Codename: Freedom - Book 3 - Chapter 47

I received stage two details and my official invitation in my inbox later the same day. The stage two information didn’t give a lot of information on how the next stage would work, but it went deeper into how the war for galactic resources would. Politicians from Earth and the Ekseliksi would have to participate. Every participant would be housed in the same location. If there was an attack from a battlecruiser it would kill everyone on both sides. That was the basic idea, just as Peter had explained.

There was a decision I needed to make. I could leave Freedom, or I could stay. If I left, I would have more time to figure our sponsors and prepare for the next stage. I suspected with my new sponsors I’d have access to the best training money could buy. But could it compete with the training in Freedom? General Mack was right. Nothing could. If I stayed, there would be more opportunity to impress sponsors, but I was confident there was little more I could do that I hadn’t already done. It felt odd to think in such terms, but I knew finding sponsors wasn’t something I’d have to worry about anymore. There was another thing to consider. If I stayed, I’d have more time with my friends—with Victoria. There was never really a choice.

A number of minor events followed in our final months in Freedom. A new clan of goblins was discovered. The orcs attacked from the west. They provided a little challenge and the players suspected these final events were quickly thrown together to keep viewership up. Except for a few random battles, I didn’t participate. I spent more of my time with friends, but the majority of it was in the training hall. Except for a few exceptions, the Right Hand would stay intact when we moved on to stage two, as would the Left Hand. We trained together often.

With a week remaining in Freedom, Guild Prodos threw the biggest party in Freedom’s history and everyone was invited. Even though Victoria rented every building on the block, Prodos’s finances had grown to such a level that even if we bought every building in the entire city, it would’ve only been a fraction of our wealth. Victoria’s answer to why she continued to worry about money after we’d already gotten our invitation to the next stage made me realize how far we still had to go. It seemed the management of money and resources was just as important, if not more so than strategy for winning a war—at least in the eyes of some of the military’s upper echelon. She was looking to make sure that they had no other options but to make use of her. Getting our invitation to the next stage was only the beginning.

Three more kitchens were churning out food as fast as they could to help Prodos Tavern keep up with the demands from one hundred thousand players and close to ten thousand NPCs. The streets were filled with men and women that had long ago stopped trying to find a seat in one of the five buildings that were an extension of our tavern. The most recent band had taken the stage, which was the roof of a two-story building in the middle of the sea of people. The music hadn’t stopped in over twenty-four hours and wouldn’t for two more days.

More than once, I’d left my seat at the head table to go out and take in the sight. Men and women who had never worn armor a year before now didn’t even bother to remove their platemail as they danced and sang. This was the last time I’d see some of these people for weeks, and for some of them, ever.

Jerrek and Olivia were both continuing on to stage two and would continue to be apart of the Right Hand. Some things would change, of course, for we’d have full access to modern technology, so some of my men would need to specialize. After what Olivia had been through, she surprised me more than anyone else. The support she had from Jerrek and Mel certainly had to help, but she was one strong woman.

“Vector!” I called, squeezing through the crowd as I made it to their table. The whole original crew was there. Treetop sat on his left and Drool on his right. Marabella and her brother, HandshakeDeath and LadyHeadshot… 

Sneaking in behind me, Victoria took my arm in hers. She wasn’t sitting back at the head table tonight.

I immediately noticed Vector’s hair wasn’t dyed but was his natural rich brown. His shirt was a well fit tunic of crystal blue and not his normal guild red.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Victoria said, eying Drool, who also was dressed abnormally in a gown of cream and blue trim.

Unlike his normally reserved self, Vector wore a sappy grin. The two of them shared a look that was as mushy as watered down mashed potatoes. Olivia nudged him on. Treetop was bouncing in his chair as he struggled not to say anything.

Finally, Vector spoke. “We’re getting married.”

I blinked what had to be a thousand times as my mind reeled with what he’d said. Do you mean in Freedom? I still remembered vividly discussing how Drool was just using him and would move on when something better came along. Things had definitely changed.

“The ceremony will be just before stage two begins.” Drool said, standing to her feet. “You guys have to be there.”

That meant—they were getting married in real life… Of course, we congratulated them and said we would be there. 

When Victoria and I finally pulled ourselves away, I was still stunned at the news. I found my hand atop Victoria’s. I realized I was holding on to her, not letting go. Releasing her, I grinned like it was nothing, but knew she saw right through me.

“Let’s get freshened up.” She said, gesturing toward the restroom.

I tensed up as if it was our first date. I nodded, following at her side. We split up and headed our separate ways. The moment I stepped through the doorway I was transported to a wonderous cavern I’d been to one other time. The light danced throughout the room, splashing the walls and ceiling in waves of dull color. It was Victoria’s secret place. The meditation room in the palace on her homeworld.

She was there already, looking up at me. Her wargown was gone, and she wore a dress that looked golden in the light.

My hands were shaking. It wasn’t being with her alone that troubled me. It was knowing that if I didn’t hold myself back, I could lose her forever. I wasn’t the instigator, forcing the moment. She was, and I could see it in her eyes. She wanted me as much as I wanted her, but I couldn’t relax. I couldn’t let either of us have what we truly desired, so I didn’t move.

Victoria moved for the both of us. Placing her hands on my chest, all I could think about was how thin the fabric was between us.

“Lucius.” She whispered. “There’s something I have to do one last time, because I may never have the chance to do it again.” Reaching up on her toes, she closed her eyes and pressed her mouth into mine.

Immediately, I melted, wrapping her in my arms. Even as our mouths parted, they found each other once again. Time meant nothing. At that moment, we were just two normal teenagers in love. Her control was greater than mine, and I heeded her every boundary. Our clothing remained. My hands caressed her arms, back, neck… We laughed and cried, and after our lips finally parted for the last time, we teased each other like we always had.

It was over far too soon. As special a moment as it was, it felt awfully similar to saying goodbye. It felt just like a blade to the chest. One that Therapeia couldn’t heal.

We returned to the party and mingled as before. As the night closed in, the guild leaders stole her away and continued their planning for the next stage. None of the others had negotiated as she had, but many of them found additions to their invitations that offered higher ranks based on their leadership achievements Freedom. Victoria hadn’t requested any of it. After her conversation with General Mack, it seemed they had scrambled to come up with a new approach to the ranking in stage two. Their biggest mistake was allowing the entire world to watch the exchange in the first place, which had probable forced their hand. It was not a mistake I expected them to make again.

I spent a lot of time with Mel and Barrell the next day. They somehow talked me into to not training for the second day in a row. Both Kline and Cornelius had been strangely missing on the second day of the party. On the third, I found them. It seemed they had spent the day before sparing and were a pretty even match. I was bummed they hadn’t invited me to watch.

On the last day of Freedom, early in the morning, I had my last meeting with my Ekseliksi friends. I would see them in the real world at Vector and Drool’s wedding before the second stage began. It almost seemed unreal. Like as soon as I finally logged out of Freedom, they would all disappeared, and I’d find out they were just apart of the game. 

Our plans were real enough. Lax had scheduled my Genetic Cleanse and we had exchanged each other’s personal information so that we could communicate once we were outside. Everything was already set up. I just had to worry about finding a personal attorney to help me wade through all the sponsorship deals.

When the time finally came, everyone had been kicked out of the Prodos Tavern except for guild members. Even then it was standing room only and our sub guilds weren’t even allowed. Everyone had full glasses and were waiting for the countdown to begin.

Holding up her glass, I raised mine as well. Peter and Oliver stood at Victoria’s side, Kline was there and at the near table, Mel and Barrell stood with glasses of their own. The countdown began. There wasn’t much time.

“I want to thank you,” Victoria said, using the guild announcement channel so everyone could hear her regardless of where they stood. “Some of you will be continuing with us to stage two, and some of you won’t. But without all of you, what we have accomplished here would be impossible. You have given so much. Thank you for fighting and thank you for dying. Most of all, thank you for trusting me to lead you.”

Before I was even sure she was finished, a great shout rose up from the crowd, sending a thrill up my spine. I reached over and rapped my cup against Peter’s, who stood between Victoria and me. He grabbed my shoulder, holding my gaze for a long moment before retreating so that I could spend the last few seconds of the toast next to the tawny skinned girl with the silver streaks in her bright green eyes. I held her gaze even as the crowd began to count down from ten.

“You’re amazing,” I said, sneaking it in at the final moment. The last thing I saw was the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Everything went black.

***

The first thing I saw was the green-tinted light that shone from the corners of my Cube.

“Please, remain still as the shutdown procedure finalizes.” A voice came from some unseeing speaker above me.

Instead of standing there as I had entered, wearing nothing. I still wore a t-shirt and shorts, for which I was thankful. I ran my hand over the side of my shorts, then pitched at my shirt. It was the most surreal experience. I felt no difference between Freedom and the real world. I ran my hands over my chest and felt the developed muscles in my shoulders and arms. Apotho appeared, covering my hand as easily as it had before I’d logged out. It wasn’t all an illusion or some carefully crafted deception. I’d been transformed.

The lights slowly brightened. Green faded, and clinical white took its place. The platform I stood on, six feet in the air, started to descend. A door opened to my left and a team of nurses in what looked like white biohazard suits filed in. I was too elated to care why they were taking such precautions. As virtual as it had been, Freedom had been real.

The nurses were on edge as the approached. As my platform settled a few feet off the ground, I saw a woman fidget as she gestured for me to step down. They were afraid.

It was a startling to think that someone could be afraid of me. I’d never hurt anyone in my life. But that wasn’t true. Not anymore. In Freedom, I had killed many, forcing them to experience the pain that went hand in hand with such deaths. I remembered Liam and what I’d done to him. Of course, they were afraid. They’d seen everything I’d done and knew what I’d become. I dropped Apotho immediately, not wanting to scare them more than I already was.

“Sorry,” I said to no one specifically. “It doesn’t seem real.”

The woman smiled, even if she still looked jittery. “How do you feel?” She said.

“Like I wasn’t in virtual reality at all.”

“Good. You may experience some side effects as the nanobots leave your system. You’ll expel most of them in the next twenty-four hours through your urine. Be sure to drink plenty of water.”

“What kind of side effects?” 

“The most common is drowsiness. Your recovery ability will help, but you’ll find that you need more sleep. And be sure to eat as if you were still training, for the nanobots were delivering a constant supply of nutrients to your body. Your digestive system will have to take over and be the sole provider of nutrition again.”

I’d expected as much. “Thank you.”

She smiled again, finally seeming to relax. “If you’re ready, the reporters are waiting.”

“Reporters?”

She nodded in the affirmative, obviously sympathetic. “It goes against our recommendation, but those of you who have agreed to participate in the next stage are required to be accommodating to the media since they haven’t had direct access to any of you in the last year. Most everyone else is being given some time and a debriefing, but I’m afraid you’re considered a VIP.”

“Yay,” I said, oozing sarcasm.

She laughed.

Now that the group was more comfortable around me, they wished me luck, and I followed the woman out the door. Once it was shut behind her, the rest of her team was left inside. She pressed a button on the side of her facemask and the glass slid up. I heard something like a zipper sound. She waited for it to stop before removing the hood all together.

Seeing the look I was giving her, she explained. “It’s a precaution in case any of the participants freak out and start attacking us with psionic energy.”

“Like psionic bolts?”

“Yes. It works well against Rank G psionics, but not so much against anything higher than that. Against physical attacks?” She shook her head.

“Has anyone actually—freaked out?”

“No.” She chuckled nervously. “So far its remained only a precaution.”

“I hope it stays that way. Let me know if anyone needs healing.” I said, without thinking how odd that must sound.

Once outside my Cube, I laid eyes on the rest of the bunk that was lined with town hall sized cube on both sides of the room. Taking a peek to get a good view of the scope of the room, I could only shake my head. The distance was too far to accurately estimate, but there had to be hundreds of cubes in this single room. Like a nest of mechanical spiders, robotic arms and wiring hung above each cube, reaching down through their ceilings.

Even though I’d lived in one for the last year, my mind was thoroughly blown.

I saw men and women exiting their cubes, lead by a nurse. Most were asked to sit on the bench in from of their Cubes. Their reactions were almost all the same. They had their auras active and couldn’t believe it was real.

I didn’t recognize anyone close to me, but I did recognize their clothing. Everyone wore shorts and a t-shirt with their guild colors. It seemed they were taking these interviews very seriously.

“This way.” My nurse directed.

I was near the front of the room, so our trip didn’t take long. A trip in the steel cage to the top level overlooking the room. I looked out at all the Cubes, thinking about how many people’s lives had been changed. Once in the main building, we headed down a long hall and she stopped outside a door. I could hear many voices chatting on the other side.

“We’re here. You ready?” The nurse said.

“Nope.” I grinned. “Let’s do it.”

A swarm of microdrones was waiting as she pulled open the door. They caught my initial reaction for dozens of angles at once.

I internally rebuked myself. The person I’d been before I’d entered Freedom would have expected this. Instead, my reaction couldn’t have been any worse if I’d planned it. Snapping my mouth shut, I forced myself to smile and stepped into the room. There were rows of chairs at the foot of a slightly inclined stage with a podium at its center. The room was full of reporters who were suddenly yelling out questions as they fought for my first response. I could hardly see them with all the reporter drones in front of me, even if they were only a few centimeters in diameter. There were so many of them…

As I passed through the doorway, the reporter drones shot back. They’d only been crowding me because they wanted a good angle and the doorway had hindered them. Now they had space, so I was free of their abuse.

Even though I’d grown up with mixed reality, I had a small dose of culture shock when I saw that the reporters all wore MR headgear that was highly impeding to their facial features. The communication setup they used was much higher-end than the average glasses or eye implant, hence the size of what they wore.

A woman in air force blue stood at the podium and waved me over. I headed her way. I felt self-conscious about how I must have looked. Even though I’d been observed by millions every moment I’d been in Freedom, I’d found it easy to ignore when my spectators weren’t visibly present. But now—my body felt foreign to me as I realized how different I really was. I hadn’t spent a lot of time looking in the mirror.

The woman had her jet-black hair in a tight bun and the slender build of a model, not a soldier. As she began to speak, I could tell she had the practiced voice of gaming commentator. She grabbed the edges of the podium as she began to speak. “It’s my pleasure to introduce Lucius Edwards, freshly out of his Cube. He will take questions now, but only answer those he’s comfortable with.” She looked up at me, making sure that I knew that she meant what she said.

With a wave of her finger, every reporter in the room went silent and their hands shot into the air. Pointing to one, she called the reporter by name.

“Lucius.” The reporter said. “How does it feel to be back in the real world.”

It was easy enough to answer. “Amazing. The transition between the real world and Freedom was seamless.”

Before the group of reporters could get out of hand, the air force spokeswoman called on another. The questions began harmless enough. They wanted to know my thoughts on events from Freedom and on stage two. Even when they brought up my injured back from day one, I found it easy enough to talk about, though the memory still stung. A few minutes went by before I was asked a question I really had to consider.

“Do you plan on joining your name to the many lawsuits suing the government for hiding the truth about Freedom’s pain settings?”

“I won’t commit to anything now, but I’m planning on discussing it with a lawyer.”

My answer whipped the room into a frenzy.

She quickly called on the next reporter.

“If you had to do it again, knowing you’d have to sustain the same injuries and go through the same things, would you?”

I was surprised at how quickly I came to my answer. “I would.”

It settled down a few minutes later and my handler announced that the interview was drawing to a close. But first, someone else would join us.

Glancing up at me, the woman mouthed something. Sorry.

“There’s someone that is wanting to meet Lucius. Everyone welcome, Captain Liam Sullivan.” She said.

At the hearing of his name, I went deathly still. 

He walked through the door on the other side of the stage and stopped once inside, his handed folded behind his back, standing at ease. Sure enough, it was the Liam I’d forced to submit to my will through the threat of torture. His easy smile was nowhere to be seen as he stood there watching me, in his air force formal dress.

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense. If Heather Esper was working for the military, of course, her guild leader, and the mastermind trying to overthrow the Council of Guilds, would be as well. I’d looked up to him. He’d always seemed to be a man of sound judgment and one who genuinely cared for everyone around him, so his betrayal had never sat well with me. Now that I knew that it had all been planned beforehand, that it was just a test, it didn’t seem like any less of a betrayal.

I noticed then that the room was silent. Looking to the reporters, they had moved away from the front seats and were cowering toward the back of the room. I found my handler frozen in place. A muscle in the side of her neck twitched. Glancing down at my hands, they were clenched into fists and covered in orange light. My aura had ignited the moment I saw him without me realizing it.

“Sorry,” I said, to the woman standing next to me, as my aura faded. I tried to keep my tone even, but it was difficult with Liam in the room. What had they expected? “Why is he here?”

Liam continued to watch me, betraying no emotion.

“Uh. Captain Sullivan was—” She stooped herself, took a deep breath, then started against. “Captain Sullivan was one of the men that participated in Codename: Genesis. His mission was to test the character of the participants of Codename: Freedom.”

If it was to test our character, then I obviously failed.

He looked out at the sea of reporters, offering them a formal smile before beginning to walk toward center stage.

I couldn’t help but be tense, though I managed to keep my aura in check. I never took my eyes off him as he walked our way.

Reaching us, the kind woman that had been helping direct the questioning stepped back. Liam’s eyes were on my chest. I saw the tension in his jaw as he struggled with his thoughts.

A part of me was yelling at myself internally. I shouldn’t be feeling sorry for him after what he had done to me. The other part saw his struggle and knew it couldn’t have been easy.

His eyes finally met mine. His regret was plain as day.

“Lucius.” I could tell there was more he wanted to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

Holding out his hand, he wanted me to take it. To offer him a semblance of understanding.

I don’t know how I found it in myself to shake his hand, but I did. He had put Victoria in danger and would have killed her like the other council members to complete his mission. Yet still, I grabbed the hand of the man before me. The way I held him there, in complete control, was an unsaid promise between us. If he betrayed me again it wouldn’t end the same way again.

Leaving the room, I felt it had been fairly successful considering I hadn’t killed anyone. Who had thought it a good idea to bring Liam into the room?

“You’ll be debriefed shortly, then you’ll be free to go.” My nurse said, escorting me to a different room that was down a side hall. Once inside, I saw something that I hadn’t seen for a long time. My MR headset. “Feel free to relax and reconnect.” 

She left and I was finally alone with my thoughts. Everything I’d brought with me sat on an examination table. There were a few chairs and specialty panels in one corner to do a full-body scan if need be. I hopped up on the examination table and grabbed my bug-eyed headset and placed it on my head. Even though it offered full peripheral vision, I still felt obstructed wearing it.

On the other side of the small room, Destiny appeared. Her blond hair was back, and her facial features were more refined than before.

“Hi, Lucius.” She said, her voice tugged at me. I’d forgotten how much I’d missed her.

“You’re all grown up,” I replied, trying not to sound disappointed.

“I thought it was appropriate, seeing as you dismissed all my warnings and have fallen hopelessly in love—with a woman who’s spoken for, might I add.” 

“Destiny...”

She began to snicker as playfully as ever. “I’m teasing you silly. Even though it’s an impossible situation in which you will never find happiness, I’m quite pleased with the girl herself. Now, there are a few things we need to discuss.” She became serious. “Do not respond except with a yes or no.” 

I nodded slowly. My throat was suddenly dry for this was not like her at all.

“Your Cube had three different feeds, two for redundancy, that were used to send sensory information to different servers. Lax stopped these feeds as they left your Cube when you met with the Ekseliksi.”

I swallowed hard. If she had the recordings of those meetings… I couldn’t imagine her turning me in, but personal AI were supposed to inform the authorities if a serious law had been broken. Treason was as serious as they came.

“He did not, however, turn off the system that observed the events, which I was hooked into directly. Because of this, I have records of everything. Now, before you say anything, as I asked you not to.” She waved her finger as if to scold me. “I don’t believe anyone else has recordings of your secret meetings. The Ekseliksi certainly won’t have personal AI and there is no indication from Kline’s social media that he even uses one. It is curious that Doctor Konig didn’t warn Lax to make sure personal AI feeds were also cut. I’d recommend bringing this to Peter’s attention when you meet with them in person.”

“That brings us to the problem. I recommend that you have me remove any discriminating evidence from my drive. I will make note of all information that won’t link us to the Ekseliksi and set predetermined response patterns, like protect Victoria, in case of an emergency. Should I proceed?”

I was already nodding before she finished. “Yes. Have I told you you’re beautiful?” 

“Stop that. Flattery never works.” She said, feigning to hide behind her hand. “One moment.” She closed her eyes for a moment as she processed the request. A moment later, she opened her eyes. “With that out of the way, I have news that I think will be quite beneficial.”

My mind was still trying to process what she had just said. One, Lax wasn’t as proficient as he claimed at keeping Victoria safe and Doctor Konig might be collecting information to hold over our heads. Despite that, I encouraged Destiny to give me her news.

“I received correspondence. It seems you will be able to take me with you to the next stage and use me as your Personnel Defense Management AI. They will supply the required upgrades. If you like…”

“Of course, I want you with me Destiny,” I said, putting my thoughts on the backburner. I forgot how much like a person she was.

“Great!” She said, throwing a fist in the air.

I laughed.

“Even without the upgrades, I have a surprise for you. Since you’re already used to the character sheet from Freedom, would you like me to track you the same way and make it available to you here?”

“You can do that?”

“See for yourself.”

Character Sheet

Player Name: Lucius Edwards

Health: 2,198

Stamina: 4,540

Combat Level: Rank D – Level 99

Strength: Rank C – Level 22

Endurance: Rank C – Level 54

Quickness: Rank C – Level 02

Speed Rank C – Level 82

Psionic Level: Rank F

Psionic Energy: 260,819 (Units)

Psionic Power: 296 (Maximum energy use per second)

Psionic Recovery Rate: 3.15 (Units of Psionic Energy recovered per second)

“Destiny…” I said, staring at a popup window that looked identical to the one from Freedom. “This is incredible. Can you track changes?”

“Yes, but I won’t be able to with the same precision. Possibly with the military upgrades. Your level I left out, since it was really an indicator of your MR gear and drone Rankings. I suspect once we are in stage two, a new, more advance system will be put in place and we’ll get a lot more options depending on the kind of tech we have. I have Wink’s personality data saved, so as soon as we have the hardware available, I can upload her to your combat drone.” She said. 

“Combat drone?”

Leaning up on her tiptoes, Destiny looked over my character sheet. “They wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of training you through the Pet system if they weren’t planning on giving you a combat drone.”

I swiped my hand over my character sheet, wiping it off my display, and making Destiny hop back.

“How about some notifications?” He said. “You have a request from St3alth to contact him as soon as you get a chance.”

“Do you have any news on Chewme?” I replied.

She shook her head. “Guild Nexus has officially removed him from membership. I can confirm that he agreed to move on to the second stage. Would you like me to try to contact him?”

So Timur was moving on to the next stage… “No. He’ll reach out to me when he’s ready.”

“Very well. It finally feels like it’s the appropriate time.” She walked toward me with a villainous glare. Sticking her nose in my face, she stopped with about an inch between us. She screamed. “Congratulations!” 

If there wasn’t a wall behind me, I would have fallen off the table.

Prancing back, her arms shot to the sides as she screamed again. “You did it!”

Despite her more mature look, she was acting as ridiculous as she ever.

“Not only can you officially be considered a pro gamer.” She continued. “But you broke the record for the greatest number of followers. Surprised? Of course, you are. You haven’t glanced at your numbers in months.” Her arm reached forward as if holding up something in front of me. My follower stats shot up. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Seven…” Was all that came out.

“Billion.” Destiny finished what I was trying to say. “Over a billion more than the previous record. Of course, Victoria has you beat by about half a billion, but that’s just because of all lustful teenage boys. Not that there aren’t millions of girls fawning over you as well because you’re outrageously handsome and powerful.” She flexed her biceps. “I’m moving on so it doesn’t go to your head. There are also forty other people that broke the record, but don’t worry, you’re still number two.”

It had been an unbelievable day. There were thirty-seven billion people in the world and almost a fourth of them were following me.

“We’ll need to discuss sponsors in the next day or two.” She insisted. “You have over six thousand official offers. I’ve sorted them by brand and monetary value. There are ten of them that I recommend you take a look at.”

“Tomorrow. I promise. What kind of offers are we talking about?”

“Headset offers are always the best. Vibrations has an interesting one, even though they specialize in music meta-gear. Five hundred million cryptos for an exclusive five-year deal, and you’d be a joint spokesmodel with Marabella, a friend of yours I believe.”

“Five…”

“You’re having trouble with your numbers today. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” She said, giving me a wink. “I know we’d agreed that one hundred thousand was a good practical living wage, but that’s not something you’ll have to worry about anymore. The fact that you’re moving on to stage two makes you even more marketable. The Vibrations deal isn’t even the best one. I just though working with a friend might interest you. Techtium is offering one billion for three years, as long as you use their gear exclusively, or Prism Electronics is offering one hundred million for a single commercial if you want something more short term—”

“I think I need to talk to someone.”

“Yes. Your father and I have already agreed upon two law firms that would best represent your interests.”

My eyes dropped to the floor.

“He’s very proud of what you’ve accomplished.” She said.

I’d gotten a number of personal messages through my fan channel from him. They had always been short and surprisingly supportive. I’d stopped reading them over the last few months, but I wasn’t entirely sure why. Had I just been too busy, or had I just started to believe him and hadn’t needed to check as often?

“Has his opinion of users changed?” I said.

“You’ll just have to wait and see for yourself.” She replied. “I think he also likes your choice in Victoria.” I felt my face go flush. “Yes, he knows she’s taken, but seems rather optimistic that she will choose his son in the end.”

“He’s been watching a lot?”

“He hasn’t missed a day of highlights. I’m looking forward to meeting her by the way…” 

Looking up, I saw her pleading grin. “You’ll meet her soon. You should know she wants to meet you.”

“I do, but it's rude to act as if you’ve spent the last year doing nothing except watching a person and recording their every conversation. I came u often.” She seemed pleased. “You mentioned me over two hundred times.”

“When you put it like that—”

“It sounds rude, right?” She cut me off. Her eyes darted toward the door. “I think the debriefing is about to begin. The last notification on the list is a reminder that your procedure is scheduled for Friday, two days from now.”

Procedure? My Genetic cleanse. It was really going to happen. I was going to become Ekseliksi.

As she finished, the doctor opened the door.

---

That's all folks!

There's a few things I already have planned to work on. I'm going to change the way Psionic Recovery Rate works. I'm going to give Isamu and Jerrek their moment in the final battle. Add a hint of what happens to the player killers. There's also a number of small things.

Editing has begun!