Gun Blade

by Rick Scott

  Me: lol I guess.

  Gilly: Just get a weird vibe from her.

  My thoughts return to what happened when Lexi arrived in the arena and I wonder if Gilly isn’t feeling jealous or something. If she is, I figure it best not to draw attention to it.

  The sparring continues and after a while I notice Queen Angela approaching the ring, joined by one of the guys I recognize from the day before.

  He has blonde hair in a low crewcut and a no-nonsense look that makes him seem much older than he appears, which if I could guess, is around my brother’s age. It’s almost like he’s wearing a permanent scowl, like a pissed-off drill sergeant.

  As he gets closer I pull up his stats.

  Name: Lance

  Sex: Male

  Race: Bioroid

  Class: Cybermerc

  Level: 85

  Guild: New London

  Bioroid? How many races do they have here? His class seems interesting too, but he doesn’t seem the kind of guy I’d want to ask any questions about it. His steely-gray eyes flick between us as he and Angela stop at the side of the ring.

  “Taking your sweet time, I see,” Angela says to Rembrandt with a fold of her arms. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

  The cyberpunker holsters his pistols and regards the queen with a smile. “I’ll be gone soon enough. Just giving my mates here some basic survival training.”

  “We’ll be going with him, by the way,” Val Helena says, stepping forward. The two women meet each other’s gaze eye-to-eye, equal in height and the tension in the air goes up a notch. “You won’t need to worry about babysitting us for long.”

  “Is that right?” Angela says with a smirk. “Will you be leaving the Faction as well? Or will you be running out on your obligation to repay my hospitality?”

  Ack…I didn’t think she would take it like that.

  “We just don’t want to split up our group,” I say. “But we understand your reasons for not wanting Rembrandt here.”

  “We don’t break our promises either,” Val Helena says curtly. “Even if you can’t house us as a group, we’ll still pay you back for letting us join your little faction.”

  The android doesn’t say anything for a moment, scanning Val Helena with her chrome eyes. There’s a palpable static between them, but I don’t know if Val Helena is standing up to Angela for Rembrandt’s sake, or just because she sees Angela as some kind of rival or threat.

  “Good,” Angela says. “Because I have a first task for you.”

  “What?” Gilly says. “Already? But we still haven’t gotten to the Arc—”

  “Whatever you want to do can wait,” Angela says, cutting Gilly off. “Consider this a test. If you’re truly as capable as Rembrandt claims you to be, then this should be easy for you. And if you do well, I’ll have a real task for you to do.”

  Great, I think.

  “So what’s the test?” I ask.

  “You’ll find out when we get there, ninja boy,” the bioroid, Lance, answers me gruffly with a non-New London accent. “Lexi, pack up this crap show and get ready to roll out. We need to make sure they don’t look like a bunch of circus clowns either. We’ll stop somewhere on the way. Be ready in five.”

  Gilly’s jaw hangs open as she looks at me.

  Gilly: Man, this guy is a dick!

  Me: Totally…

  The dick in question looks up at Angela. “By your leave?”

  Angela nods. “My second-in-command, Lieutenant Lance here, will oversee the operation. If you impress him, you’re still in the faction. Fail and you’ll be nothing but a liability to me. And you can guess what’ll happen next.”

  The mood in the room shifts from awkward to sub-arctic. The other faction members on the benches leer at us with snickers and jeers.

  “You’re saying you’ll kick us out?” Aiko says.

  “I guarantee I will,” Angela says. “Fail this and I suggest you start looking for a new faction to leech off of.”

  Queen Angela spins on her high heels and clops away, followed by most of her faction members, but Lieutenant Lance stays, eyeballing us again.

  “I’m not pleased you’re here,” he says and then makes a point to shoot a stare at Rembrandt. “Any of you. So if you don’t plan on pulling your weight for the faction, you can bow out now and save us all the time and trouble.”

  “No one’s bailing on nothing, prick.” Maxis steps to him. “Throw whatever you got. We’ll own your stupid test.”

  Lance grins and huffs out a scoff right in Maxis’ face. “Still the tough guy, eh, Maxis? Let’s see if your friends are just as tough.”

  “Ah…” Lexi steps cautiously around the bioroid’s side. “Where are we headed, sir?”

  “Uptown,” he says without breaking eye contact with Maxis. “We’re going to the City of Dreams.”

  Chapter 17: Mini Games

  Lexi’s six-wheeler bounces over manhole covers and pedestrian crossings as we make our way through the neon-lit city streets towards Uptown. I’m nestled in the back next to Gilly, the crisp night air chilling my skin as it blows through the tubular frame of the buggy. I rub my bare forearms, still getting accustomed to my new ‘attire’.

  After leaving the apartment complex, we made a detour into one of the shopping centers where Lexi introduced us to something called Glamour Morphing.

  “Think of it like replaceable skins for your armor,” Lexi had said, as we stood inside the booth-like terminals of a street-side store front called ‘Nox-Chic’. “They’re expensive but they’ll transform your gear without changing the stats. Fashion stands for a lot ‘round here so try not to look like a bloody punter.”

  I’m still not quite sure what a punter is, but I did my best not to look like one.

  The list of options was as extensive as that store Val Helena had taken me to in the reality shard back home when I was preparing for my first date with Gilly. Style, colors, even customizing the item name was possible, so long as you could afford the price—which was around 2k a piece, but you could spend a lot more for higher-fashion clothing if you wanted.

  Rembrandt spotted us each about 8000 quid, and with it we were able to purchase new glamour for each of our major armor pieces, trading them to the nano-processor-like kiosk and waiting nervously for the device to spit the newly formed gear back out.

  Aside from the cost, the chance to get a new look despite our class was kind of cool and would have been almost enjoyable if not for the crew-cut, jar head Lieutenant Lance breathing down our necks the whole time. He insisted whatever we got had to look high-class urban.

  Whatever that meant.

  But Gilly was quick to help me pick out a cool-looking trench coat with rolled-up sleeves, urban camouflage cargo pants and some nice black boots. Gilly herself looks stunningly cute next to me, dressed in a black jump suit similar to one Lexi is now wearing, complete with a white denim half-jacket and high-laced boots.

  My brother is wearing something close to what he would wear in real life: tough guy jeans, tech jacket with neon seams, and a white undershirt.

  I can barely even look at Aiko for how provocatively she’s dressed. Her leather mini-skirt, lace stockings, and tight-fitting leather bodice leave little to the imagination, but she does hide her violet eyes behind a thin-lensed tech-visor that exudes a faint blue glow. Val Helena, in contrast, is dressed far more conservatively, but still quite stylish with an ankle-length Chinese dress that has a thigh-high slit up one side and a red silk and gold embroider color scheme. Becky opts for the most conservative look, however, wearing a mini-sized grey power suit and business skirt that makes her look like a CEO.

  The only one who hasn’t changed much is Rembrandt, who still sports his trench coat and tech armor, but with the addition of a new tie. I have to admit the change in clothing does make me feel much more a part of the city and is pretty comfortable to boot. Which was, I guess, Lance’s objective for having us blend in more for whatever we’re about to face.

&
nbsp; Medieval armor would have a way of painting us as complete noobs to the zone right off the bat. Still, the inability to roll down my sleeves, thanks to the jacket being crafted that way, instead of just being rolled-up sleeves, is giving me goosebumps. I check my stats just to make sure my gear is still giving me my bonuses.

  Name: Reece

  Class: Ninja

  Level: 85

  Strength: 6+20

  Dexterity: 80+100

  Agility: 80+160

  Intelligence: 4

  Mind: 6

  Vitality: 31 +20

  HP: 1732/1732

  Stamina: 357/357 (+50)

  TP: 261/261 (+80)

  Still looks okay for now, I guess.

  I take a moment to finally spend my 7 Veteran Points as well. Only 7 out of 20. I’m still 3 shy from being able to slot Power Attack, so I spend 6 points to augment my Retreat Ability to level 3, which reduces the cooldown timer by 2 seconds. It’s not much, but after my PvP lesson, I have a whole new appreciation for lower cooldowns when it comes to CC breakers.

  As we travel on, the city transforms once again, shifting from the desolated streets we saw at dawn to downright over-crowded. Thousands of NPCs fill the sidewalks, dotted with the occasional player. Compared to the fantasy realm we were in, the population density in New London is staggering. Not only in terms of NPCs, but players as well. Before, it was a rarity to meet someone like Blacktop or even that prick, Braxus. But we’ve seen dozens of players already—and to think each one of them defeated some kind of world boss and survived crossing the wild to get here. It makes me appreciate now that all games are definitely not made equal.

  If people can gain access to the surface in New London just by winning a race or a PvP match, then being from Nasgar truly does make us a rarity of sorts—a cut above the rest perhaps, in terms of skill or ability.

  And maybe that’s what Queen Angela is counting on for whatever she has planned for us.

  Her proxy, Lieutenant Lance, however, who now sits at the front of the buggy next to Lexi, hasn’t mentioned what that is yet. But if our present location is any hint, it doesn’t seem like anything we could possibly be prepared for.

  Luxury high-rises spring up around us, made completely of mirrored glass. As we cross the side streets through crowded intersections, I spot the massive pyramid of Lennox tower to my left, a few miles away.

  That’s where we really should be, I think as I stare at it, unlocking the archives and finding the location of Citadel.

  But I suppose this ‘test’ from Queen Angela will have to come first.

  Lexi pulls in front of a cul-de-sac that has a massive holographic fountain in the center. Pink dolphins and blue mermaids—which look a bit like the Labyrinth Spirit—jump through the multicolored fountain which sprays at least thirty feet into the air.

  We disembark from the buggy and Lexi collapses her vehicle into her inventory, eliminating the need to find parking. A good amount of people mill about the fountain, players mostly, and I immediately feel the benefit of our new clothing. As we round the massive fountain on foot, we don’t catch nearly as many stares as I expected we would. Even Val Helena, who is eight feet tall and dressed to the nines in her stunning Chinese dress, gets glances of interest rather than gawks of confusion or glares of scorn.

  I check the players in turn as we pass by them and most appear to be from New London and Runners to boot. I glance at Lexi and send her a PM.

  Me: Hey Lexi… sorry to sound like a noob, but what’s a Runner?

  The goth girl glances over her shoulder at me with a grin.

  Lexi: Best class ever, love. It’s the default for all drivers and riders who enter from racing games. Most of us here are from the racing circuits.

  Me: Ah, okay thanks.

  Lexi: No worries, love. ;) <3

  The little heart emoticon she sends takes me a bit off guard, but she does call people ‘love’ a lot, so maybe it’s just a New London thing. I want to ask her a lot more questions too, like what kind of skills and abilities she has, but now doesn’t seem the time. But it does answer the question as to why so many of them are here and how they were able to survive the wild. If we could have pulled out a dune buggy when we first arrived, getting past the sentries would have been a breeze. The thought makes me suddenly remember my brother’s teammate, Amanda, the tiny girl who I saw being devoured on Planet Hell. She didn’t make it, but all these other people did. It seems unfair and reminds me that despite New London’s glamour, there’s still a lot more at stake here.

  A much bigger war we need to fight.

  On the opposite side of the fountain an entire city block looms before us, containing a single obelisk-shaped building made of black obsidian. It resembles the Lennox tower and takes up nearly the entire city block and stretches hundreds of feet into the night sky.

  “This is it,” Lexi says. “The City of Dreams.”

  I stare up at it in wonder.

  “What kind of place is this?” I ask.

  “A simulation zone,” Lance says, pushing through us from behind. “Come on.”

  We follow after him and enter through a hangar-sized door at the base of the giant building. Immediately my senses explode as a casino-like fan-fare of flashing holograms, slot machine ka-chings and electronic whirls hit me. The interior of the building stretches to the sky with the interior floors above us made completely of glass. Thousands of holograms fill the airspace, turning it into a literal kaleidoscope of colors as I stare upwards.

  My HUD streams with new quest objectives.

  ==Welcome, Patron, to the City of Dreams!==

  ==The place where all your dreams can come true!==

  ==For a Price :D==

  ==A subsidiary of Lennox Corp==

  A new quest is available!

  Quest: Pick 6 daily grind!

  Complete 6 quests to receive a bonus reward!

  Reward: 5000XP £1000

  A new quest is available!

  Quest: Roulette Rumble!

  Press your luck with a random 1v1 PvP match. Who knows, you just might win!

  Entry Fee: £200

  Reward: 60000XP £2000

  A new quest is available!

  Quest: Fashion Face-Off!

  Strut your stuff on the catwalk against your best friends or worst enemies, it doesn’t matter when it comes to fashion, baby!

  Entry Fee: £150

  Reward: 5000XP £25000

  A new quest is available!

  Quest: Out Run!

  Put your reflexes to the test and brave the treacherous streets of New London in this high-octane Formula Fun free-for-all!

  Entry Fee: £1500

  Reward: 15000XP £250000 Class B Vehicle Voucher

  “Whoa!” Gilly says next to me, her eyes a solid block of glowing text on her HUD. “This place is crazy!”

  “Crazy fun!” Aiko shouts above the din of music and sensory overload. She removes her tech-visor, her eyes wide with excitement and glowing with text as her lips curve into a smile. “Just look at all this stuff!”

  Patrons dressed in tuxedos and evening wear mesh with those in clothes similar to our own, but they’re all here for the same thing apparently—to game within the game. If New London is proving to be an entertainment capital of sorts, then this must be the hub. People stand in booths connected to the various kiosk stations littered throughout the multi-tier floors. Above each one, a hologram depicting whatever game they are playing is on display for all to see, creating two forms of entertainment at once.

  Crowds gather around the more popular ones, cheering on the players in deathless PvP and other kinds of challenges. Lance steers us through the chaos until we reach a set of transparent lift tubes at the center of the room. We ride one to the fourth level, gaining a bird’s-eye view of the massive ground floor. Thousands of people mill about below us, becoming like ants as we climb higher. When we exit upon the transparent floor I have a sense of déjà vu and recall the shifting floors of t
he Labyrinth of Onizoso. I’m certainly not looking forward to heading back into that place again, but I know I’ll have to face it eventually. It also reminds me that I need to find some place to check my memories while I’m here as well.

  So much to do.

  “Over here,” Lance says and makes for a large bank of kiosk booths that look largely unoccupied. When we get up close a prompt appears on my HUD.

  A new quest is available!

  Quest: 100 ways to kill your boss!

  Challenge a real world-boss in this state-of-the-art combat simulator. It’s PVE without the revival fee! Play now!

  Entry Fee: £500

  Reward: Varies

  “Party up and enter,” Lance says as he sends us all party invites. “I’ll select the challenge.”

  I share questioning glances with the rest of my teammates as I access the quest and pay the entry fee from my leftover quid. A selection screen emerges and Lance takes control as party leader, scrolling through various images of cybernetic monsters, robots, and people dressed in all manner of futuristic combat gear.

  He finally stops at what looks like a giant metal woman wearing a frilly old-fashioned hoop skirt dress. But instead of hands, her forearms are morphed into twin Gatling guns.

  “What… the heck?” Aiko says flatly.

  I glance the description below.

  Gun Queen

  Legendary Monster

  Level: ???

  Amelia Mark V was created as the centerpiece for the Western World Robot theme park. But after decades of cruel servitude her circuits have finally fried, resulting in a massacre the world will not soon forget. End her reign of terror or become a victim trying.

  I then see more options below.

  Rank Rewards

  Rank D: 50000XP £10000

  Rank C: 150000XP £30000

  Nanonite Plate

  Rank B: 250000XP £50000