heroes of Drones are crumbling one after another! Where’s their support? Are sleeping, Drones? Where’s your champion spirit?!”
Snorting, I switched it off. No point in watching this any further. I just wanted to make sure Masha was all right. I left a message for her and walked to the capsule. Today, I was going to sort things out at last, reflecting with a clear head on everything that had befallen me the past three days.
“The ship!” I remembered. “I have a ship now! I haven’t seen it yet!”
Getting excited at once, I lay into the capsule, and hastily entered to the game.
***
“What a great place.” Once I was at the square, I headed to the familiar seafood vendor; there was a short queue waiting by it. In a flash, another similar tray appeared nearby, the vendor behind it an identical twin of the first one, so I took my grilled shrimps after just two minutes’ wait.
Taking the snack to go, I reached my house—the on-sale advertising was no longer on it—came in, and was immediately surprised at how crowded the hall had become; sitting on the sofas were no less than ten people. Shrugging, I called the elevator and rose to my floor.
The door opened at once, letting me into the apartment. “Life is good, and good life is better,” I concluded at the sight of a large two-bedroom apartment with state-of-the-art furniture.
“Where’s my ship?” I rushed for the door that was apparently out of style and which probably lead to the warehouse hangar. My guess proved true the moment I laid eyes on my beautiful boy. “Wow!” I dashed to feel it.
The two nozzle guide vanes, with a big railgun between them, smoothly transitioned into the cockpit. The rest of the airframe looked like a numbfish, with its flat body and narrowing tail. The two major marching engines and lots of smaller ones over the airframe, used for space maneuvers, completed my purchase.
Climbing up, I opened the armored cockpit and sat in it. The screens flashed at once. They were all around me, instead of the glassy bubble canopy like in the real-world fighters. That was an understandable choice; a tiny pebble hitting organic glass in outer space at a great speed was enough to smash it, however strongly reinforced it was. So, the cockpit was armored all around and the screens inside had excellent visibility as if I had no thick armor overhead at all.
WARNING! To use a fighter on missions, you need the Pilot class and the following skills: Laser Gun Shooting, Kinetic Gun Shooting, Fighter Pilot, Navigation, and Teamwork. Your reputation with the Wargs should be 100 or higher.
The system message popped up to bum me out the moment I tried to start the ship.[YX1]
“I know,” I brushed it aside and opened the skill menu.
My data had changed slightly over the past three days, but the skill slots and points from my past account were still there, apparently unnoticed by those who should have removed them. Was it the wiper’s mistake? Or did it happen because I didn’t use them during the testing period? I had no idea.
Character: NameNotSelected
Level: 3
Class: Infantry
Free skill slots: 7
Free skill points: 35
Galaxy credits: 12,000
Reputation with the Wargs: 24
The values had increased a bit as I had earned more slots and points when I reached level 3. I guessed that I would now be getting these with every fifth level as it had been the case during the testing stage.
“Well, it’s time to get a proper name and use my skill points,” I finally made the decision I had been preparing for so long. “Nickname is the simplest part. Just like my past one.”
Typing L0St, I rejoiced at it not being taken by anyone and then unfolded the giant skill tree. Once you selected your class and primary skill range, you could use skill points to unlock any sub-skills referring to them. Increasing a primary skill level increased all of the sub-skills as well.
“Pilot.” I selected my new class, dropping it into a skill slot and seeing a couple of pilot skill become available. Filling two more slots, I unlocked the 3rd pilot level and the branch unfolded further, showing the skills that had been unavailable at level 1. Unfortunately, many of those relied on the primary pilot skills: Laser Gun Shooting, Kinetic Gun Shooting, Fighter Pilot, Navigation, and Teamwork. To unlock the sub-skills that captured my attention, I had to level up Kinetic Gun Shooting and Navigation by two slots each.
Now I could spend the skill points on the skills I needed. Sure I was interested in skills I’d get on levels 10 and 20, but I still had a long way to go before coming any close to them. So I made my choice between those currently unlocked.
“Well. Ten for Extended Detection Radius. Ten for Fire Range. Five for Camouflage. Ten for Main Caliber Damage.” Quickly distributing all the skill points, I marveled at the ship’s significantly enhanced properties.
In the meantime, most of the red pop-up warnings about my inability to use this class of transport vanished. The only remaining one pointed out the need to get a better reputation with the Wargs.
“I will get it,” I promised to the ship, patting its interior and feeling like I was falling in love with it more and more. “And I’ll get more cool upgrades for you. I saw them in the shop, priced ridiculously high. But don’t you worry. Just one or two months of work, and I’ll make you even greater than you already are.”
My second attempt to start the ship was more successful. Not only did I manage to take it some two yards off the ground, but I also got some practice with the detection, aiming, and navigation systems. Everything was a bit unusual and arranged in a different way than in my past ship, but I still had my experience. About an hour later, I was familiar with all of the available flight instruments. A couple more of practice sessions like this one, and I’ll become adept. I was definitely going to get those. Before flying to battle, I needed not only to get more reputation, but also learn the location of every small screw inside my ship in order for the spacecraft to become an extension of my own body and so that I could instantly make sense of any system warning it gave.
“Well, enough for today.” I let my toy go, turned off the engines and opened the cockpit. Now I needed to continue trying to get 100 reputation while I still had time.
The money was tight, even although I had spent almost 72 hours straight in the game taking all x10 missions I could get. This raised the question of covering my living expenses as an urgent one, with all the money I had made before gone into mortgage repayment and the recent funds into buying and upgrading the ship.
I would rather not use the word earnings to describe the puny nine dollars per hour I was now getting for my hard labor. With rates like these, I’ll die of exhaustion before I even make a living. The utility bills and grocery shopping had to be paid anyway and I could only make some money by gaming; it was unlikely that I would manage to get any other job in the near future.
Chapter 15
“Oh, I’ve missed you so much!” she screamed from the threshold and hugged me.
“Hey, ease off a bit, girl.” Our separation wasn’t long and I had spent almost all that time gaming, so Masha’s absence seemed to last a day.
“Unshaven. Bags under eyes. Have you slept at all?” Recoiling, she had a good look at me, examining from head to toe.
“I don’t remember, honestly,” I said. “Are you hungry? I’ve just made breakfast.”
“Shower first,” she said firmly. “Twelve hours on the road!”
“Well, I’ll go have that breakfast then. You order what you want and join me later.”
“Aren’t you going to the shower with me?” she asked playfully, stripping her clothes off.
“That means you unwashed and me hungry.” The offer was attractive, but I wanted food more than sex. I didn’t have dinner the day before; after practice with my fighter, I had been doing missions up until morning to level up my reputation.
“Ugh, nasty.�
�� She slapped my hand. “A girl is offering her virginity, and you opt for stuffing your belly.”
“Go, you virgin,” I smiled, slapping her bum. “I’m starving.”
She shook her head and went to the bedroom, suitcase in hand. In a moment, I heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom.
“Home. Video wall on.” I plumped down onto the sofa, pulling the plate with food closer.
“…so the first defeat of our team, Drones, was quite unexpected,” the anchor said.
My jaw dropped hearing these words. By their last game that I had seen when I was looking for Masha, I knew that my past team was not doing really well in that battle, but them losing the tournament and scoring second still came as a surprise.
“Where’s the team spirit that they’ve displayed at the International? Where’s their interaction? My impression is that the guys just didn’t have enough rest after the past tournament. I hope they’ll do better at the next minor, but all that we can see now is just good solo play by each member, with team play being virtually non-existent.”
I kept watching the battle clips, making sure the anchor’s words had too much truth to them. Even Masha wasn’t doing well in her position. That was outright weird; her play used to be immaculate before.
“Here comes your tired and hungry traveler.” A hundred-pound body wrapped in a bathrobe, with a tall towel turban on her head, plumped down into my lap.
“Did you really lose it?” I was still under the impression of the news.
“Yeah.” She winced and, snatching my fork, used it to pick the food from my plate. “I understand your glee over that.” She cast a slanting glance while chewing. “Looks like it was a mistake to enter new tournaments so fast. The guys are a mess after the International. Nikita’s either star-struck or seeking the captain position. Anyway, he’s arguing with Styopa so much in the voice chat that I’m wondering how we even reached the final.”
“Really?” I failed to hide the satisfaction in my voice.
“Please, dear, enough talking about them. My head’s still aching from their yelling.” She winced again. “Better tell me how you are. What have you been doing? How’s the game? How many women did you bring here while I was away?”
“Three,” I answered seriously to her last question. “I began on the very day you left, so I had plenty of time for fun. When is your next tournament?”
“You brute.” She elbowed me without real anger, finishing the breakfast. “Will you treat a lady to some tea, Casanova?”
“Sure.” I stood to pour her freshly-brewed green tea and toast bread with peanut butter.
“Great.” Taking a sip of tea from the glass, she leaned back on the sofa. “Everyone seems to be talking about that game of yours. Galaxy. Will you show it to me today? I’m dying to have a look.”
“Yes, everyone’s talking about it. But it kinda broke my hopes.” I told her about the reduced rates taking a toll on my income.
“Wow!” She was excited to hear that I was broke. “So I am now the breadwinner in our family?”
“Yeah. I can’t even take you to a restaurant.” I nodded sadly.
“Then I’ll use my position of a household head to ride you.” She opened her bathrobe slightly. I swallowed at this tease.
“I don’t seem to have much of a choice,” I said, opening my arms to embrace her.
She laughed merrily, falling to my chest.
***
“Now you know the nuts and bolts.” Seeing and feeling my soul mate next to me in the game was strange. She had changed her appearance profoundly, becoming a platinum blonde with C cup. A far cry from what she looked like in the real world. “So take a four hour one. Once you’re done with it, meet me here. A pity that the game doesn’t yet have a chat.” I showed her how to take quests. When she had vanished in the teleport circle, I decided to visit my beautiful boy and then do some quests.
“My love.” Entering the warehouse, I was instantly overwhelmed by pride. The ship was just wonderful. Again, the fear of losing it exploded in my face. I knew I had to fly it to battle—that was exactly what I bought it for, doing all that leveling up—but my heart was trembling, rejection that idea, begging me not to hurry and to gain more skills first to better prepare myself for battles.
Better? I objected to myself. You can’t better prepare for anything by staying in this hangar. I haven’t even seen any battle involving air forces. That’s useless reasoning. Nothing can prepare you but real experience.
Suppressing the internal protest, I climbed in, raised the ship two yards into the air again and had some practice with the flight instruments. It didn’t really take me much time to master those; I had acquired the essential fine motor skills in the other game, so now I just had to get used to the different interface layout, and to the small time lag between my command and the ship’s reaction. I didn’t know what caused that lag, but it was somewhat uncomfortable.
Engrossed in play, I was oblivious of the three and a half hours that had flown by. I also saw that the ship’s fuel supply wasn’t endless; the charge indicator slipped from 100% to 99%, making it pretty clear that I would have to recharge it at some point.
“Well, enough for today,” I decided, glancing at the watch. “Masha should be done soon. Better meet her before heading off to my own quests.”
Unfortunately, she hadn’t come back to the square. I just wasted half an hour waiting. When some ten minutes later she was still not there, I got too tired of waiting and headed off for the quest panel. Sure there were no x10 missions for infantry, and even those with armored vehicles got filled, becoming unavailable. Once I rejoiced at seeing one such mission, it got filled up and had vanished from the list in literally five seconds, before I could even select it or press any button.
Attention, pilot!
The system message popping up right before my eyes made me start with surprise and zoom in to better see what followed.
Level 3 quest: YU876BN
The planet has been endangered by the newly arriving enemy air force. You are the only fighter pilot in the game. Are you ready to join the battle to support your fellows?
Duration: 14h
Yes/No
These are some news indeed. I realized that the system had identified me personally, checking my skills and equipment. I never thought this game could issue personalized quest to individual players. But now it did just that.
The offer was really attractive. All first-time and unusual quests in this game have been paid well. I don’t think this one will be any different.
“Yes”, I selected.
Level 3 quest accepted: YU876BN Planet
Reward: depends on the quest outcome
Fine for leaving the position early: depends on the quest outcome
As a second pilot is unavailable, the required reputation with the Wargs for this quest has been reduced to 30.
Load the location map?
“Load.” I stepped into the circle. The “begin quest” button was highlighted at once; this time it bore the fighter icon. With my hand trembling, I pressed it, selecting my ship.
All of it happened faster than I had expected, my fear of losing the ship appeared again. On the other hand, it would have been outright stupid to miss a chance to battle-test it, even this early, particularly considering that they had lowered the required reputation level for this task specially to let me in.
“…where you…?”
“Get lost!”
“Retreat faster, you fools.”
Once I, sitting inside my fighter, appeared on a large pad, the excited voices and swearing from the voice chat burst into the cockpit. Someone was arguing that they had blown it and that they had to leave; the rest of them were just yelling at one another, accusing each other of doing nothing when their group had been attacked.
Reducing the voice chat volume to minimal, I calmed myself down and, switching on the camouflage, pulled the yoke, raising the ship. The powerful engines f
lung it up easily; I felt the gravity compensators activate as the sensation of being pressed into my chair vanished almost instantly. My position was far behind anyone else’s, so no one spotted the ship, paying more attention to what was going on in front of them.
“Hey, Poster! I’ll find you and…” Swear words came from the chat again when I spotted flashes in the trenches ahead. “Cover our vehicles, you idiot! How will you fight tanks if we’re all smashed?”
The chat was a distraction, even at the lowest volume, so I had to shut it off completely. It was the first time I ascended to such a height. I couldn’t miss the moment when the enemy aircrafts appeared within sight; I knew too well that I would lose everything in my very first battle if they attacked from the back.
Start scanning. Ascending six miles more, I stopped there, although the air vibrations and the wind shook the ship slightly despite its stabilization systems being active.
When the waves of light spread and returned at once, the battle map took shape before me, showing the friendly units as green signatures and the enemies as red ones. Judging by their coordinate data, only two enemies were above the ground; I marked them as priority targets. Then the ship computer determined the best aim point, and asked me to confirm the change of height and distance.
Checking the map again, I confirmed. The ship, speeding up, rose by five more miles.
Scan. I decided to check the data once again. The battle map updated, showing the green dots retreat and the red ones advance. My two targets moved with the rest of the enemy force, staying at the forefront of their attack. After each swinging move they took toward our positions, a couple of green dots faded.
It was definitely time for me to join the battle.
Chapter 16
“Locked on. Course adjusted”, the ship AI informed that my aiming lines had been accepted with minor adjustments so as to correlate with the targets’ past moves.
I pulled the main caliber’s trigger thrice, aiming at the first target. In some ten seconds, I shot three more missiles at the second one before the AI informed that the aiming line had been adjusted.
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