Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 3

Note: Chapter numbers have changed.

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I received a reply from Victoria, but, besides a bit of back and forth, there was no chance to speak with her directly. She sent me some information that gave me a bit more direction in how to be best prepared for what was coming. Just because we were out of Freedom didn’t mean that our work was finished.

I’d tried to sleep, I really had, but without the physical exertion the recovery ability my psionics provided made it nearly impossible. Her last messaged had wished me goodnight around 3:00 AM. Instead of lying my head back down on my pillow, I got up.

There wasn’t the necessary room to get much of a workout done my family’s apartment, so I moved to the street. For those plugged into the metaverse, there wasn’t an inch of planet Earth that wasn’t mapped out and a part of the virtual overlay it provided. This area wore a high-end skin that was both classy and modern, but, as I walked out onto the street, Destiny had blocked out the metaverse entirely. Surrounded by towering grey-stone buildings, I found the concrete alley between our apartment building and the next. It was a nice part of Orlando, and this time of night it was mostly deserted. Not even those looking for trouble found any temptation to do so outside the metaverse so there was no real chance of an interruption. The only exception were the drones that flew by occasionally.

I still didn’t have a lot of room to work with, but it was enough.

“You’re going to use psionics?” Destiny said, appearing at my side, facing away from me as she analyzed the alley.

“Yes, but only to cycle my abilities,” I replied, careful not to call them notes. That was Victoria’s name for them. It wasn’t even purely an Ekseliksi term, but it was still information that if lumped together with other slips of the tongue I might make when the wrong people were listening, it might betray my knowledge of Victoria and her people.. Calling them by their actual Ekseliksi names was even more off limits. Having to hide so much from Destiny just multiplied the distance between us.

I did as she asked and sat down my father’s minimalistic headset with the visual sensors facing the alley. One of the nutrition shakes from the first cases to arrive I propped up beside it. I began to run. As I did, I made use of the many psionic exercises that Peter and Victoria had taught me. They weren’t designed to quickly deplete my energy, but to help build strength and agility to my psionic voice. Even as my lungs and limbs began to burn, I focused my mind on how to make the best use of my time over the next two weeks.

Forty two minutes later, I returned to my headset with sweat already thoroughly soaking my shirt and dripping off me. Placing the device over my ear with its eyepiece just over the right upper corner of my eye, Destiny soon appeared again with blonde pigtails high on her head and hanging to either side. She had a tablet that she stared intently at, pretending to study as she started to state her observations. There wasn’t much I didn’t already know, but the information confirmed what I was already thinking.

I picked up the purple bottle that was interestingly shaped like an arm with a ripped bicep and tricep. As I lifted it to my mouth, I tasted the blueberry, spinach, and watermelon flavor, shaking my head. It was nasty. One hundred times better than the nutrition shakes I was used to drinking in Freedom, but still nasty. I glanced at the label and saw it was called Liquid Pump.

She glanced up at me. “If one is forcible projectile vomiting and ten is the perfectly blended strawberry banana smoothy, what would you rate this one?”

“Let’s rate this one a five,” I said of the supposedly berry flavored drink.

“So yuck-face is a five. Got it.” As if jotting down my answer, her tablet disappeared in the next instant. “Shall we go over what Victoria sent you?”

I gave her a long look. With her pigtails, despite her more mature image, she still seemed like a young girl to me. “I think what I have to do is obvious enough,” I replied. “Focus on all the sponsorship deals with no long-term contracts or exclusivity agreements. The more money upfront the better.”

One of the major pieces of information Victoria had sent me was that I’d be able to use my own money to purchase items and upgrades. She wasn’t just referring to the next stage of Freedom, but the actual war simulation. It seemed it was already live and accessible. This was currently the building stage. So while Earth was building its defenses in the solar systems it currently occupied, the Ekseliksi were doing the same with theirs.

Not everything was clear, but a few things certainly were. During the next phase, Guild Prodos would be tasked with helping to build a base, while I’d also have to build up my character. The war simulation itself would be called the Prime Simulation, or Prime for short. Those weren’t the only things we’d be doing, but once I gained access, Prime would allocate a certain number of points to me that I could spend on what I might need. The US government would also grant me further points that I’d earned while in Freedom. They’d be given out according to one’s performance. On top of that, I could purchase more points with my own money.

As for what points could be spent on, we didn’t have access to the actual list, but there were a few certainties. Anything we had seen in Freedom would be available. Everything from Time Swell, an Ultimate Ability that flooded your mind with chemicals to increase your clarity of mind and grant you time dilation, to Pet Master, that would allow you to control an army of drones, and even Victoria’s Combat General, that allowed her to use the eyes and ears of any of her allies and their drones on the battlefield, was something participants could purchase. But that was just the beginning. The world’s entire military arsenal of weapons, vehicles, and specialty equipment was something the common soldier could pick through and purchase on their own if they had enough points.

I immediately thought of St3alth—or Hwan I suppose I should call him. There was no way he’d be able to compete with the Freedom and Genesis veterans right away, but with the right gear, he could make use of what he was really good at. I wasn’t familiar with how military stealth equipment worked, but few people were as good as he was at reading the field of battle and appearing at the right place at the right time. It also made me realize that I was going to have to start worrying about things like bullets and modern weaponry. It was theorized that Rank F Apotho, my Psionic Shield ability, could block most handgun caliber rounds, but no one in Freedom had had any way of testing it out. As for rifle rounds, high velocity rounds, and higher calibers, participants had been less sure. Then there was also rail-rifles, high powered lasers, and energy weapons. At least it was a set of questions I was confident I’d find the answer to soon enough in the next stage. The military should be testing such things.

The real enemy, the Ekseliksi, wouldn’t be using our weapons, but some of them transformed their bodies to such an extent that high velocity projectiles and psionic blasts were a given. Victoria had mentioned that there were even people that were xeno-engineered to be dragons and other such creatures. If they could breathe fire or poison… In some ways, the combat in Freedom had remained simple. By limiting our military tech, they successfully placed us in an environment where we’d have to focus on improving our physical and psionic abilities. Now that Freedom was over, it seemed the next stage would open the floodgates to the reality of modern warfare.

In the next moment, psionic power flooded through me. My aura glowed red and only intensified until it took on a rich orange gleam. Closing my hands into fist, I flexed my arms as I took stock of my own strength. It wasn’t enough. If the Ekseliksi could use their own psionics to fight against modern weapons, then there was no way I’d measure up. I wasn’t even sure how far the Codename: Genesis participants, those in the government experiment that took place before Freedom, had come with their psionic abilities.

“Are you sure that’s the approach you want to take?” She replied. “The longer term contracts won’t pay as much up front, but they’re worth far more in the long run.”

“I want to have as many points as possible in the beginning so that it doesn’t limit what I can train. Besides, since we’re taking deals without exclusivity agreements, I can always take a longer term deal later once we know how the next stage is going to work.”

Tilting her head to the side, she gave a proud smile almost as if she’d made the decision herself. “Good. Then get ready to work. We’ll meet with the lawyers later today and need to decide by the end of the meeting which sponsors to take. I expect these companies to be ready at a drop of the hat because of the time sensitivity of the next stage. You’re first gig will probably be tomorrow. I’ll prepare your schedule so that we can mix in as much training as possible between each job?”

“Yes. And don’t schedule anything the day of my DNA Cleanse or Vector’s wedding.”

“Of course.” She was quiet for a few seconds before releasing a pent up breath. “I’m done processing your top ten contract scenarios. You should be able to pull in between eight hundred million and one point three billion cryptos. Scheduling will probably limit us more than anything else.”

When she ended her statement, I saw the look she was giving me. She let out what she was thinking. “Lucius, it’s a fortune, but considering the world’s military budget and how expensive the best tech is, I fear that even if you spent everything you’ll earn that your money won’t go as far as you think it might. We don’t know how the point system will work exactly, but the Jinhwa are like precision instruments. I expect Prime to have equivalent currency exchange with the real world. So your options will still be limited. It’s important that you put some money away to invest as well. You don’t want to go through all this and in the end have nothing to show for it.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh. This was the Destiny I remembered. “So no army of combat drones or private battlecruisers?”

She stuck out her tongue. “It depends on the functions you’d give them, and, maybe a small one.”

“Oh? Is that all?”

A virtual greatsword appeared in Destiny’s petite hand. As her scowl deepened, illusionary fire ignited from its blade. With a speed such a little frame could never produce, she swung the sword at my chest one handed, and it passed right through me. Before she dropped her act, she growled.

I just blinked while watching her before taking another sip of my shake.

“Ha!” She said, purposely misinterpreting my yuck-face reaction to the drink. “That’s what you get.”

Looking down at the artificial woman in front of me, I looked at her fondly. “I missed you, Destiny.”

The sword disappeared and she stood up straight before tilting her head to the side. “Big softy. That calls for a new nickname. How about Elite Warrior Cuddles, or maybe Knight Jelly Belly?”

“Those are terrible.”

“How about Chubby Champ? Does Champ Chubby sound better?”

***

My meeting with the first law firm came late morning. By the afternoon we’d already spoken with three different ones, made our decision, and sent our first responses to the offers Destiny helped me pick out. As she’d thought, my first commercial would be shot the next day. It wasn’t the only one. For the next week, on average, I’d do two a day.

Most of the commercials would be captured via the metaverse. It would require me to login, but I would also be able to do so without leaving home. There were a few exceptions. I’d only have to fly out of town for one day, while a few others were being shot on location in Orlando. As Destiny had said, I was about to get very busy.

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Author Note:

I decided to split this chapter in two. Even though the chapters are a little smaller, The DNA Cleanse should stand alone. That should be up tomorrow.

Cheers!