Clothes

My apartment ceiling greeted me. I'd had it made of a synthetic LED-like material, with the texture of marble but the appearance of floating, fleeting clouds in all colors.

It reminded me of how the sky looked when I was a child, at the end of the day when the sun decided to rest and the whole sky would go through a kaleidoscope of colors. I'd lived in a Tower with my grandfather and mother then, back before they were called Towers. You could still walk around outside back then. I still looked back on those days with happiness even after knowing everything that had happened.

I had a shower, enjoying the heat. I set it so strong that it was almost hurting, but not quite. I came out of the shower looking like a boiled crab.

That used to be her nickname for me, she'd tried to get Alice to change my avatar to a crab man (I didn't ask what it was, I didn't want to know) before I threatened to throw her out on her face if she tried. I didn't log in to the chat group as it would be several hours until our next meeting, Instead after approving the new trainee waiter for the Tower, I typed up all of the knowledge I'd collected. After my fingers got tired I just dictated my findings to my computer.

I always made a point of using my muscles when I was IRL, as although there was a bodysuit I could use to prevent my muscles from decaying and my body from degrading, my body still needed to be moved around, due to its limited effects.

From what I could see, the game was futuristic but leaning towards the dystopian side of things. You started off as one of the clones or genetically grown soldiers that everyone in the game was, both PCs and NPCs.

Unlike traditional RPGs you didn't level up, instead, your stats only increased slowly over time as you used your abilities and engaged in combat. Even though every once in a while you would go through a process of leveling up, where you would gain a massive increase in stats, and increasing your upper limit for each of your stats.

There was no loot system so the way he could distinguish himself was to increase his skill levels, increasing his microing skills (skill combinations and execution), feeding rare minerals or cores to his Skin, recruit powerful undead, and to get a powerful weapon. I labeled each of these points from 1-5 with 1 being the highest priority and 5 being the lowest.

1. Buy a powerful weapon.

2. Increase Skill levels.

3. Feed his Skin.

4. Recruit OP Undead.

5. Increase Microing skills.

6. Increase Stats.

I added the last point as it wasn't urgent and it would naturally increase as I completed the other 5 steps, but just to keep it in the back of his mind.

I thought about exploring the city in-depth as it seemed like an incredible place, but due to the Knowledge that the whole place was infested with Criminals who would kill me for my money and to earn Prestige/Streed Cred to increase their power levels, I held off on that plan until I had some experience under my belt.

I didn't need to sleep because when I entered the virtual world, my body was put into deep REM sleep at regular intervals, but only for one or two hours. Thankfully due to complete brain mapping technology, my brain was completely copied onto a Pegasus Corporation Server and so my actions, whenever I logged on, were actually being made by that copy of my brain. My real brain was just sitting there almost completely inactive just maintaining my body, except occasionally I could choose to put my real brain into a deep sleep.

If I died during that period when my brain was asleep, I could still interact with the internet in a limited way and read books, but I was effectively a ghost trapped outside my own body.

I went on the Companies website and tried to purchase in-game currency directly from them, only to be met by a series of registrations that asked me repeatedly if I'd played the game before. Even just giving me insights into the currency of the game, could potentially leave me insane when I attempted the knowledge transfer.

I checked a couple of forums, found out how much I'd need to get a starting weapon as well as payment for lodging, which was surprisingly quite expensive. In the end, I settled for an amount of 5000 C or Credits. Apparently, that was enough to pay for two months in-game at a low-security level of lodging.

Property prices were apparently incredibly high, with everybody wanting to be one of the 1% and live in a supreme-grade level of security housing, the highest level of security. It had a 0% chance of being Looted. Around the clock police protection, several orbital strikes constantly weaponized and rotating around each member in case of any attackers.

A low-security level of lodging, however, had a 50% chance of being Looted. It was barely better than sleeping on the streets. Actually, it was a lot better.

I logged back in and awoke in blue liquid. As soon as I opened my eyes, something moved and all the liquid around me fell away, leaving me standing in my wet clothes.

Ahead of me, a block of metal fell down in front of me, a screen on its front and thrusters keeping it bobbing in the air in front of me. On its screen, there were two dots and a curved line underneath. It began to move as the chipper voice of a young girl rang out of it.

"Welcome to the world! You have …. Zero Credits in your Revive account! If you wish to make a deposit, please declare now!" This robot was both cute and incredibly annoying.

"Sorry, so just to get a couple things clear first, how much do I need to deposit in order for me to revive successfully?" This was the Revive Corporation, a giant in this world and a company which had exclusive rights and complete control over the technology known as Reviving. They charged incredible rates for what was in demand by virtually everybody in this world, Life.

They would only revive you if you had enough credits in your account and the amount necessary for revival was deducted from your account every month, whether or not you had actually died or not.

They, the Revive Corporation were the real owners of this world and had a deal with whoever made us, to extend their own lifespans infinitely. They also had children, increasing their numbers slowly over the years to become a colossal force, unrivaled across the whole city.

The robot lowered its head, before spinning back around to face me and answering me with its female, cheery voice.

"You'll need to deposit a minimum of 500 credits. Please be aware that this amount will be regularly deducted from your account every month."

I hesitated briefly before depositing 1000 credits into my account. I wasn't planning to die any time soon but it never hurt to be too careful, at least my wallet didn't have a voice to complain with. I walked out of the glass tube I was in, into a steel corridor, following a yellow line painted on the ground. I walked past some people, some wore the blue overall outfits of the employees but most wore a variety of outfits like my own completely black suit. I saw people wearing long leather clothes, white priest-like clothes and full suits of black armor, a full range of outfits, like a walking pantomime.

The appearance of someones clothes was just how their Skin had formed, it gave no difference to weight or hardness. A Skin in the shape of armor was just as hard as my Skin in the shape of a suit.

I followed the general movement of people and I headed out the front of a building, drones flying in up above carrying the souls of the departed and people heading out, fully restored back to life.

The building I'd just exited was made of grey concrete, barely 100m wide, it was several tens of kilometers long, however, with people being able to exit the building at either end. Above me, I could see a translucent wall, barely letting any light in. That was the Ceiling. When I'd first emerged from the Institute, I'd looked down and seen it. Everybody who could live above that line did so.

Whoever had made this city, had done it in a flawed way. To live above the Ceiling, (or as those who lived above it called it, the Floor) meant that your living costs increased by approximately 10 times. It was worth it though, safety was higher up there and police patrolled every day. Down here, you were lucky if the police patrolled once a week if they did arrive it would probably be to go to the red light district anyway, so it was possible they'd walk right past a mugging in progress .

Down here the only light was the dim stuff that managed to get through the Ceiling, the flickering streetlights that probably needed to be replaced several years ago and the neon lights advertising pleasure services. It made me feel strange that most of the people in those buildings were under the age of one year old, which permanently put me off that kind of thing, not that I'd ever really got into it with previous games.

In order to get above the Ceiling and lower my personal mortality rate would be to Level up, only those with a level of higher than one were permitted to live up there anyway.

I walked the streets, using a tool that I'd bought from a street vendor to map the area. I quickly found a clean tower, away from the bustle of the main streets. I had to lose at least two pursuers twice as they saw me, a necromancer weak in one on one combat at level one and thought me to be easy prey. I resolved to change my outfit as quickly as possible as this suit, as nice as it was, seemed to be a giant 'kick me/rob me' sticker.

I met a kind old lady in there, only to be horrified when she told me she was only level one. That just meant she'd given up on reaching level two and was not even a year old yet.

She waved off my concerns just saying how it was survival of the fittest around here and she'd been robbed so many times, she never had any money in her Revive account, so didn't feel safe going out hunting. Instead, she took a management job here, wanting to save up enough to top up her Revive account, only for several local gangs to take everything she had, repeatedly over the last couple of months.

This whole area was a breeding ground for gangs because when you chose the Class of Criminal you had the choice to join an existing gang or create your own one. Joining an existing gang would give you power and respect over the others down here, but it would mean you had to follow someone else's orders. Some people joined or started their own small gang, giving them much greater power as one of the starting members.

An average person would probably be robbed several times a day down here. I wanted to help but couldn't be bothered, and she reminded me of my grandfather anyway, the bastard. Instead, I paid for a months worth of lodging and winked at her while saying,

"Good luck with that." If she was smart she'd swipe some money from the till and try to get some power leveling in, only by being able to let go of the danger of death could you really throw caution to the wind. That was where you gained fast and rapid growth.

I briefly checked out the room, before leaving to find someone who sold weapons.

I tried asking around but everyone ran away when I approached them. Instead, I approached another vendor who gave me directions to one instead. I also got directions to a shop which sold clothes.

I stopped by the clothes store first, wanting to prevent myself from being inevitably mugged. They had everything in there, allowing me to wear the outfits of other Classes in there, but I wanted to look more like one of the denizens here. They all wore this style of clothing which I quite liked, dark or monochrome shades, with a neon lining or splash of color appearing somewhere on it. They only wore their official outfits when they went to one of the hunting zones so people could quickly tell at a glance what their role in the party was. That wasn't a problem for me as I liked to play alone and I would be doing so for the next week anyway, at least until the rest of the group got their classes.

I went through several options before picking out one that I liked, a hooded leather jacket, with strips of neon filament lining the edges, I chose white as the color for the neon strips and bought some black jeans to go with it.