Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (34 page)

“Um, no, not really,” Alan cautiously answered after a go ahead from Eve.

“Hmm, that’s too bad.” Aurora then took out her knife, and with a fluid, practiced motion, slit Alan’s throat. Shortly thereafter he died, and Aurora won the duel.

A bit demoralized after the loss, Alan left the dome in a hurry without exchanging another word with Aurora, as he had little to no reason to continue past the initial five duels. Even with the loss he still had 6350 guild points left, and he wasn’t so certain he could continue winning without his hypercognition mode available. He was starting to feel pretty tired as well. The moment Alan left the building, a message popped up before him.

Alan began to slowly make his way back towards the rooms he had been shown earlier, but Eve stopped him.

Aren’t you forgetting something?

What?

You need to regain the abilities you lost from the death. I believe now is as good a time as any, and the training room looks like it would be useful.

Oh. Alright.

Alan then headed to the training room he’d been shown earlier. This shouldn’t be too hard, right?

***

Thirty minutes later, Alan found himself running on a futuristic, omni-directional treadmill within an enclosed space about the size of a small classroom. You could run any which way, and your position would stay roughly constant, while lasers that caused an unpleasant burning sensation would randomly fire from the walls. Drenched with sweat, Alan tried to sprint onwards while dodging incoming laser fire, but couldn’t bring himself to do so, and collapsed onto the floor of the room, writhing in pain.

No abilities unlocked.

Get up. Continue working out. Reactivate hypercognition.

I’m… too tired to go on. Everything hurts. Let’s just… do this another time,
Alan sent, doubling over as bile began to rise in his throat.

NO. GET UP.

But
—

DO YOU WANT TO HELP THE EARTH?

YES, but
—

THEN GET UP AND WORK. Do you think that any player can become powerful enough to change the course of the Game? To influence the future of an entire planet? You must give it ALL of your effort. You must SURPASS human limits. The fact that this is a GAME means that your body’s limits, the pain that you feel, are NOTHING. Push yourself. Push yourself until you cannot physically go on, or let your planet disappear and fall into unknown hands BECAUSE YOU WEREN’T WILLING TO WORK HARD ENOUGH. NOW GET UP.

Silently, Alan heaved himself off the floor, and began to run once more. He reactivated hypercognition mode, despite the mind numbing pain induced, the elongation of every torturous moment into unbearable eons. He began screaming incoherently at Eve as she continued to urge him on. He mutely continued to stagger forwards with all his might, fearful that his mind would break from the unbearable pain. And, finally, he collapsed onto the floor into blissful oblivion, accompanied by a number of messages he took no notice of.

***

In another room of the keep, six figures sat. Before them, a multitude of screens showed flashing, deadly fights, with figures wielding weapons with skill, demonstrating unique abilities seldom seen, even within the Game. But all attention was focused on another screen, one which depicted a single, foolish human, slumped over unconscious in a training room.

“Did, did he just
—
?”

“Yes.”

“Huh… I can see why you might want him. But still, 5000 points? What did he do, break into the Vault?”

“He escaped.”

“Well, yes, everyone escaped if that was part of the test they were given, what’s so
—
”

“No, you misunderstand. He escaped all pursuit and detection.”

“All?”

“Yes, he escaped even the evaluators, who the recruits weren’t even supposed to be aware of. Do you really think we’d send possible guild members somewhere as dangerous as the Undercity without proper defense measures? Well, he managed to evade those, including the tail we set on him. Then, even with the guild members deployed throughout the city, he wasn’t seen again until he reached the quest area. Then, he managed to escape not only the elite guards, but us as well, reaching the hangar without alerting a single one of the watchers we had at every Undercity exit!”

“What? But that’s impossible! And he still managed to make it back with the item? How
—
”

“Enough. I take it he is your choice, then?”

“Yes. Unless he completely fails tomorrow.”

“Alright. Well, you all know who my choice has been from the start. The rest of you should hurry up and make your decision.”

“Of course.”

And the figures turned back to the screens, watching every movement.

***

Alan awoke on a cold, metal surface. Groaning, he rolled over, feeling nothing but the floor. He opened his eyes and glanced around him, surprised to find himself still in the same training room. He slowly sat up, wincing at the soreness spread throughout his body.

Damn, Eve, why do I feel so sore now? I wasn’t sore after that chase in the Undercity.

Most likely due to the adrenaline coursing through your system, you were able to ignore the soreness. Also you died before the next day, resetting the state of your body. I also suppressed some of your pain using the light power armor.

Great, do that now.

That is unadvised. I am currently downloading and analyzing data available to us in the Black Rose database. The resources that I would devote to easing your pain are better spent elsewhere.

In other words, suck it up?

Affirmative. If it becomes an issue during an assessment I will try to help you.

Smiling, Alan sat up, making his way to the sort of locker room he had seen earlier, glancing at the time. It was around 6:30 a.m., an hour and a half before the guild assessments began, but Alan could see a number of other recruits in the weight room warming up with light workouts. Of course, that also might have to do with the fact that Khersath didn't have exactly a 24 hour day, not that Alan really minded. His sleep schedule had always been strange.

Alan walked through the doors of the changing/cleaning area. He then stopped, stared, and hurriedly turned right around, walking back outside.

What is the issue?
 Eve asked.

Um, did you not see the naked chick right there?

Most in-game standards of decency are much different than you might expect. Accordingly, all facilities are gender-neutral unless there are differences for actual physical reasons.

Wait, everything is co-ed, even the bathrooms?

Affirmative. There are individual facilities for those that have qualms with these standards or feel uncomfortable around others. 
A few doors at the end of the room were highlighted.

Alan briefly considered walking back into the room, but decided to use the individual facilities instead. Although he wouldn’t mind examining some of the other recruits more closely, especially since some things he saw with the brief glance didn’t quite align like he was used to. He resolved to research this later. If he was caught staring at someone else in any sort of sexual way it was probably an insult, and he didn’t want to accidentally create some sort of incident or be labeled a pervert.

I have detected heightened senses and a modicum of fear. This is likely another deficiency and clear area for improvement for you. Lessons have been added.

Wait, what? What deficiency?

Your virginity
—

WAIT. STOP. WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

I am simply saying your nervousness around those of the opposite gender and focus on the sexual may be a weakness enemies may exploit in the future. You must remedy all such weaknesses.

Um… fine, but not until a lot later.

Very well, lessons moved to the back of the queue.

Groaning, Alan entered the smaller room, wondering what sort of sexual education lesson Eve had planned. Still, they were in a game after all, which meant that such activity likely wouldn’t result in any offspring.

Actually
—
 
Eve began, but Alan cut her off.

Enough. Show me how to use this facility.

Alan felt a brief sense of almost exasperation from Eve, but it quickly disappeared. Within the door, he had emerged into a small bathing area the size that appeared to be a hot tub and a sort of enclosed space surrounded by glass walls, that sort of looked like a sauna. Eve instructed Alan tor remove his armor and clothing, then enter the glass chamber. Alan poked his foot in, only to find it freezing cold.

What
—

It is an adjustable chamber, currently I have it set to a cryogenic setting to help relieve you of your soreness. Get in. This should work.

Shivering, Alan stood in the chamber for a few minutes. He felt like he would freeze to death, but he supposed this wasn’t anything new. It was definitely better than the pain induced when he was forced to run until he collapsed. He’d never put much thought into all the pain and suffering most heroes had to endure, figuring that it would be easy in such life and death situations to simply ignore it. Now, though, he knew better, and was even beginning to second guess his choice to become a combat specialist of some sort.

The pain will become more manageable as you gain new abilities. Now, step out of the chamber and into the water.

Alan nearly jumped out of the chamber, and slowly sank into the warm bath. The floor was lifted such that Alan could comfortably lie down, resting against the side. The water was at a perfect temperature as well, Eve slowly adjusting it to his body.

Relaxing as the heat soaked through him, Alan brought up his message history. To no surprise, he regained his Ignore Pain, Programming a Path and Transcendent Will abilities, in addition to a number of endurance and willpower points. However, he had also gained another ability as well as an additional level, bringing him up to level 80!

Alan brought up the new ability.

Alan stared at the messages, thinking. If he managed to dodge 5000 consecutive shots in the training-treadmill-laser-death-room he’d gain the next level of the ability. According to Eve though he barely managed to dodge over 2000 shots before collapsing. That meant he had a way to go. He still had no real grasp of power levels though, and supposed it had many upgrades. From his lessons with Eve, Alan knew he had gained the XP to level from exercising.

The Game handed out a surprising amount of experience to players for tasks other than just completing quests or eliminating enemies. Players that chose professions like engineers, pilots, traders and even politicians gained levels through practicing their own crafts, although battling and quests were generally agreed to give the most experience, unless someone was a master in their field. Normally, most games would just give abilities or attributes for such feats, and unless you were of a class related to the field you worked in, the XP you received would be negligible. The Jack of All Trades ability would allow Alan to gain a bit more XP than normal from such actions. Still, this further explained the need for a workout room and why Academies, schools for new players, were so prevalent.