Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (10 page)

Gone were the clothing shops, filled with designer jeans or cute dresses. In their place stood armor of all shapes and sizes, sleek laser weapons and giant metal swords. There were stores that sold implants that promised to turn you into a mighty warrior or master spy, robotics stores with bots that could aid you in battle or repair your gear, and information brokers with info about the hottest war zones or best quests. There was even a small space ship dealership, though the cheapest ship was hundreds of thousands of credits.

Most of the shoppers were military. According to Ace, San Francisco was a major supply port and send off point for the US military in the Game, like it had been in World War II. That explained all the soldiers in uniform walking about, but didn’t explain all the civilians.

Ace shrugged. “They’re probably here to try to join the military or catch a ride off planet. Anyways—” He stopped mid sentence with his mouth open.

“Actually, I’ll catch up with you guys after you find the part, I remembered something I need to do. You should be safe as long as you remain in the market area.”

Ace vanished into the crowd.

“Huh, that was odd,” Alan commented. It was also the longest sentence Ace had said since they'd begun travelling together.

“Yeah, that was the first time I’ve seen his expression change, and I’ve watched him fight a giant flying cat,” Daisy said, grinning.

Alan continued exploring the trading hub with Daisy, who was surprisingly down-to-earth considering she was the daughter of a major public figure. She even seemed interested in the random, nerdy things Alan knew about, asking about the differences between the Game and other RPGs he’d played.

The mall still retained its food court, which had all the normal, unhealthy fast food. The prices were outrageous - it cost an average of 5 credits for a meal, but then again Alan didn’t know if you could get a burger with fries off planet. Still, even with all the different shops, almost half the storefronts were empty, which he supposed was to be expected. Each time they passed by an information broker Eve suggested buying information as the information about the Game he'd been able to download online was severely limited, and after the fifth time she suggested it Alan finally acquiesced.

After questioning a few security guards, actual military soldiers rather than mall cops, Alan determined the Thought Emporium was the best general information brokers. They were supposedly connected to an alien guild of information brokers located throughout the Game, with their main headquarters on Khersath. They were more expensive than the other shops Alan saw, but also had much more information.

For 500 credits, they sold a general Game information package, which was good for a year. It seemed like way too much money for information, but according to everyone he spoke to, it was essential for any serious gamer that planned on leaving Earth. Apparently the information was even provided to everyone in the US military as a sort of nation deal the US had with the guild and had saved thousands of lives.

Alan walked into the Thought Emporium store expecting some sort of dark ambiance and tacky hooded figure. Instead, the store had a professional metallic silver decor with stacks of computer servers and a male cyborg with a cybernetic eye and titanium right arm behind the counter. Smooth jazz played in the background.

Connected to Thought Emporium network,
 Eve told him.

“Um, hi, could I purchase a general Game information package?” Alan asked.

“Certainly. I assume that the AI that connected to the store’s server is yours, and the data should be transferred to it?”

“Um yeah.”

“Alright, that will be 500 credits. Wait, are you undergoing the tutorial?”

Alan debated lying to the store owner, but considering he was an information broker, that probably wasn’t a good idea.

“Yes,” Alan said.

“I only ask because there’s actually a trade hub-wide discount of 80% for all humans undergoing the tutorial. In an effort to promote humanity all traders you find here should give you the discount. Any that aren’t are ripping you off.”

“Oh, thanks a lot!”

Alan mentally agreed to the purchase for 100 credits, and Eve was soon downloading the data. It looked like it could take a little while.

“Also, are you by any chance willing to sell any information about the tutorial so far?" the information broker asked. "Trust me when I say I could make it worth your while.”

Alan entertained the idea, but then decided he should probably ask Thiago, and let him know about the cheaper equipment.

Unfortunately, the others had already spent their credits on the rip-off shop the Administrators had set up. Thiago also asked him to not sell any information. Since he didn’t completely trust this information broker anyways, Alan politely declined the offer, waiting for Eve to finish downloading the data.

Once the download finished, Alan pressed okay on the message that popped up, and his entire world changed. Suddenly, usernames and multicolored health bars popped up all around him. Some players also had levels, titles and class descriptions floating above their heads. Alan's HP bar that had only read 100% changed to 350, his stamina changing to 248.

Tooltips began appearing when Alan thought about a particular item in his inventory. The vials of blood in his backpack were now labeled as vials of DNA. The gun had a description with the model type and serial number, along with a damage range of 12-20 and durability of 37/60. The combat knife had a damage range of 5-6 in comparison, along with a durability of 107/120. All the items also had an estimated value, and apparently the vials of blood were worth about 100 credits each, while the boss’s DNA was worth 5000 credits. 50,000 dollars!

Things were finally beginning to look like a game rather than real life. Opening up his character window, Alan found another surprise. Gone was the relatively simple list of abilities and stats, replaced with a much more comprehensive list of stats, with a separate tab for abilities. Though there was a lot of interesting information, Alan merely skimmed it; it seemed like if he skipped over the tables he wouldn't miss anything important. He also had to play with his visual settings to read the tables clearly, switching to a horizontal, single column view.

Eve, what just happened?
Alan asked.

I received a great deal of data and adjusted your interface accordingly,
Eve sent.

Great, could you explain a few things?

Certainly. There is a great deal of information you should know.

Okay, first off, what is psionic energy?

The ability to manipulate physics at will, similar to mana commonly used by mages in games. Unlike mana, psionic energy has been proven to exist and is the energy used by psychics.