Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (24 page)

Alan blinked after reading the second message.

Huh, I guess that makes sense, the whole, “closer than you think” clue and all. He’s literally right next to me.

Yes, I put together the pieces after examining his message and decrypting the secret message.

Wait, secret message?

Yes, it was encoded in his message and is as follows: danger. dont leave omnitech building irl. get stronger.

Wait, what?

I assume it means do not leave the Omnitech building in real life, and that you are possibly in danger. There is a 0.0004% chance that it also means
—

No, I know that just… why, from what?

I am… unsure. I advise you simply follow his advice, and strive to become stronger.

Alright.

Alan proceeded to fall into a fitful sleep, both nervous about new developments but also excited to finally set foot on Khersath, the capital of the humanoid universe. Tomorrow was a new day.

Alan awoke in darkness, breathing rapidly, jolted awake. His mind felt like it had been jump started, as the events of the previous few days raced through his head in rapid succession.

The Game. The battles. The tests. The warning. The debt. Alan blinked, shaking his head. That was… quite the way to wake up. Feeling fully alert, Alan glanced at the clock on his display. There were still a few hours left until the Titan approached the planet, so after performing a series of morning exercises Eve had planned out to strengthen his body, Alan decided to continue studying.

It was funny, in a way, that he was so excited to learn more about the Game. If Alan had spent half the time, half the effort he was putting into trying to become better at this game, he probably could have become a straight-A student or star athlete. Except, he’d never really felt… the need, the motivation, the desire to do anything much in real life. It all seemed rather pointless. Yet, here he was in a virtual universe, more motivated than ever before. Of course, this virtual space affected the real world a great deal, but there was still this nagging doubt in the back of his mind...

All of this wasn’t real, after all. It might all simply be an elaborate hoax; maybe he went into the capsule and had never actually emerged, his mind simply creating this entire Game. Maybe it was all a lie, something to placate human-kind. Maybe
—
No, this never ending question of what ifs would get him nowhere. This world, this universe, was very much real, even if it was only a series of 1s and 0s stored somewhere somehow. Alan stood up, turning on the lights in the room, intent on absorbing as much knowledge as he could.

***

A few hours later, Alan was aboard a dropship, headed towards the planet of Khersath. He’d said a brief farewell to Thiago and the rest of the group. Things were still a bit tense, but at least they weren’t outright hostile. Alan didn’t think he’d see too much of Thiago any time soon. Kitana, on the other hand, had agreed to try out for the Black Rose guild along with Alan.

Once the Titan was orbiting Khersath, Pharaoh sent Alan a message, letting Alan know that he was free to take the dropship wherever he wanted to go, and that he’d be in touch. Pharaoh was definitely involved in human politics, somehow. The Titan was an ambassador ship, after all, and Pharaoh was the captain. All these details and conversations seemed to blur in Alan’s mind though; he was now focused on one thing, and one thing only: Khersath.

Alan opened up a screen; it showed the shuttle’s descent, and Alan got his first look at the planet. It was distinctly portioned, each quadrant appearing remarkably different, even from space. Half the planet was muted grey, the color of endless buildings that spanned the planet, a single landmass divided into the living and merchant quadrants. The private quadrant was a familiar green and blue, small to medium continents as well as a smattering of islands. It looked beautiful, like Earth. The military quadrant was hidden, blocked by a massive blue shield of energy. A long queue of specks were lined up outside the quadrant, waiting for clearance to enter.

The central, final portion of Khersath lay beneath Alan: the Main Plaza, an open area of almost 250 square km, almost ten miles end to end, about a third the land area of New York City, all for a public square. At the center, Alan could make out the outline of a building large enough to be seen from space.

As the shuttle continued to descend towards the Main Plaza it weaved into an unimaginable flow of traffic, cutting in and out of lane after lane of strange looking spaceships, flying contraptions, airborne creatures and unknown beings. Dumbfounded, Alan stared as what looked to be a dragon arched straight upwards, almost crashing right into the shuttle as another spaceship chased after it, shooting a barrage of red laser fire at it. The spaceship had cloaking enabled, making it difficult for Alan to see. The pair were closely followed by a squadron of Administrator fighters trying to keep the peace.

Alan watched the screen as the surface of the planet came closer and closer, their destination highlighted, a gigantic, 100-floor skyscraper located on the east side of the plaza in the residential quadrant. The building was of an indistinct, chaotic shape, painted an aquatic blue among a series of similar buildings. Up until now Alan had held back his sense of disbelief, thinking that the technology and abilities in this game were unlikely, but possible. Now, he had to wonder. Was all this possible?

With a near infinite source of both energy and materials? With the capability to break fundamental laws of physics such as deleting unwanted items? With untold millennia to create, experiment and develop? Certainly such is possible, even expected.

Alright, um, good to know Eve.

The top portion of the building opened up, allowing the shuttle to enter into a hangar bay. A message popped up:

The shuttle powered down, shutting off the display and opening its ramp, allowing Alan to disembark. Alan emerged to the now-accustomed sight of Haxlardian guards. These guards seemed to be remarkably better equipped and of much higher status though. Each wore a blood red mask in addition to dark crimson power armor with an emblem of a black mask engraved onto the front. One carried a gigantic laser sword best described as a warglaive, a double-ended glaive-polearm with condensed, fiery red energy as its blades instead of metal. The other carried a plain-looking laser rifle, but Alan was pretty sure the weapon was anything but plain. A light-blue masked Haxlard wearing light power armor stepped forward, holding a tablet of some sort.

“Blessed be the Three. Welcome to the Haxlardian Embassy, Earthling, I hope you had a pleasant trip. Is there any way I can be of assistance?”

“Um, I was hoping for directions to the Administrative Center.”

“Certainly, one of our Crimson Guards would be happy to escort you.” The Haxlard gestured to one of the guards.

“I don’t really need an escort, just directions.”

“No, really, I insist. It’s the least we can do. As per our agreement with the United World Government, we would like to assist you as you get accustomed to the Game. Also, despite being a safe zone, Khersath is not safe. Thieves and scoundrels are rampant in the streets.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to get outside and stretch my legs!” the Haxlard holding the warglaive said. Despite his fearsome appearance, his voice sounded young to Alan.

“Oh, well, I guess I could use a bit of a guide, I don’t know too much about the city anyway,” Alan said, at Eve’s insistence. The so-called Crimson Guard would likely be a fountain of information.

“Wonderful, have a pleasant trip,” the blue-masked Haxlardian said. He pressed a few buttons on his tablet, then turned to approach another set of arrivals. The remaining Crimson Guard followed him.

“So, um, hey, I’m J-, I mean, I’m Red Death. The lift down is this way,” Red Death gestured towards the back of the hangar.

Grinning at the Haxlard’s name, Alan said, “I’m Alan, lead the way.”

Once they emerged from the building through a reception area, Alan stared at his surroundings. In front of him was the public square, and with it were thousands of players of all sorts and size going about their business. A towering behemoth in a mechanized suit, small green plant-men wearing dark green robes and a group of figures in black armor levitating over the ground were but a few players that caught Alan’s interest. For the most part, everyone appeared to be surprisingly humanoid, with slight differences. A more exotic skin color, a surprising appendage, a strange item of clothing or a difference in size was all that would set most apart. A cosplayer from any large convention would fit right in with this crowd; no one would even take a second glance at them.

Everyone was either headed to the center of the plaza, towards the pyramid-shaped building looming in the distance, or back towards a different quadrant of Khersath. Numerous stalls were set up, full of merchants and players hawking their wares, from exotic foods to standard weaponry and ammo. Other than the designated spaces for merchants that were spread out every couple hundred feet, there was no main road. Just open space and chaos.

A hundred different sights, sounds and smells assaulted Alan’s senses: loud roars of spaceships overhead, the constant murmur of voices from an inhumanly deep baritone to an eerily angelic high-pitched chant, a battle between two miniature robots, a crowd betting on the outcome, a blur of movement to his left so fast that by the time he looked it was gone and a horrendous body odor which was quickly replaced by the aroma of a delicate spice. It was overwhelming. Alan could barely process it all, and he could feel Eve going haywire as she tried to analyze and categorize the entire environment.

Alan realized he had stood, mouth agape, right at the entrance to the building for nearly ten seconds, but Red Death didn’t seem to mind. Alan quickly stepped aside to let a delivery through. Shaking his head, shutting his eyes, Alan tried to get his bearings back.

“So, um, Red Death, where is the Administrative Center?” he asked.

“You don’t know? It’s that building right there, of course.”

Red Death pointed towards the center of the plaza, at the towering outline of the pyramid building Alan had seen from space. The building rose so high that the top was lost in a sea of clouds. Its base was simply massive, Eve labeled one side to be at least a few miles. The entirety of the Golden Gate Bridge would span about half the length.

Looking up, Alan stared at the sky. It felt strange, knowing that this planet was different from Earth, yet the sky looked similar, with a rising sun, white clouds and a blue atmosphere. The sun was too bright to directly stare at, but Alan was pretty sure it was yellow. It would be interesting to see what the skies of the levels below-ground looked like. The number of people and structures here amazed Alan, but if the globalnet was to be believed, this was but one level of hundreds.

Unfortunately, Alan didn't have time to sightsee. He had things he needed to do, a trial to undertake. Looking at the time, Alan realized he only had about five hours to do the errand; it was 6 a.m. local time. To Alan, though, it felt around noon. He blinked again, gazing about; this was the crowd at 6 a.m.

“Um, alright, do we walk there?” Alan asked. The building seemed pretty far away.

“Sure, or we could jog. It’s a little over five miles, around a two hour walk, an hour if we run.”

Once again, Alan silently thanked the Game’s makers, as it automatically translated units of measure, sayings, and other small nuances.

“Um, are there any vehicles we could take? I need to make a deadline.”

Glancing at the map and quest marker, Alan saw the entrance to the Undercity was another two miles from the Administrative Center, in the north east quadrant of the plaza, closest to the private quadrant of Khersath. The military quadrant was in the north west, while the living and merchant quarters, the part he was now at the outskirts of, were to the south.

“Unfortunately, the Administrators banned most private vehicles from the public square after a group of Revenants tried to use a few to take the central command point in the Administrative Center. You knew this, right?” Red Death glanced at Alan. Or at least Alan thought he did, it was hard to tell with the mask.

“Uh, right, the…” Alan waited for Eve to supply him with an answer. She was oddly silent, with no calculations running that Alan could detect. He waited another second, then said, “Um, actually, I can’t recall.”

“You can’t recall the First Great Cyberwar? It’s when the Revenants made their first move, you’re wearing their armor for god’s sake!”

“Uh, right, I haven’t had the chance to learn much history. Why don’t you tell me about it as we jog along?”

“Alright, well, I’m no expert of course, but, well I guess it began with the New Technology Law, but you wouldn’t know about that either would you? Well, I guess it’s sort of like…”

They set off at a jog towards the Administrative Center, Alan half paying attention to Red Death as he thought about what Eve had been teaching him. Eve’s first lessons had been about the various types of classes and items in the Game. She had moved on to vehicles, and other things like military logistics. To be honest, almost none of what she was teaching him was at all about culture. It was all just information that might help in battle. Of course, that was useful, but was Eve really prioritizing the correct things in her lessons? Alan supposed so. He could always learn more when he had the time.

As they ran along, passing by thousands of players, Alan tried to spot people with different classes. If he focused on one person, and they were in the public database he had gotten from the Thought Emporium, their level and class would pop up momentarily. In the Game there were the traditional classes of an MMO: damage dealer, healer and tank, but there were a lot of specialized classes as well. Diplomats, pilots, engineers, scientists, merchants, laborers and such made up a lot of the players as well. His own dual-class, a Rogue Machine Lord, was a sort of combination damage dealer and jack of all trades, at least from what he could tell so far.