A Small Adventure II

As I'm staring at the mech suits through the window, they disassemble in my head, and I learn everything about them. They are very advanced, so much so that I'd say they are the most conventional weapon a fleet of ships can have. They are space capable. However, they lack the range a starship does, excluding those that can transform between mech suit and ship. They use special inertia dampeners that make it easy to move in space.

What's truly fascinating is the controls. They use an interface that the mind connects to so you can move it just like your actual body. The parts used in the mech suits are similar to the ones used in starships. However, there is a lot of new technology I now know. "The Void Tear 0-XS is my personal favorite. It has the ability to switch between a starship and a mech suit" I listen to the player to my left talk to his friend.

I search through the information in my head about the Void Tear 0-XS. It's one of the few I disassembled in my head a minute ago. The price is very expensive, exactly 500 million credits. I've come to learn that there is a lot of wealth in The Aeternus Universe. My earliest calculations on the stock market here were off. I redo the calculations again with all the new information I have come across.

Factoring in the huge population between all species and my conclusion is that Credits are deleted as new ones come in. Rather meticulous, if I do say, the federal reserve of the stars must be run by one of the hyper-intelligent A.I.'s. The price of a mech suit that can transform into a ship is obviously higher. So a regular mech suit with the cheapest and most basic components is around 800,000 credits.

I can already see possible new designs as I work through them in my head, and my starship designs change even further as I think about incorporating a mech suit transformation. The nanites would make the shift between suit and ship fluid and easy. I have seen all I've wanted to, and I walk away from the window. I've been on for several hours now, but I'm not getting notified. I don't need to get off, so I'm not going to.

I make my way around the space-port some more, and now that I've changed my outfit, I don't stick out like the rest of the players—all wearing the same basic clothes that are blue in color. I see an area up ahead and notice that many players are coming from there. I go through my memories to find out if I overheard something about it.

It turns out I did, and I hear a female's voice in my head while the audio plays. This place is the guild recruitment office. It's a hub you can go to see about guilds and not just player ones either. There are NPC ones players can join too. I don't bother going in, but the major guilds have probably already moved on to this game. I remember all the guilds from every game I've played or not, thanks to my traits.

I think about the top 10, and around 4 have probably already joined The Aeternus Universe, but I don't know. I don't have enough data to say for certain. The big ones are Trailblazers Inc. and AEG's, followed by a few others such as The Misinformed, Killjoy's World, and Bombardment Tech. The guild leaders of these guilds make billions.

I know all the names of every guild leader and multiple commanders under them, but that's neither here nor there. Eventually, I think about them, but I have more interesting things to think about. Mainly being the development of the player base. It won't take long for guides to make Credits come out, and soon people will start buying their first spaceships.

I wouldn't doubt the more lucky ones have already saved up enough to get close to buying. However, the games said no special rewards would be dealt out for accomplishments. That's what it told me in the message it sent me after I got the ZPE-GE-DS power core. Normally games will give out rewards for players that accomplish feats, but that isn't going to happen here.

The success we achieve is determined by our choices and by which way we use our traits effectively. I'm sure that the races other players had to choose from have special strength to use that I don't. All my traits are mental abilities, things that make me a being beyond quantifiable intelligence. I don't have a single trait that boosts my strength or speed.

So there is a balance, but I can think of plenty of ways to break it in my favor. That isn't a priority though, not sure it ever will be. I continue walking around the massive space-port, and I continue to absorb any information I come across. After a while, I make a complete circle back to the entrance, and I see the place where the bounty hunters and mercenaries are hanging out.

I make my way over and look inside from the door. There are men and women of multiple different alien races and species talking and drinking. I walk in, and some turn their heads to look but lose interest after a couple of seconds and turn back to their conversations. I see a door at the back of the room that says office. I process this information with all the other information I've processed since walking in here.

After I'm done sorting through the information and memorizing it all, I learn that anyone can become a bounty hunter or mercenary if they have at least a starship. I have learned all I need to, and I walk out of the little hub and continue walking until I'm back out in front of Meiklare and Pleiknor's store. I proceed inside now that I have tons of new information.

The starship I want to build can't be built here. They don't have the necessary parts, and that really limits good starship designs that I can make. The ones I came up with earlier are now much less, in my opinion, and my desire to continue creating new ones grows. I walk through the store and into the workshop in the back. I see Meiklare and Pleiknor still working through the ships and my work done on them.

I nod my head to them and continue into the back office and the apartment they are letting me stay in. I enter it and head straight for the couch. I sit down and contemplate all that I have learned so far. The Aeternus Universe is shaping out to be the next game to take the top spot. I pull up my player interface to see my credit balance. I did spend 65 credits while I was out.

[Scott Autumn (Lone Wolf)]

[Race: Primordium]

[Exp: 2,500]

[Credits: 695]

[Traits]

[Hyperthymesia] [Eidetic Memory] [Tech Speak] [Unquantifiable IQ] [Indimidating Genius] [Unparalled Problem-Solving]

While my credit amount is pathetic looking compared to the prices needed to buy a ship. Most players are lower than this. The top players from other games might be near or doing a little better, but that's in their nature. I know that I still have the mission to create my own ship still needing to be done, but I can't finish that until Meiklare and Pleiknor are done with the ships.

So that leaves me with so much free time, and it's so much worse now that I'm capable of such incredible thinking and problem-solving. I can control it, make it slow down and not work as hard. The change has made it obvious that I'm never going to want to leave this game. If only there were some way to bring out traits to the real world.

My mind shoots off and begins to think about that problem. As I think and work it out, I stand straight up, and my mouth hangs open. "Oh my god. It's already happened. When the traits were given to our in-game character, a brain scan occurred and imprinted the traits in our brain. This will cause people to emerge from the game with new changes to their bodies or minds. That means... I'll be like this in the real world!!!" I jump up in excitement, and that's when another problem dawns on me. The value of my abilities is priceless.

No one can ever know about my gifts. If they do, I'm going to be dragged away by the government or something. Made to work for them, or a criminal organization founds out and tries to use me. I'll need to be careful. I could end up dead.

I slump back into the couch and close my eyes. My body in real life is sleeping, so I'm not mentally or physically tired. Motion is just a habit when you come under stress. I'm now stressed at this revelation.

Some people will know about me, anyone from The Aeternus Universe development team and the company. I'm sure once GBFT Inc. finds out about me, they'll try and make contact. Unknown to Scott, this isn't true. He doesn't know that no one knows about his unique race. Not a single soul knows.