chapter 24 cheeky examiner (work in progress)

his comment was met with silence, so Daniel just sit down in a cozy spot and waited, but after an hour the snake was still there and he had no way to recharge the pistol batteries so killing it was impossible

Daniel didn't know what to do, tunneling wasn't an option, not in this kind of terrain with a several-ton snake over his head, and the snake was right in front of the ship, it was improbable that he could run inside, before being gulped

all Daniel could do was wait so he went to the hole exited the game and started reading after setting a timer for 1 hour on the hexagon

he came back 1 hour later and the snake was still there, after 2 was there, after 3 still there, Daniel was about to give up but after entering for the last time after 4 hours he saw the snake moving out

Daniel exclaimed "finally" and after a couple of minutes went to repair the ship, as he entered, he selected the repair option, and the resources, and the gravity controller disappeared, then sat in the pilot seat

as he sat down the world stopped

first time piloting, select control type, simplified/realistic

Daniel said "realistic" the whole reason he started playing was for this moment

realistic controls lesson initiated

the world around him disappeared and he was now on a different ship, parked on a white planet with a lot of obviously fake obstacles, and a voice was guiding him through the lesson

in the first theoretical part, he was explained how to lift off, how to control the ship in the gravity of a planet, how to engage the hyperdrive, how to set coordinates the entire lesson would have taken a long time normally, but this was Daniel were talking about, in less than 40 minutes, he remembered every control and was ready for the second stage, obstacle course

so he did as the voice told him and he lifted off and while in the atmosphere he passed through the light circles that defined the course, passing next to mountains, close to water, even if simulated he had an inebriating feeling from piloting, and even if a little bumpy, since it was the first time, he didn't crash anywhere, and completed the course

congratulation, realistic controls lesson completed, new time record, top rookie pilot skin set rewarded

the world around him disappeared again and he was again in the crab ship, since he accomplished everything he wanted to do here he lifted off and exited the crack

as he came out and was looking down from above, he saw the snake and since he was pissed at it he fired the phasers, he didn't expect it to die, but the giant scary snake wasn't as sturdy as a spaceship, and surely didn't have any shields, so the center of his body exploded and the giant snake was divided in two, his body soon later disappeared and the loot came up

congratulation, you found the tyrant snake skin set

obviously, skin, meat, and other parts were in too but at this point, Daniel just hoped that they would sell for a good amount outside

as he flew he wanted to see if he could go to the poisonous zone, by passing over the wall, but it was a bust, it just kept going upwards indefinitely and he couldn't leave yet, so he went back down before exiting the atmosphere and drove to the safe zone, and while holding his breath, at a snail speed and with the shield active he tried to pass the wall and enter the safe zone

the ship went in without a problem, so after being happy for a second, Daniel started following the signal in the poisonous zone, to the ship, and since he was flying over the problems, he arrived without a hitch

as he saw the spacetuna he knew things may get difficult, the ship had robots around it, and daniel said "where the heck did those come from, grandpa said nothing about them" from what Vincent told him, only insects were in this zone, but now for some reason robots appeared, in a humanoid shape, clearly, something was up

he now was on board the crab, but he still couldn't charge the battery of the small cricket without a charging station, and even if he made a new one different from the fusion cell they had to be charged anyway

so Daniel tried to land the crab, but the robots intercepted it, this gave him a new idea and he started baiting the robots and when they were far enough from the spacetuna he opened fire with the phasers, and a question was answered by the notification

congratulation, you obtained merchant group 7 automaton guard plasma cell

the plasma cell wasn't important since his weapon needed batteries, but the name meant that these robots belonged to the merchant group 7 something fishy was going on, they probably activated automatically because he arrived on a ship, or at least, that was the only thing that made sense since Vincent didn't saw them

after the phaser fired most of the robots were destroyed, but Daniel wasn't gullible enough to believe that there weren't more hidden apart from the survivors, but he also had only 5 shots, basically the only positive thing going on, was that the terrain didn't looked as marshy as the one on the way, and probably the crab won't end up buried in the mud, like he thought it would

underharmed and alone the only thing he could rely on was the armor, he certainly couldn't shoot the phasers at his spare parts, that ship looks about to explode as it is

so he landed the crab next to the space tuna and prepared for battle, with pistol and knife in hand, he started walking out, sadly none of the automatons had guns, so he couldn't steal one from the broken automatons

but he was ready to end this seemingly infinite tutorial, so he arrived to the damaged but still functioning robots and finished them by extracting the cells from their chest, the ones that could still walk were a problem, but there were only 5, and Daniel was confident to only shoot if needed

so as the robots advanced, he kicked the one in the center, and it fell on the other two behind stalling them, but then, another one on the left punched Daniel, and Daniel fell on the automaton on the right, before the automaton could do anything Daniel extracted the cell from his chest and threw it at the one on the left that was coming behind him, the cell cracked and the automaton got washed with plasma, disintegrating on site

seeing the effects, daniel started using the cells from before as throwing weapons and finished the last 3 with 2 cells

with the last discovery, Daniel now had 5 shoots and 12 plasma cells, screw the knife he never knew how to use it anyway, as he walked to the airlock a voice came from the spacetuna computer "any attempt to rob the cargo will be met with lethal force" said the computer AI

but daniel now had stuff that could melt robots, and this tutorial was starting to get on his nerves, so he thought "screw the AI, it has to end now" as previously stated patience wasn't his strong suit

Daniel barged in ready to melt anything in his way, and directly marched towards the engine room, thanks to the theory of the piloting lesson, he knew where the hyperdrive was located, once in front of it he simply cut off the things attached to it and ripped it out, the fine work could be done later, but since this was a game once it was ripped out and entered the backpack, the extra bit's still attached just disappeared

Daniel then started walking out, but the doors started to close down "nothing a plasma grenade can't fix" said Daniel throwing what was clearly an automaton fuel cell at the door, and after a few seconds he exited from the hole formed by the door melting, and continued like this till he was out of the ship, but to wait for him outside there were another 10 automatons

Daniel just threw 5 or 6 plasma cells at the ones in front and started running to the ship, he didn't want to waste anymore time, and that did the trick while the ones in front were melting the others tried to pass over them, and it took effort, not counting the ones who lost the legs in the pool of plasma and melted metals on the ground, daniel arrived at the ship and closed the door behind

after lifting off, he wanted to shoot the phaser's at the spacetuna but then changed his mind and went to install the hyperdrive

while Daniel started the repair function to install the hyperdrive, he heard an explosion and a notification came up

congratulation, you found, charging station blueprint

he looked outside and saw that the spacetuna exploded Daniel said "what? how?"

the examiner said "the plasma made his way to the fuel cells in the deposit and boom"

Daniel said "apparently I won"

the examiner said "yes, you did, I quite liked your aggressive attitude towards the end, complete the tutorial so we can talk face to face"

Daniel said "I'm coming"

Daniel went to the pilot seat and pointed towards the sky, ready to burst out, but as he was about to accelerate, he looked at the walls of the zone, and then remembered how the safezone came to be at the start of the tutorial

as he thought "better safe than sorry" he drove to the safezone and once inside pointed up and accelerated, than once he was out of the atmosphere, he activated the hyperdrive and as he was traveling in hyperdrive a notification appeared

congratulation you completed the anomaly tutorial

Daniel found himself sitting at a desk, on the other side a stern middle-aged male that was obviously not human, judging from the fur and the extra set of arms

the examiner said "damn kid, how did you realize it was a trap and the zones had a ceiling"

Daniel said "I didn't, I just remembered how the tutorial started and decided that it was better to be safe than sorry"

the examiner said "absurd, you dodged every trap, I even admitted that you won, that should have resulted in you crashing into the ceiling"

Daniel said "you cheeky examiner, well I'm happy to have won, now tell me the truth, how many people really won? it wasn't that mind-blowingly difficult has the comments made it sound like"

the examiner said "since you completed the tutorial your race will be listed as anomaly, furthermore, I'm sorry but all the things you obtained during the tutorial will disappear, when you enter the game next time, you will find yourself near the red river starfield, inside the reward starship, with all the promised rewards"

Daniel said "it's fine if you don't want to tell, but since I won will you tell me your name?"

the examiner said "it's gregosh, I was built based on the real lieutenant gregosh"

Daniel said "nice to officially make your acquaintance"

gregosh said "it was nice to meet you too, kid" then after a few seconds continued "well good luck out there, and have fun in the sea of stars"

Daniel said "thanks, I hope to see you again"

race set as anomaly, generating rewards, entering the sea of stars in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0