“What was that?” Ethan asked as he stood and walked closer.
There was a brief buzzing noise as the droid powered down. When its lights went out, Kyle let go of it and turned to him. “Nothing much. I used a scrambler program to overload its sensors for several seconds.”
“Huh, I didn’t think of that,” Ethan replied. That was an ability from Worldshift. It hadn’t occurred to Ethan that he could use it out here.
With the droid taken care of, it was simple for Ethan and Kyle to finish the rest of the trial. They reached the door at the end of the hallway without a problem, and once they stepped through it, they found themselves back in the reception room of the building. Before Ethan could wonder what was supposed to happen now, he got his answer in the form of more glowing green text.
Congratulations on passing this bonus mission! We at Tekko corporation hope you had a great time. Here are your rewards!
The message was followed by a menu displaying what they’d won. Not only were there a few hundred credits for each of them, but they’d also gotten a data key shard. The only problem was that they had to decide who got to add it to their in-game inventory.
“You can have it,” Ethan told Kyle. “I already have the other ones, and you’re the one who took down that droid.”
“Thanks, man! I really appreciate it. What are you doing after this?”
“Um, nothing. Why?”
Kyle gave him a friendly grin. “Want to hang out? There’s a place I’d like to take you.”
“Er, sure,” Ethan replied. He wanted to go online to examine the key, but it wasn’t like he was busy or anything.
“All right, awesome. Let’s go. I’ve already called a car,” Kyle said as he led Ethan outside.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see when we get there. It’ll be better as a surprise. Trust me.”
Ethan tried to get more out of Kyle while they waited for the drone car to show up, but the young gamer was unusually tight-mouthed. Thus, Ethan eventually gave up and changed the conversation.
“I wonder what the point of this test was. Tekko obviously put a lot of work into this, but it was rather short and much easier than climbing the tower online.”
Kyle shrugged. “Maybe it was just a weird corporate decision. They wanted some real-life stuff going on. They do dumb crap like that all the time. Or, maybe they were using us to beta-test this fancy new visual interface we’re using.”
“I guess that’s possible.” Ethan wasn’t entirely convinced. This entire experience still felt rather odd. Something didn’t fit, although he couldn’t figure out what.
CHAPTER 28
WHERE YOU BELONG
When the drone car arrived, Ethan and Kyle got in, and it moved toward their mysterious destination. Like all drone taxis, it was small vehicle with two rows of two seats. It was entirely automated, so there were no visible controls anywhere. Kyle had simply given it their location and destination via his personal device, which was also what he’d used to pay.
Zooming along the almost-deserted streets, the car took them to a building at the very edge of downtown before coming to a stop in an almost-empty parking lot.
“What’s this place supposed to be?” Ethan asked as he looked around. The nearby buildings looked vacant and shabby. He didn’t see any signs that might explain why they’d come here.
Kyle laughed. “You haven’t seen anything yet, man. Give me a sec.”
Kyle walked into an alley. Ethan hesitated for a moment and looked around for cameras before following his friend. “We’re not doing anything shifty, are we? I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“Don’t worry about that. You’re being way too binary.”
Ethan wasn’t sure what that meant, but before he could ask, Kyle stopped in front of a door. It was dented metal and looked like the back door into some shop. However, there was a new-looking sensor right next to the lock. Kyle waved his personal device next to the scanner, and the door popped open.
“Come on in,” he said as he motioned for Ethan to follow.
The other side of the door was nothing like Ethan had expected, although he hadn’t actually known what to expect. It was nice and bright, and instead of walking through some empty back room, Ethan found himself standing in what looked like the front of a store, whose main entrance he’d just used. There was a long counter, shelves full of merchandise, and a large sitting area with several tables. The wall behind the counter was exposed brick, which gave the entire place a grungy style, but it wasn’t dirty. Everything was clean, and there were about a dozen people in sight.
“Welcome to the Mouse Hole,” Kyle announced as he turned to grin at Ethan. “Also, heads up. We can talk freely here. There’s no surveillance.”
“What is this place?”
Kyle laughed again. “It’s a store and café. What does it look like?”
“That’s pretty much what it looks like,” Ethan remarked as he glanced around. There was a woman behind the counter with a pink mohawk and a sleeveless white shirt. The shelves were covered by all kinds of clothing and figurines, but Ethan realized he didn’t recognize any of the brands on display. No, wait. Kyle’s clothes looked like they’d come from here. Well, that was one small mystery solved.
“Hey, Kyle. Who’s the newbie?” the woman behind the counter yelled their way.
“Liz, meet Ethan,” Kyle replied as he turned and walked toward her. “He’s on my Ascension team.”
The woman threw Ethan a curious look and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? I guess he’s not a newb at all then. I heard you guys were one of the highest teams and still climbing. A lot of people are salty.”
“More like the highest,” Kyle replied. “I just don’t want to brag about it because I’m so humble.”
“Yeah, right,” Ethan stated as he studied Liz. She was a tall woman about his age, and although she had a gangly build, she wasn’t unattractive. However, her pink mohawk wasn’t even her loudest feature. One of her arms was obviously a robotic prosthetic, and she had many tattoos, most of which resembled black lines of circuits. Despite those, there was a glint in her eyes that hinted at a playful nature.
Giving her a confident smile, Ethan walked toward the counter. “So my friend Kyle didn’t explain where exactly he was bringing me. Can you tell me about this place?”
She returned the grin. “Oh, we’re just a normal shop, although we’re invite only. We sell to gamers, merchandise and energy drinks mostly. Nothing special.”
“Gamers come here for the atmosphere and to socialize,” Kyle explained. “Mostly the best of the best VR divers, like me. It’s a place for the elite and the hardcore. Peeps who get it.”
“How do you make enough money to stay in business?” Ethan asked skeptically.
Liz laughed. “Loyalty. We have our own brands and our community knows buying this junk supports us. A lot of our customers also like displaying our brands. It makes them feel like rebels.”
“And the government just leaves you alone? I didn’t think there were any small businesses left.”
“Oh, we’re a big corporate franchise, just not a very public one. We have a shop or two in every city. It’s all very above board. The harmony groups are a bigger problem. The government uses them to do a lot of their dirty work, but we stay out of trouble by being quiet and private.”
“Yep, there’s a corporate headquarters full of lawyers and everything,” Kyle said. “Hey, do you want something to drink, Ethan?”
Ethan briefly scanned the menu on the counter. “Um, sure a black coffee is fine.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ethan. Come back any time. Kyle will give you our password,” Liz said as she handed him his drink a few moments later.
“Same, I’ll definitely be back,” he replied and followed Kyle to a table in the seating area. Liz seemed like a really cool person, and this shop was great. He hadn’t realized there were places like this in the city. Here, it seemed like no one car
ed about your employment status or about social pressure and harmony. Also, it felt incredibly liberating to be somewhere without constant surveillance.
Ethan grinned as he sat across from Kyle. “This place is great. Thanks for bringing me.”
“No problem, man. We’re teammates. Besides, you more than qualify for an invite. This is a gamer’s clubhouse and you’re one of the hottest Worldshift players around right now.”
“Ha, maybe. Not like you though. You’re basically a pro-gamer.”
Surprisingly, Kyle scowled. “No, I’m not. I’m a dreg that games a lot. I don’t get paid. That’s important.”
“Er, sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re not part of our network yet, so you don’t know. A lot of people in this community don’t like pro-gamers. They’re considered shills. Thanks to all the government regulations controlling advertising and commerce, the only way to make money gaming is to sign a contract with big corporations, and once that happens, they own you. You do and say what they tell you, or they sue you into poverty.”
“Ah, all right. I’m just really surprised that a place this cool exists.”
Kyle nodded. “You’re a hard-square guy without any edges, so I’m not surprised that you’re surprised. But there are still some private clubs and shops for various subcultures that dregs can join. It’s just that they all stay very hidden. The government tries to quash clubs like this using regulations, taxes, zoning laws, and harassment by harmony groups, but they haven’t managed it yet.”
“Why all the hate?” Ethan enquired. He ignored Kyle’s insinuation that Ethan was unhip and not down with the kids. At least, that’s what he thought Kyle was implying. Hard-square guy without any edges? How did that make sense?
“They say it’s because private groups are exclusive and cause disharmony, but really they just don’t like the idea of dregs associating in ways they don’t control. Still, since we’re so small and don’t cause trouble, they don’t really care all that much. To them, we’re just some VR junkies who are probably going to off ourselves soon and end up in grey vans.”
Ethan eyes widened in surprise. “What’s this about grey vans?”
“Oh, you don’t know what those are? I guess you’re out of the loop,” Kyle remarked before gesturing at the shop around them. “When you’re part of a network like this, you hear things. Those vans belong to contractors the government uses to remove people’s corpses. They can tell when someone offs themselves thanks to all the surveillance and data crunching algorithms that study everything we do.”
“Wow, I’ve seen those vans around.”
“Ya, they’re not rare. Lots and lots of people are committing suicide these days. It’s a real problem. Even the big politicians have been talking about it and trying to come up with solutions. They don’t much care for dregs, since they don’t think we contribute much to society, but they can’t have us all dying off. Who would the scum lord over then?”
Ethan made a dismissive noise. “I don’t think the politicians will be able to solve anything. From what I’ve seen, all they want is more sensors in people’s homes and mandatory harmony counseling.”
Kyle shrugged. “Of course. They believe the answer is more control and power in their own hands. That’s what the powerful always believe the solution is. They think they’re the only ones who can create true harmony and everyone else is just in the way.”
“Very true.” Ethan let out a disheartened sigh. Talking about suicide was depressing.
Kyle studied Ethan’s face for a moment. “Hey, don’t get too sad on me now. That’s part of the reason I brought you here, to cheer you up. You’ve seemed a little down lately, and take it from a true VR addict like me, you need something in the real to cling to. That’s part of what this shop and community is for, to give gamers a connection to real life, so we don’t waste away by spending all our time online or off ourselves.”
“And yet the government, which is supposedly so concerned about suicide, keeps trying to shut you down,” Ethan replied before chuckling darkly.
“Like I said, they can’t help themselves. They need everyone to do things their way—the harmonious way—and that doesn’t work. People have to struggle and find something to believe in for themselves. They need something to strive for. Me, I focus on being the best gamer possible. Showing off my mad skills is what I’m about. I want to be the best there ever was, proscriptions or no proscriptions.”
“What do the proscriptions have to do with anything?”
Kyle rolled his eyes dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. A lot of gamers just aren’t a fan of them. They want to boost themselves so they can play better and compete with AIs, but that’s like super illegal.”
“Ah, I see why always being inferior to AIs would bother competitive gamers,” Ethan stated. Liz’s obvious prosthetic and tattoos might have more meaning than he’d thought.
“Yeah, and then there are some people who want to live in VR all the time and throw their bodies away. I think that’s nuts, but whatever. I mean, it probably wouldn’t be possible even if the government dropped all the proscriptions on tech.”
From there, the conversation turned to more mundane talk about VR gaming, which was nice and relaxing. Kyle was pleasant to talk to.
Around an hour later, they said goodbye and Ethan took the bus home. He was beyond tired. It had been far too long since he’d done so much walking—to say nothing of the stressful bout with the robot. It took real effort on Ethan’s part not to fall asleep on the bus. When he finally arrived back at his apartment, he pulled off his clothes and flopped onto his bed. Sleep took him a few moments later.
The insistent screeching of his alarm woke him the next morning. Ethan rose from his bed and stumbled to the desk where he’d left his personal device. He then fumbled with it until the grating noise finally stopped assaulting his ears. In the following silence, Ethan sighed and then dragged himself to the shower. The water would help him wake up, and he didn’t want to be late if his team was getting together.
When he was dressed, Ethan quickly had some cereal and checked his messages. He was instantly excited upon seeing one from Lily in his inbox. It seemed his team was going to meet up in half an hour at their new base on the third floor. They must also have talked to Kyle already, because Lily mentioned getting another key code from him. Smiling, Ethan decided to log on right away. He had nothing better to do, and he could always waste some time looking at their new workbench. No one else would probably be using it.
Heading back to his bed, Ethan popped on his VR headset. Instantly, his apartment vanished, and he soon found himself standing next to the save beacon in his team’s base. The room was well lit now, and the remaining scraps had been piled to one side. Next to them sat the new workbench, and there was no one near it. Jude and Michael were standing to Ethan’s left, so he walked toward them instead of going to the machine.
“Ah, Ethan! It’s good to see you. I heard you had quite the adventure last night,” Michael said as he looked his way and smiled. Jude just gave him a polite nod.
“It was certainly an interesting evening. Did you guys end up doing anything offline?”
Michael shook his head. “We all seem to have won 3-D printers, but only you and Kyle got the offline quest. Honestly, I’m really curious as to why.”
“Maybe it was a team thing. They might not have wanted to give us a chance to win too many key cards all at once.”
“That’s as good an explanation as any,” Michael replied with a shrug.
“Let’s get on to the important stuff. I’ve heard enough about your little LARPing session,” Jude interjected.
At this point, Ethan was quite used to Jude’s defensive behavior, so he just rolled his eyes. “Where’s Lily? The game says she’s online.”
Jude huffed. “She’s outside, wandering around. I have no idea what the girl is doing out there though.”
“She knows what she’s doing, don’t worr
y,” Michael said. Ethan frowned. He hadn’t sounded worried, had he?
Since it was the polite thing to do, Ethan engaged in some small talk with Jude and Michael for the next few minutes. Michael was polite and interesting, but Jude was as abrasive as always. Soon, he’d grown tired of dealing with her.
“I’m going to see if I can find Lily,” Ethan told his allies. “She should have been back by now, and I don’t feel like standing around.”
Jude nodded. “Go ahead. I was thinking of dragging her back myself. That girl is holding us up now.”
“Just try to stay out of trouble and don’t set off any alarms,” Michael said as he handed him a stealth cloak.
“It was one time, and I escaped the pursuit,” Ethan muttered as he put on the cloak and exited the base.
Once he stepped out of the shadows and reached the main passage, he stopped and looked both ways. He saw no sign of Lily, so he checked his interface’s mini-map. Now that he was outside the base, he was picking up a weak signal that seemed to be coming from his left. There was no sign of droids and the cameras here were already disabled, so that was the way he headed.
Following the signal, Ethan stalked through the underground tunnels in search of his teammate. Thankfully, it didn’t take him too long. After taking a few twists and turns, he saw Lily step into the tunnel up ahead and walk his way. She was wearing a stealth cloak, but as her teammate, he could see through it. Her helmet was also down, since she wasn’t in combat.
“Hey, there you are,” Ethan said as he raised a hand in greeting.
“Oh, hey. What are you doing out here?” Lily asked as she reached him, and they both came to a stop.
Ethan shrugged. “I came out to see what you were up to. The other option was to listen to Jude talk about her guns again.”
“She really likes those guns of hers,” Lily replied with a smirk.
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