Payback

Anyone who jumped into the v-Hive automatically appeared on the platform near the 10th floor. The usual quiet of the Hive was flipped upside down when Dex was forced to dodge a ball of light that whizzed by his head. The ball impacted the safety railing before bouncing into a nearby person. That person faded into nothing while displaying an impressive knowledge of curse words.

Darsi glanced at the three remaining jumpers that had been playing H-ball on the 10th level. "You clowns know there's no playing on the 10th level. So notify your teammates that all of you just gained a floor."

In the hive, the lower you lived, the more prestige you held. Bottom feeders like Darsi had an almost unlimited supply of resources and could basically freelance any job they wanted to. The upper levels were assigned missions by a controller; how they performed impacted the rewards they were given.

Dex could see from their expressions that gaining a floor was pretty severe.