I anchored myself to a wall just before the drop into a tunnel, recentering myself and pulling out my SB-17 just in case. Then I slowly lowered myself down. I peeked out of the hole, carefully scanning my surroundings for threats, before dropping into the tunnel properly.
The tunnel seemed to be some kind of sewer or storm drain. There were two passages on either side, moss and some faintly glowing lichen covering the walls and ground. Down the middle of the passage sat a shallow ...
2024-08-14 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Finally resettled on a name for this one after talking to my brother about it. For sure Restless. Probably...
-- -- --
Four years later…
“Thank you, kid.” A meaty hand slapped me on the shoulder as I handed over a stained letter and a box of something foul-scented. I wasn’t quite sure what was on the letter, having received it in such a state, but the burly man didn’t seem to mind as he received both.
“No problem.” I winced as I backed away from ...
2024-08-13 01:54:08 +0000 UTC
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The basement was a multipurpose area. A hallway split down the middle, connected to the stairs and elevator on one side and a door on the other. Two rooms split off from the hallway: a laundry room, chatter barely reaching my ears over the hums of machinery, and a gym. The clangs of metal on metal and soft grunts alerted me to several people working out in it.
I’d already checked the cameras for the place, so I already knew the only two positioned down here were in the gym and laundry...
2024-08-12 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Rent was today, which was just… awesome. There goes sixteen hundred Rayn, leaving me with just four hundred. I need to get another job soon…
But until then, my stash so I could finally get on with some other plans! And it would be free if I had any luck. I’ve been thinking about this for a very, very long time; where should I set up? Everywhere had their dangers, but the number one thing I was afraid of was someone else finding it. It needed to be in a secluded location, ...
2024-08-09 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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I awoke bright and early, tiredly dragging myself out of bed to take another shower for all the cold sweat. Nightmares about spiders were the worst. The entire night, the creepie crawlies crawled into my sleep, digging around underneath my skin. Well, not the entire night. I didn’t get back to my apartment till almost dawn.
I washed out the terrible taste in my mouth with plenty of Jack’s Sun Kicker and checked my arm. It was perfectly healed, leaving not even a speck of tarnished s...
2024-08-07 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Doctor Holly carefully stroked her newest patient’s arm, eyeing the stitches she had used to hold the thing together. It had been a rather simple procedure all and all. Just a transfusion of synthblood and thoroughly cleaning the wound, though the girl’s occasional gasps of pain had been a bit distracting. The girl was definitely in shock though, the gasps came infrequently enough and her nearly frozen skin was a dead give away.
Never in her life would Holly have thought she’d say...
2024-08-05 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Hope and I ended up having to make seven trips up and down, only breaking for a little bit when we got back to the elevator chute. No, that wasn’t quite right. I took a break. Hope continued on hauling boxes of evidence up to the surface while I ‘kept watch’ at the bottom. I offered to help, ‘course, but she turned me down since my arm was injured and all that. Still too bloody to get a good look at, and I didn’t want to expose it more than necessary down here with all...
2024-08-02 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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I could only watch in horror as something burst from the vine wall. The scattered debris obscured it into a humanoid shadow, but even then its presence felt wrong. A sense of maliciousness emanated from the thing, one much stronger than the maw creature. I didn’t even need to flick on Aetherial Perception to feel it.
As the dust cloud faded, its inhuman nature showed itself. The thing looked to be made entirely out of ebony bark and twisted red vines. Thorns spr...
2024-07-31 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Hope and I set up further down the tunnel, behind a mound of rubble from a partially collapsed roof. Rather, Hope set up while I edged close to the monstrously large plant.
Unfortunately, I was the quickest, between us. It was weird being the best at something for once, but I didn’t let it get too far into my head. Hope was wearing some fairly heavy armor. Course Dexterity helped quite a bit, but it helped my mind move faster more than anything.
I eyed my pat...
2024-07-29 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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”Damnit!” Hope didn’t even twitch as her body locked up entirely.
I froze, my eyes staring at the back of her head in horror as the slight click reverberated in my head. My gaze slowly drifted down to her foot, ignoring the slight tremor in her hands. “Don’t move.”
”No shit!” Hope took a deep breath, though her voice still came shaky. “Okay, okay… we have two options. Either you continue the mission and leave me behind, or head back up to the surface and call b...
2024-07-26 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Time seemed to slow further than Dexterity allowed as my finger pulled the trigger. Every millisecond felt torturously slow as my muscles brough the trigger back and the lance-like leg of the Pervider arced to me.
The first shot whiffed entirely, slinging just over the spider’s leg. The second was much better, ricocheting off the Pervider’s durable leg and slowing its attack. The third, fourth, and fifth followed as they deflected the leg off course.
By then, the rest of my bo...
2024-07-24 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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AN: Finally decided on the name. I'm trying to whip up some cover art, but having some difficulties deciding what exactly I want to show since the 'world' for this one is so freaking massive. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot!
Also, Restless has had quite a few delays. It occurred to me while trying to write that I world-built everything but forgot the MC's civilization, like an idiot.
-- -- --
I jolted awake, nightmarish monsters with too many limbs chasing me from...
2024-07-22 22:50:09 +0000 UTC
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My feet hit the shattered remains of an elevator, nearly causing me to stumble. I regained my balance with little effort, unclipping myself from the harness as I cast a look around.
The deep shaft dropped into what seemed to be some kind of ancient maintenance closet, with workstations and pieces of pipe scattered around here and there. A thick layer of dust covered everything. Thick pipes and control stations covered the walls, looking as if great worms were stapled into the sides of t...
2024-07-22 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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Three days passed since my conversation with the Inquisitor. Even though the perk didn't trap me in the learning space for days, I still slept through an entire day. It left me with a day and a half to prepare for the raid thrown into my lap.
The armor and all my projects were tossed onto the back burner as I threw myself into learning. I started with the Mystical Agriculture book, skimming through each page in an attempt to memorize all I could about potential threats.
I di...
2024-07-19 22:03:46 +0000 UTC
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Stress ate at me as I worked my way through Blue Crusade’s headquarters. Why was he calling me so urgently? I could think of dozens of reasons, and none of them were good. Has someone figured me out? Was my cover blown? Should I flee the city? Try to get away from the Blue Crusade? I could go to a city aligned with the Golden Spine Consortium.
Or was it something else? Had the Neo-Jokers found out it was me and turned me in? It would be just my luck to be arrested because a gang
2024-07-17 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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‘Ole Merlo wasn’t that hard to find. A brilliant purple banner hung above her market stall, covered in golden symbols just like Suvroc said. Her stall was more of a large, rich purple tent covered in golden threads than the market stalls elsewhere in the cavern. Every bit of her tent was covered in what I could only call occult paraphernalia.
Crystals dangled on golden chains, each pulled into crazy shapes and dimensions. Feathers of birds, some looking even older than me, hung from...
2024-07-15 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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I checked the map idly even as I calculated my exact position based on my surroundings. They were a bit different than the city archive’s map, but the level of variance was within my expectations. It was becoming more and more apparent the archive couldn’t be a hundred percent trusted, either thanks to cartographical error or reasons more intentional.
I was about a block off of the Constellation Night Market's current location. It had been a couple of days since hanging out with Mir...
2024-07-12 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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Once I got home, I headed for bed. It was really about time I got to something I’d been pushing off for a couple days: my Perk Points. I didn’t want to spend both all at once though, so I’d do one now and one later. I figured it might help with my mental to not be trapped in the learning space for so long.
As I was pulled from my soft, comfy bed into the ancient-looking pavilion of the interface, I couldn’t help but appreciate just how soothing the place was....
2024-07-10 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Diosé was a sub-district I had yet to go to. Really, it wasn’t all that surprising. I’d avoided most of the East End considering the rep it had. No point getting my head blown off just to go on a tourist trip. Or worse, if I decided to travel into the Scath Heights.
Diosé was a bit like the rest of the city with its towering buildings and strips of neon everywhere, but the buildings here were more stacked on each other then anywhere else I’d seen. Its towering buildings - as op...
2024-07-08 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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AN: Heyo! I'm super excited to bring this to you guys. This is the first chapter of that other story I mentioned a while back. It's been in the planning stages for a while, and I've got a lot cooked up for it. I haven't decided on a title quite yet, but I'm thinking of Waltz, Reverie, or Vigil.
The upload schedule for this will be chaotic at best. I'm still focusing on Outrun, but I do really want to start writing this story sooner rather than later.
This story is still in its bet...
2024-07-05 22:12:46 +0000 UTC
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Early the next day, I went out and bought everything I would need, dropping yet another hundred and thirty Rayn on parts. It wasn't all a waste, at least. I was getting experience out of this if nothing else.
The fried circuitry was as simple as switching it out, but the other improvements I wanted to make were more complicated. I decided to go with a heat-controlling approach. It was the cheapest to set up and would fix a few other problems with the blade, like battery life and sustain...
2024-07-05 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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I started shaping the parts as soon as I got into my apartment. It was a bit risky sending sparks and fire everywhere, so I moved my workstation into the kitchen. Slightly less flammable, but still not quite safe. I’d just have to be mindful of the fire hazard. And it's not like this would be a common situation, but I really needed to get this done.
The blade part itself was almost done outside of fixing up the joints to attach to the heating elements. Oh, and the blade actually...
2024-07-03 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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Next stop: Absolom Clinic. I was close, so I might as well stop by and see how Nael is doing. I walked to Viceroy Street, leaving behind my bike as I ‘enjoyed’ the scents and sights of Aythryn City.
I flicked on Aetherial Perception about every hundred steps. There were a surprising amount of things that glowed under my enhanced sight. For instance, a lot of the bigger ads, especially Raijin’s, glowed. If I had to guess, it was probably some enchantment to make the ads more ...
2024-07-01 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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My first stop? Fox’s shrine. I managed to find it with a quick search of the Mapp™. It was in the Sabyt sub-district about a block from Viceroy Street and Absolom Clinic.
As for why Fox over the other Eidolons that were participating in the Request? C’mon, that was easy. Fox was the one I was closest to out of all of them, though close wasn’t necessarily a word I’d use to define our relationship. But I had her Trait and Perk, which counted for something.
Now that I think...
2024-06-28 22:04:02 +0000 UTC
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As soon as I got dressed, the interface finally popped into my view. I didn’t look at it though, and it faded to the side of my vision in a more translucent state.
Instead, I took a minute and sat down at my desk with a notepad. This was something I’ve become increasingly aware of, but what was the point of the interface and all this power if I don’t have the intelligence to use it right? Strength didn’t only come from the stats.
I leaned back in my seat and thought back, ...
2024-06-26 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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“Everyone in position?” I asked, getting four affirmations. Mr. and Mrs. Kalis were here in front of me. Feras and Torren filled them in on what we, or at least what Feras and I, suspected happened while I was busy with the Crusade.
I thought we’d go another day or two before making the plan concrete, but it seemed the duo, and the parents for that matter, wanted to get done with this as much as I did. Couldn’t really blame them. I was ready to sleep in and stop go...
2024-06-24 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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The War Room sat in a basement level of the Blue Crusade Little Yukoto Department. It was a fairly wide room in a high-tech style with strips of white lights lining the walls. Brackets of metal supported the ceiling. A large lit-up table sat in the middle covered in holographic maps. The atmosphere was… heavy as I walked in.
Inquisitor Ligh stood around the table alongside two other Crusaders. Both Knights, if I had to guess. They both had the crossed swords symbol of Knights on their...
2024-06-21 22:04:01 +0000 UTC
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“Are you shure?” Inquisitor Strumgard asked.
I shifted the phone against my ear, motioning to Feras and Torren as they entered Big Mike’s. “Yes, sir. I have to go now. I’ll be out of contact for a while until I tie up some loose ends.”
”Right… I’ll round up a shquad. Meet me at the War Room in the HQ in an hour. It’sh about time we busted this bashtard.” The Inquisitor hung up as I slid my burner phone into my pocket.
The two approached me, both already...
2024-06-19 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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“Who… am I?” The cold running through my body spiked, dropping ice through my bloodstream. Insight. That’s right, it was Insight. Was I in danger? I didn’t feel like I was in danger… but Insight has never lied to me.
”Yes, choom. Who are you?”
”I’m-“ Something isn’t right. This feels wrong. Why’s my head so foggy?
”Heartbeat spiking.”
Why are they watching my heartbeat? This isn’t right. I need to get out of here. This isn’t right. Gah...
2024-06-18 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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School… Why did I ever agree to this? It was slow, it was monotonous, and I was losing attention faster than ever. And yet, I must suffer on. At least it wasn’t all bad. Whoever was responsible for the flower arrangements changed them over the weekend. An all-new assortment of soothing purple flowers sat around Mr. Jarvis’s room.
I peered around my class as the teacher prattled on about math stuff, my eyes idly noting the dozens of faces. Any one of these students could be the mas...
2024-06-17 22:04:00 +0000 UTC
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