Not that it really mattered.Like most such jobs these days, the staffing was minimal, the supervision almost entirely automated, and nobody cared so long as requests were filled and deadlines met.He hadn't seen any of his so-called coworkers in three days, and probably wouldn't see them for a couple more.Even the mail was delivered by drones, and he used more to do most of the hard labor.
Lance yawned as he stood and shuffled down the hall to the breakroom and fished out an energy drink, sucking it down quickly before tossing the tube into the recycler.Dragging himself back to his desk, he slogged through his work until the chime that signaled end of day.He stood, stretched, and then moved out of the way as his workstation withdrew into the wall and locked itself up for the night.He wouldn't be able to access it again until the start of his next shift.
Hooray for a reprieve, and tomorrow the weekend began, three whole days of relief.
In the locker room, he swapped out his regulation office clothes for his street wear: all natural denim jeans he'd paid a fortune for, his favorite thermal vid-shirt, and boots sturdy enough for the mounds of snow and ice everywhere this time of year, at least in his neighborhood.Here in the city, everything was protected and meticulously climate controlled, but precious few people could afford to live in the fancy cities anymore.
He didn't mind the snow, generally, but he much preferred spring and all the rain it brought.There was something about water, be it rain, lake, ocean or pond, that soothed and strengthened him in a way nothing else could.
Outside, he walked to the trolley stop, pausing on the way to buy dinner from his favorite cart, operated by a rickety old droid that would likely be replaced soon, poor thing.
By the time the trolley showed up ten minutes late, he'd finished his street curry and was sipping at his tea.The trolley scanned the chip in his wrist as he climbed aboard and took a seat at the back, facing the street so he could watch as they traveled the last few blocks of the city, through the public transport gate, and into the areas where most people lived: the so-called suburbs with their rare, fancy stand-alone houses; then the more common hives of apartments where Lance lived; and beyond that, the squalors where he'd lived until he was fifteen and a work tragedy had killed his father and given them a nice enough settlement they'd been able to move.
When his mother had died five years ago, just days after his twenty-seventh birthday, yet another settlement had allowed him to get his gaming kit.So much easier to let people die and pay off their families than pay for all the things that would make jobs safer.As boring and tedious as his job was, at least it probably wouldn't kill him.
He jumped off the trolley about an hour outside the city, and walked the two blocks to his apartment complex.They'd given up naming them decades ago, sticking with number-letter designations.Lance's home-sweet-home was 19-B-703-Alpha.
He stepped onto the elevator with four others.When no further people arrived after twenty seconds, it turned green, sealing them in, and carried them up to their various floors.Thankfully, he was only on floor seven, not one of the higher levels that could take forever to reach with all the stopping and starting.
His chip let him into the 7-3 suite, and then into his actual apartment, comprised of a living space, bathroom, and bedroom.He'd hoped to get one of the outside rooms that had a balcony, but they'd been just out of his price range.Like most people, he lived mostly on his citizen allotment, and saved his job money for amenities, though these days, standard living costs were starting to creep past what allotments could handle, and the government kept making noises about how there just wasn't money to increase them.
Sighing, he stepped into the entryway and stripped out of his clothes, tossing them into the chute to be cleaned and sterilized by building facilities before being returned to him in a day or two, though sometimes it could take as many as three.He then went immediately into the bathroom, where he stood beneath the automated cleaner for five minutes before pulling on his house clothes and padding into the living space.
As it was just him, he'd devoted the entire area to the one real pleasure in his life: gaming.He had the whole kit, including a sustainment chair that would let him game in long stretches, up to three days, though he rarely played more than twelve hours at a time, even on his free days.
Tonight, he'd play for a few hours before he had to crash, so he could get enough sleep to do errands and stuff, especially since he was just soexhaustedlately.He was tempted to say fuck it and go to sleep now, and any other day he might have, but today was the release of a game he'd been waiting on for years, had pre-ordered eleven months ago.Edge of Knight, a deep-sim open quest high fantasy game that was supposed to blow all its predecessors out of the water.
He'd spent more money than he probably should have to get the elite package, which came with all sorts of top tier bonuses, like a sword that would be wholly unique to him.Nobody else in the game would have his sword, and that was just absolutelymaxin a day where everything seemed so repetitive and regurgitated.
He grabbed a tube of water from the fridge, added a sup-powder, then settled into his chair and turned it on.
Ten minutes later he was hooked up and ready to go.Mashing the button, he sank into a brand new artificial world.
There was always darkness the first couple of seconds, then sparks and spreading rainbows as everything came fully online.Gamers called it limbo or purgatory, depending on whether everything went smoothly or something went wrong and they got stuck.
Lance sighed in soft satisfaction as everything settled into place.He snapped his fingers to call up his menu and looked over his avatar.He never really changed his much from his day-to-day appearance.Brown hair, blue eyes.He even tended to keep his snake tattoo, a twentieth birthday present to himself, a black snake crawling up his back, its head right between his shoulder blades.Games improved his features subtly, but nothing drastic.That had never been his style.
His special outfit for buying the elite package was a handsome blue surcoat trimmed in gray, his water lily crest emblazoned on the front in silver.A good part of the cost of the elite package was being able to design his own crest.No one else in the game would have it, and that was a high he'd ride forages.That crest was also on the shield strapped to his back.His armor was top-notch, with a subtle rainbow sheen that indicated the special protections already on it.
All that was missing was his sword.Tapping his saddlebags, he pulled out the package waiting for him there, excitement racing up his spine as he opened it to reveal…
A katana.A fuckingkatana."Ah, yes," Lance said to his surroundings."The favored sword of knights everywhere, forged by master smiths in the great city of Kyoto, England."This was so fucking stupid.They could have at least matched the armor and just made him a weird out of place samurai.But no, he was just a random European knight fighting with a katana.
Whatever.Its stats were fantastic, and that was all that really mattered, even if he could already hear the unholy ribbing he would get from other players.For now, though, he wanted to explore this new game on his own, get a feel for it, work out any glitches.
Huffing, he equipped the katana, which then appeared at his hip, then poked around the other weapons he'd been given with his package and equipped some of those.Finally he turned to his horse, a beautiful black courser with tacking that coordinated to his surcoat.A prompt came up to name the horse, and Lance put in the name he used for all his horses: Nevermore.
His surroundings were unremarkable, a generic starting point tavern and inn, and a large crossroads with five options.Since he was playing in private, only NPCs were around, leaving him free of the chatter and distraction of other players.
The air smelled like flowers and roasting meat, with the barest hint of sulfur on the air.So there must be a dragon quest, though whether it was something he could do now or would have to do later, Lance hadn't the slightest.
He approached the tavern, but didn't bother to go inside, not yet.He wasn't ready to be dragged into quests.He wanted to explore a bit first.There was a board outside, of course, filled with special quests that would have unique difficulties or time limits.This game was nice in that you got to just dive right in, none of those stupid tutorials or anything.
If only it hadn't given him a fuckingkatana.
Turning away from the board, he stroked Nevermore's nose and weighed his options.This game was supposed to have all new advances in adaptive gaming, meaning it changed significantly based on user decisions.It was open world, free choice, to a level no game had been to date.The developer, Monmouth Games, had been particularly cagey about how they'd done all they claimed.
Time to see how much was truth and how much lies.Especially since his elite package promised experiences that other users wouldn't get.Fuck this was going to be so much fun.
