by Rick Scott
I turn to my attacker and spot a guy with a handgun shooting at me while strafing to the side. I duck to the left and he misses, but then another shot catches me in my gut.
You take 135 piercing damage!
177/1732 HP
Ugh! That really hurt!
“Reece!” Aiko shouts to me. “Stop trying to tank them. You can’t!”
I can’t? What is she talking about? But I can’t deny that she could be right.
The sound of a high-pitched engine screams through the air and a motorcycle comes flying over the makeshift ramp that caused us to crash earlier. The rider lands and spins the sportbike in a circle, careening into the handful of gunners that are left. I recognize him as the one I hit earlier, Axel or something. More bikes follow behind him, launching over the ramp.
Oh geez…
“Fall back!” Val Helena cries, helping Gilly off the ground. “Get to the buggy!”
I watch with morbid fascination as the bikers circle the gunmen like sharks and gun them down where they stand.
Holy crap…
“Reece, come on!” Aiko shouts, running past me. “Move or we’re next!”
I take off after her as the air fills with the chaotic din of bike engines revving at full throttle. We reach the buggy and to my chagrin they already have us cut off, hemming us inside a much larger circle, but one that is clearly no less deadly.
“What do we do?” Gilly says, looking at me with quivering eyes.
“Lennox in a lurch…” Lexi says, her voice reverberating through her helmet. “I never should have taken that bloody deal. I knew it would end up like this.”
“It’s not over yet,” Rembrandt says, casually stowing his pistols.
The guy, Axel, rounds his bike and stops in the center of the circle and then leans it on the kickstand. As he dismounts, his helmet dissolves, revealing the face of a very angry black dude with a red mohawk and full black beard. He’s built like a tank, his huge pecs barely contained in the white undershirt beneath his black leather jacket.
A thick length of metal pipe materializes in his hand as he steps forward. “Where’s the bloody punter that wiped me.”
His red-tinted eyes scan us until they finally land on me.
He points the pipe. “There you are…”
Oh crap…
As he steps towards me I pull up his stats.
Name: Axel
Sex: Male
Race: Cyborg
Class: Brawler
Level: 85
Guild: New London
I swallow when I see the race. In a place with advanced cybernetics, that can’t be a good thing—at least not for me. I glance at Gilly and she shakes her head at me nervously.
Screw it. Cyborg or not, I’m not going out like some little punk.
I’ve killed LMs single handedly. Impressed a goddess.
I’m Kono-Zemsu!
I step forward to meet him and grimace when I notice he’s a good foot taller than me up close.
“Yeah, I’m the guy that wiped you,” I say with as much bravado as I can muster. If this guy is the ego type, then maybe I can turn it to our advantage, make him lose his cool. “You should learn how to ride better.”
His nostrils flare and his eyes widen.
Whoa…that did it.
A few of his teammates burst into shocked laughter and Axel turns to them with hostility. “Shut it, slags!”
He then turns back to me with rage in his glowing red eyes. “I was just going to have the satisfaction of Clean killing you,” he says. “But I’m going to have to True Kill you for that one, mate…”
My stomach dips when he says it and I tense, preparing to hit him with a Charge Strike.
He takes another step forward and Rembrandt swoops in next to me, drawing an arm across my chest.
“Easy, mates,” he says, standing between us. “If you want an honor kill, Axel, I suggest you take another look at his class and guild. He’s cleared the Nasgar world boss.”
“That means jack all!” Axel shouts, spittle flying from his mouth. “In fact, I’m sure it means he’s right piss at PvP.” The big biker then stares at me. “Am I right?”
“I’m willing to bet we’d all like the answer to that one, mate,” Rembrandt says. “Care to take a wager?”
“Look, right,” he says, turning to Rembrandt. “You can piss off till I’m ready to deal wit...”
He stops mid-sentence as he stares at Rembrandt, his eyes widening as if seeing him for the first time. He takes a step back. “What are you doing here?”
“Angela hired me to escort this package of hers with Lexi,” Rembrandt says, nodding towards the buggy and crates. “I picked these other lot up in Nasgar as backup. So if you want to mess with my mate here, you’ll not only be drawing blood with the Young Lords, you’ll be making a personal attack against me.”
The biker’s eyes shift back and forth in the reflection of Rembrandt’s mirror shades.
“Yo, Lord Rembrandt,” someone shouts from the crowd. “We was just after the ferals. No idea they was yours.”
“Yeah, no disrespect, mate.”
“I said shut it!” Axel screams again, looking back over his shoulder at his crew. He glares at them for a few seconds and then turns back to Rembrandt. “Just this once, yeah? And only because I don’t want a beef with Angela. Not because it’s you.”
Rembrandt grins at him. “Smart man.”
Axel gives me a lingering glare before sending a PM.
Axel: I’ll remember you, Reece. You’ll pay the price for this disrespect.
He then shouts to his crew. “Let’s roll out!”
He turns and stalks away towards his bike.
The other bikers rev their engines and peel away through the junk yard, leaving us nearly as quickly as they came. As they do so, I notice another group of players, sneaking from out of the piles of scrap and gathering around the fallen gunners we just killed. At first I think they might be looting them, but a green glow emerges and I see HP bars flash into existence, sitting on 10%.
“What’s going on over there?” Gilly says, stepping next to me.
“The Spawn Killers,” Rembrandt says. “Come to revive their dead.”
“So they have Raise here?” she asks.
“Not exactly the same. Less potent, but more prevalent. You can even pay to have an Auto-doc come find your corpse and revive you automatically if you can afford it.” Rembrandt smirks. “That’s why they call it a Clean Kill. Easily remedied.”
Clean kill…? No wonder these people are so quick to kill one another. If they can Raise this easily, it’s almost like having a respawn—like being back in the actual game again. But I’m not sure if that makes me feel better about it…or worse.
“Think they’ll attack us again?” Val Helena asks folding her massive arms across her chest.
“Not likely,” Lexi says, finally removing her helmet and talking with her normal voice again. “Not after they saw the Bosozoku clear out. Spawn Killers are much lower on the totem pole than them. Plus, they’ll have lots of revs to do now thanks to Lord Rembrandt here.” She nudges the cyberpunker with a grin. “That was bloody brilliant what you did, by the way. The bluffing, I mean. You think just as fast as you shoot.”
Rembrandt chuckles. “So we still have a deal? You going to take us to Angela?”
“You already told King Axel that you were working for us, so I’ve got no bloody choice now, do I?” Lexi says with her hands on her hips, but still wearing a smile. “Right pushy you are. But I still want my 200k quid.”
That one actually makes Rembrandt laugh, but I’m more focused on what she said.
‘King’ Axel? Crap, who have I gone and pissed off now?
Lexi then smiles up at Val Helena. “Come on, lovely. I need your muscles again. Flip her gently though, please.”
As Lexi walks away with Val Helena I shake my head. Bosozoku? Spawn Killers? Auto-revs? Clean kills?
“This place is ins
ane,” I say, my mind unable to contain the words shooting though my brain.
Rembrandt merely leans his head back and laughs.
“Welcome to New London, mate.”
Chapter 12: New London
Val Helena flips the buggy over by first making it lighter by removing the crates from within the roll cage. Once she does, we then all pitch in, bouncing the contraption back onto its six wheels before loading it back up again, Lexi checking the condition of the merchandise inside by inspecting each crate before we stow it.
I glance over her shoulder as she cracks open one of the larger ones. At the bottom of the crate is a huge ball of tightly wrapped cloths, which I assume are encasing a large cluster of roots. Above it is what looks like a bonsai tree with an aged, gnarled trunk, twisted to one side and thick wide-spread branches with bright green leaves that give off a faint glow. I understand now why the box is so heavy; the tree takes up nearly the full cubic yard of space within it.
It takes me back to my fight with the Witch Spider in that decrepit forest of Silken Hollow. The horse-sized spider was living in the husk of a dead mana tree, if I recall, and that thing was huge. If the tree before me is a sapling, then the one back there must have been hundreds of years old.
“Why can’t you just store these in your inventory?” Gilly asks.
“Wish I could,” Lexi says, slamming down the lid of the crate. “I’d have brought a million of them back with me then. But they’re not items so they don’t work with your inventory. Technically they’re part of the landscape or whatever. Be like storing a castle or a building. But that’s what makes them so valuable too. You have to physically cross the wild to get your hands on them.”
“Sounds like a good business,” I say.
“Won’t know till I sell ‘em,” Lexi says with a grin. “But I hope so.”
We load up the last crate and then embark on the buggy as before, climbing onto the sides. Lexi drives away far more slowly this time, cautiously eyeing the Spawn Killers that gawk at us from the piles of twisted junk as we cruise by.
After a couple of minutes we transition from the junk yard area onto actual paved streets. The night is ending and the sky is light with the subtle hues of pre-dawn. Beat-up, low-rise buildings and graffiti-sprayed warehouses line the streets, which seem fairly desolate at the moment with only one or two people on sidewalks or sleeping on the streets themselves. Whether players or NPCs I can’t quite tell.
We traverse a few blocks with more of the same until in the distance a huge city center dominates the skyline with a glaring neon glow. A massive pyramid-like structure rises in the center, looking like a mountain—literally. I can’t tell how tall it is, but judging by the forest of hologram-plastered skyscrapers that line its base, it has to be close to a mile high. The sight of it fills me with wonder. I’ve poked my head inside modern-day shards a few times back in Citadel, but never have I witnessed anything like this.
“You see that?” Gilly says, looking equally amazed. “That thing is huge!”
“Lennox tower,” Lexi says. “The crown jewel of Lennox-borough and the heart of New London. That’s where we’re headed.”
* * *
I marvel at the onyx-colored pyramid that looks made of obsidian glass. “Does the AI live in there?”
“Presumably,” Lexi says, rounding a corner. “He keeps a damn tight grip on security within Lennox-borough and especially the tower. That’s why it’s relatively safe there. You start a fight in the city center and you’d better be prepared to take out the responding security drones that come with it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I say with a laugh and pray we don’t find ourselves in that situation.
As we get closer to the center, the buildings around us improve. Brown stone structures with barred windows transition into ritzy high-rises and boutique shopping malls. Streetlights, now dimming with the oncoming dawn, cast their bright luminescence across sidewalks filled with joggers and delivery people—early-morning risers and late-night stragglers both. The city comes alive with the sounds of street traffic and the visual blare of holographic billboards that encase the buildings above us, advertising everything from designer earrings to buffet restaurants that have my stomach growling like no tomorrow. The air itself is abuzz with a traffic of its own, littered with small drones and larger flying vehicles the size of cars.
I’m enthralled by it all and I’m not the only one. We all look up at our surroundings like kids at an amusement park. It’s surreal. Less than 24 hours ago, I was fighting for my life in an abandoned keep against an army of soldiers and a Giant Legendary Monster.
Now I’m in a wonderland that has my heart and mind racing with endless possibilities.
“Screw Nasgar,” Aiko says as she gawks upwards, her violet eyes reflecting the glow of holograms. “I don’t think I’m ever going back.”
We all laugh at that and for a second I can almost believe her. This place is like a dream.
I clasp Gilly’s hand in mine and remember my promise to her.
Once we settle in, I’m going to take her on the best date ever.
* * *
We avoid the city center directly, and while I’m a bit disappointed at not seeing the huge skyscrapers and Lennox tower up close, I’m sure we’ll get a chance to eventually. We do need to go meet him after all—Lennox that is—the AI that controls the city and the safe zone. Although I’m wondering if it will be as easy as driving up to his front door and knocking…or if maybe I’ll need to find a favor again like I did with Karlis.
I’m assuming the latter, but in this place, who knows? Rembrandt did say the AI’s presence was far more overt than back in the fantasy zones and so far he’s proven just that.
Lennox’s stamp of authority is on everything, from the businesses to the matte-black security vehicles that patrol the streets with ‘Lennox Corp Security’ written on their sides. And every five seconds a new quest or advertisement invades my HUD, compliments of the all-encompassing Lennox.
==Welcome to Lennox-borough. A proud establishment of Lennox Corp==
==New Alert!==
You have received a new quest!
New Quest: Starving!
Embark on a foodie tour of the city to earn a cash back reward!
Objective: Dine at 5 new restaurants in the city
Reward: £1000
==New Alert!==
You have received a new quest!
New Quest: Shop till you drop!
Choose from an endless variety of clothing, weapons, vehicles and more in Lennox-Borough’s amazing shopping district! Free credit available in all Lennox Corp stores!
Objective: Visit the shopping district and purchase 3 items.
Reward: £3000, Shoppers reward card
==New Alert!==
You have received a new quest!
New Quest: Loser!
Your city reputation is 0! This is not good, mate. Your Reputation will determine many things within New London, including item pricing, city access, and security-level clearance. Enhance it through either performing quests, faction ranking or just killing punters to let us all know how much of a badass you are.
Objective: Gain 1 reputation
Reward: £5000, Map of New London
I chuckle bemusedly at the quests. It’s interesting to see the difference in personality between Lennox and Karlis already. Whoever this Lennox is, he’s got a twisted sense of humor, that’s for sure. Although his quests do have me itching to embark on them right away. Especially the foodie tour. For the first time in ages I actually feel that excitement of playing a fun game again—to explore a new world and learn what it has to offer.
After everything we’ve been through in the Fantasy zone, this place is actually shaping up fairly nicely. Although after that welcome we received in the junk yard, perhaps this is more of a façade rather than what New London is truly all about.
Still, I’m enjoying it for now.
Lexi pulls the bugg
y into a parking garage below one of the high-rise buildings. The tires chirp on the smooth concrete as she navigates through the mostly empty lot and then arrives at a set of elevators doors surrounded by a group of people.
I count five in all, but the tallest of them stands out right away: a woman over a foot taller than the rest and built like Val Helena, although perhaps a bit more toned than muscular. Her bronze skin plays peekaboo through a skintight white bodysuit that’s accented with neon-blue lines and cut low at the front and along her shapely thighs. Her hair is fashioned in dark dreadlocks and pulled into a ponytail that hangs to her mid-back. A Chinese dragon tattoo spans across one cheek and in her ears are large gold hoop earrings that could easily double as bracelets. She studies us with gleaming chrome eyes that resemble Lexi’s and when I focus on her, her stats scroll onto my HUD.
Name: Angela
Sex: Female
Race: Android
Class: Medic
Level: 85
Guild: New London
So this is her, the woman we’re supposed to meet…Angela…and she’s an android?
I have no idea what these various different races do or mean, but by the looks of her she has to be the tech equivalent of a Half-Giant like Val Helena. And her class is a healer, I guess. Or however they heal in this zone.
To her right are two more women, marked with the same dragon tattoo on one cheek and dressed in similar skintight bodysuits, but with the addition of half-length black leather jackets about their shoulder. To her other side are a couple of guys wearing a seemingly masculine version of the same outfit: black jackets with the addition of black jeans and they’re also marked with the dragon tattoo.
As we disembark from the buggy, the tall android stalks towards us on impossibly high heels that must be nearly a foot tall. She steps quickly and with purpose, wearing a scowl on her face that creases her otherwise attractive features.
“Queen Angela, these are the—”
