Chapter:

The clock had struck 7:40 and my revolver snapped closed as the fluorescent lights of SBC Glocken flickered to life, illuminating the metallic walkways that weaved over, under, and around the city's skyscrapers.

Most of them were choked with other players either making their last purchases for the day or gearing up for an expedition at night. I watched them all through my apartment window, idly spinning Charon's cylinder with my free hand.

I took one last look around my apartment. It was spartan, all things considered. A table and two chairs were shoved off into the corner, covered in weapon parts and grease-stained rags. My bed was on the opposite side, its covers still as messy as I left them.

At the foot of it lay a bulky white storage crate that held all my weapons, mods, and the various knick-knacks I kept for one reason or another. My closet was flanked on either side, the chassis and head of a high-level battle droid in a display case on one side and a wire shelf stuffed with books ranging from tips on monster hunting to how to clean your guns on the other.

I made some last-minute checks of my ammo and headed to the door. When I touched the handle, my vision was engulfed in bright light. A moment later, I was standing in the streets amongst the throng of players.

At a glance, the apartment I lived in looked like any other you would see in the real world. It was five stories tall, built with the sleek metal that once belonged to a starship and the windows were frosted to keep people from peering inside. A flashing neon sign that read "Spades Luxury" was bolted over the door.

In the real world, a building like Spades could house maybe a hundred people. A hundred fifty if you really wanted to. But the GGO devs were smart. The building itself was a cleverly disguised server, capable of housing nearly a million people at one time. The view I had in my apartment? No doubt it was being shared by thousands of other people at the same time.

"VR sure is something," I mumbled to myself as I let the ebb and flow of the people around me guide my way. I had looked up Pulsar's exact location earlier. It was only a five-minute walk. Sinon would no doubt be waiting for me outside.

I broke off from the crowd and headed down a narrow staircase nestled between two buildings. It brought me to a landing that went off to my left, right, and straight ahead. I took the path to my left and continued on, passing a few loitering players.

Unlike the ones in the main pathway, these guys look a lot more shifty, wearing cloaks and hoods to hide their appearances. One of the cloaked figures started following me and asked if I was interested in buying a one-of-a-kind assault rifle that no one else in the entire game has seen.

All for the low, low price of five million credits and my dignity if I bought it. Yeah, right. I brushed him off and went on my way until I spotted my destination.

Pulsar was an odd sphere-shaped building with a smooth white exterior. Various spotlights were positioned around the surrounding skyscrapers to give them an ethereal purple glow. On its top was a massive beam of violet light that shot straight up into the night sky.

I walked over to the lounge's name etched on the ground. There was already a big crowd loitering around the entrance, chatting and trading jokes with each other like any other popular hangout in the real world. Some people glanced in my direction, looking me up and down. Paranoia sprouted in my chest.

Any one of them could have been a lookout for Ikuchi so I kept my head down and walked toward the entrance. I got two steps in before I felt a presence slide up next to me.

"You're late," Sinon said. She wore an olive green jacket over a pink button-up paired with grey slacks and combat boots. Surprisingly, she still opted to wear that white muffler of hers. At least she's consistent.

"I took the scenic route. You seen Ikuchi anywhere?" I looked over my shoulder. Some of the people watching me went back to talking to each other. I chose to take that as a good thing.

"No, and that worries me. He should have been here by now," Sinon avoided bumping into a particularly large man with broad shoulders and a buzzcut and stopped just in front of the lounge's entrance.

"He's not the type to be fashionably late, is he?"

"I wouldn't know. It's not like we're friends," she said.

"Maybe you should start. Sit down, have a couple of drinks, and chat him up. Be smooth and treat him to a dance or two. Guys swoon over that kind of thing," I said as I grabbed the door handle.

"I'll pass," Sinon replied. I threw her a cheeky smirk.

"If you won't dance with him, I will. And I will make it awkward. And I'll make sure everyone in this place knows it's because you're too embarrassed to do it," I teased her. Sinon growled at me.

"You do that and I'll make sure you won't ever leave Glocken without me putting a bullet in you."

There was no emotion in Sinon's words. That's how I knew she was serious. Figuring I teased her enough, I dropped the subject and opened the door.

The moment I stepped inside, the music hit me like a freight train. Techno blared over the speakers hanging from the ceiling. The volume was near deafening and the heavy thumping of the beat seeped all the way down to my bones. Which was pretty impressive for a game where I didn't technically have any.

Pulsar's interior was dark, warm, and smelled of fruit and cheap perfume. Neon lights on the walls cast various blues, purples, and reds over us. Projectors shot holographic lasers over us in elaborate patterns. Along the curved walls were booths filled to the brim with players enjoying themselves in whatever food and drink the club provided. Some were even playing a card game with credits stacked in piles on their table.

At the center was the bar, a large metal counter shaped in a circle and manned by a few female NPCs. They wore white leather suit jackets that exposed their midriff and showed off a generous amount of cleavage.

Along with it, they wore a fancy bow tie on their necks and a very, very short black and white skirt. The whole outfit was tight enough to accentuate all the right curves. If that wasn't enough, some of the women were swaying their hips to the thumping music as they poured drinks with a graceful finesse and a seductive smile.

Safe to say I wasn't the only guy in the room ogling them. A sharp pain hit my side as Sinon elbowed me hard enough to rupture an organ, "Focus."

I massaged the spot where she hit me and grunted in reply. Together, we pushed through the crowds. People of various shapes and sizes, ranging from scrawny to brawny and everything in between, were packed shoulder to shoulder, whooping and hollering as they clinked their glasses together and drank.

I pushed past them as fast as I could, uttering half-hearted apologies as I did. Sinon had taken it upon herself to grab the back of my jacket so that we wouldn't be separated. I had just reached the bar at the center when a meaty hand clamped down on my shoulder hard enough to stop me in my tracks.

"Sinon? Been waitin' for ya."

I almost couldn't hear him over the din of the music. But the man's sheer size was enough for me to notice him. He was built like a tank, broad and hardy. He nearly hit seven feet tall. His forest camo shirt strained against bulging muscles with arms as thick as tree trunks.

His forest green cargo pants were noticeably bulky as if he had a small army's worth of ordinance in them. The sunglasses perched on his crooked nose had a shiny silver frame and pitch-black lenses. I couldn't see his eyes. I couldn't see where he was looking, and I think that was intentional.

Sinon didn't seem to be as daunted by the man's imposing figure as she let go of me to face him, "Where's Ikuchi?"

"He's running a little late. He's asked me to escort the two of you to a private booth on the second floor. If you'd please," The man stepped aside and held his hand out towards the nearby staircase.

I leaned over and whispered to her, "The VIP treatment? Does this seem fishy to you?"

"We don't have a reason to refuse. Let's go," she said. Sinon took the lead and headed up the stairs. I followed close behind, turning my head from left to right to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

The moment my foot touched the last step, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I felt a tingling sensation like someone rubbed their socks on a carpeted floor, which gave me a small electric shock all over my body. GGO's system was checking me.

No doubt it was reading my player ID and matching it with the names listed under the VIP section. Ikuchi's man was true to his word. The game let me up without a problem. If my name wasn't on there, the shock probably would have left me a sizzling corpse at the bottom of the stairs. Funny right?

Once I reached the top, I took a look around the area. The second level was more like a deck that overlooked the main floor and was noticeably more empty. The game's automatic sound mixer dampened the ear-splitting music down to a softer tone.

Sofas made of dark brown leather were placed together in front of flat-screen TVs mounted on the walls. Next to them were metal stands holding buckets filled with ice and a bottle of champagne. Two more female NPCs stood behind the bar in the far corner.

One of them, a beautiful girl with wavy pink hair stretching down to her waist, looked up from the glass she was cleaning and winked at me with her golden eyes, a coy smile playing on her lips. I smiled back at her and turned away. The warmth crawling up my neck was hard to ignore.

Whose hand do I have to shake for making these NPCs so real?

The man led us to the section of the VIP area that consisted of a single couch and several leather stools all surrounding a rich mahogany table with liquors, juice, and various other drinks stored on the shelf underneath, "Please make yourselves comfortable. Ikuchi will be here in a few minutes."

He walked off without another word. Sinon watched him go, her eyes narrowing into tiny slits of blue.

"Did you see what was going on?" she asked.

"Huh, what was going on?"

Sinon faced me. She reached up and played with the black hair clip on the right side of her face, "I saw it when we were going up the stairs. Five people are on the floor below, all of them were wearing the same sunglasses as the guy that brought us here."

I swallowed. Every little clue was a piece of a bigger picture and those pieces were starting to make a dangerous image. Ikuchi clearly wanted a lot of his men in the building. The million credit question was why violence was out of the picture.

This meant that Ikuchi would have to rely on purely wits, intimidation, or negotiation to pull off whatever scheme he had planned. Assuming he had a scheme and this wasn't just us being paranoid, "Clearly this isn't going to go as simple, as we thought. So, how do you want to play this?" I asked.

Sinon tilted her head down until her mouth disappeared behind her muffler, "Do nothing. No matter what happens, he can't hurt us. There's no risk of a shootout here. Let's just finish the deal and leave as soon as possible."

"Play along, then. Okay, might as well sit down and have a drink," I said. I rounded the table and plopped down on the sofa. Sinon sat down next to me without a word, her arms crossed into a tight knot and her entire posture rigid. And I thought 'Stiff as a board' was just a saying, "So you want something? Some juice to soothe the nerves?"

I reached under the table and pulled out an orange bottle with a thin neck topped with a cork. When I looked at the label, a stats menu popped up next to it. Interestingly enough, it wasn't just an ordinary drink. It also provided a large buff to your maximum health for the next twenty-four hours.

Nothing but the best for Pulsar's VIPs, I suppose.

I poured it into two glasses and handed one to Sinon, who took it with a nod of thanks. For a while, neither of us said anything, merely content with taking sips from our glasses to pass the time.

Though I was more preoccupied with enjoying the moment, Sinon was more concerned with watching every direction for the slightest reason to be on guard. I guess it was instinct for her at this point. Being a sniper meant she had to watch her back constantly to avoid being ambushed while she was staring down a scope.

Not me though. Getting shot at daily kinda wears the fear out of you after a while.

Three people suddenly ascended the staircase. One of them was a tall, thin man with shoulder-length blonde hair and murky green eyes like swamp water. He was dressed in military fatigues and a bandolier of sniper rifle rounds was draped across his chest along with a pair of Beretta pistols strapped to his thighs.

Another was a man of average height with unremarkable brown hair and olive skin wearing the same clothes as his counterpart but traded the guns and bandoliers for a classic AK-47 assault rifle strapped to his back.

And between the two of them was the man I presumed to be Ikuchi. He looked to be our age. Tan skin and dark hair slicked back so it wouldn't be in the way of his youthful face. He had eyes the color of wine and a relaxed smile that showed his immaculate teeth. His white combat jacket stretched all the way down to his knees and had a wide-open collar and bright blue lining on the seams along with a pair of fingerless gloves and knee pads.

But what really drew my attention was the long silver handle clipped to his belt. It shined even in the dim light of Pulsar. Sinon tensed up. She recognized it the same time I did. A photon sword. I'd never seen anyone use one out in the field. The player base considered it a novelty weapon. Just something to mess around with when you got bored of shooting things for a while. Or at least that's what I thought.

"Ah, Sinon. Apologies for being so late. There was some business to deal with regarding my squad. The cost of being a leader. You understand," Ikuchi's voice was smooth and soft. Like silk. Or slime. I already didn't trust him.