Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (32 page)

"Each recruit is allowed to issue 10 challenges to any other recruit they desire, and each recruit must accept any challenge they receive. All recruits must go through at least five duels before retiring for the night. Any undefeated recruit will be given 100 guild points, any undefeated recruit with more than 10 wins will be given 500 points, and the recruit with the most wins will be given 1000 points.

"To be fair, there are a few additional rules, like you can only challenge the same person multiple times if they agree, purposely losing a duel will lose you points, and you can’t wager more points than a recruit has. Once all of the duels are finished, you may proceed to the lodgings provided and prepare for tomorrow's assessments. There will be a general assessment of your abilities, followed by more specific testing by the major divisions within the guild. Points will be adjusted, depending on how these assessments go.

"Now, I would like to introduce the heads of the guild’s main divisions, and what they are looking for in recruits. As the guild leader and one of the strongest psionics in the Game, I occasionally take apprentices from the guild’s Psionics Corps, more on which will be explained later. Other than that, you will generally report to your direct superior, thus my interaction with the guild at large is fairly limited. Good luck in the assessments.” She then turned, and strode over to stand at the side of the altar.

Mason, who had apparently been near to the front, stepped up.

“I am Mason, the head Arms Master. Each and every member of the Black Rose Guild is expected to be proficient in at least basic combat, and I’m in charge of getting you lot into shape. If you impress me or one of my fellow brothers at arms in tomorrow’s assessments, we will consider taking you as a trainee, or squire, as they are called in this guild. All members are expected to achieve at least an F ranking in tomorrow’s combat assessments. If you have decent combat skills, and no one else wants you, you’ll join our general forces. If you wish to join you must have at least rank D combat abilities right now and achieve an expected combat rank of at least B. More on this later.”

Mason was soon followed by a thin, skeletal hawk-eyed man, who appeared tiny standing next to Mason.

He said in an excited, squeaky voice, “I am Admiral Thrag, one of the two commanders of the Black Rose fleet. The other commander being my wife, Thrasha. You may have heard of the fleet, as it was the one that led the Empire’s Prime fleet on a wild goose chase during the most recent rebellion. Now, it all began on a cold, clear night. Well, I suppose all nights in space are cold and clear, but this one seemed especially cold as my wife had just kicked me out of the bridge for
—
” Elissandra let out a small cough.

Thrag glanced over at her, then said, “Um, right, but that’s a story for another time. Talk to me later if you want to hear the grand and glorious tale of
—
” Another cough. “Um, never mind. Where was I? Right, while the fleet is rather small, with only a single capital ship, my baby, the Scarlet Rose, we are particularly looking for those who are able to distinguish themselves as exceptional, rank B or above fighter pilots and engineers skilled in ship repair, whatever rank. For those who wish to join the fleet as an Ensign, you will be required to undergo a series of additional assessments and rank highly in various other fields. Um, right, I’m done now.”

Next stepped up an odd-looking, squat man with a funny nose Alan couldn’t quite see, wearing what looked to be highly advanced Revenant armor. He intoned in an emotionless voice without inflection, “I am Enigma, quartermaster and lead research officer. You have already been informed if you may join our ranks, and will be receiving additional assessments as they are deemed necessary.”

A number of other guild officers slowly made their way up, introducing themselves, outlining what they were looking for, but Alan slowly began to lose focus. All this organization stuff was rather boring, and if he understood correctly it looked like he’d either end up under Phantom, who was under Enigma, or with the general armed forces. The healers/medics, the psionic corps, the robotic specialists and researchers, none of those really mattered to him, at least not for now. Eve would record it all and give him any important information he missed anyways. Still, he had a few questions for Eve regarding what he heard.

What is it with all these rankings? Like I know some abilities have various rankings, but can overall combat ability or piloting skill be ranked like that?

With the proper tools, certainly. We shall see how it’s done tomorrow. Similar to how other systems categorize things in term of rare to legendary or normal to godlike, the Game simply assigns a rank and associated number. Overall abilities and creatures are similarly ranked, as well as things like ships and even guilds. As you have surely noticed, various enemies with the same levels have far different capabilities. A general rule of thumb used is it takes 100 players of the same rank to take on someone with one higher rank. Thus, 300 rank C soldiers might take on 3 rank B soldiers. This is a generalization of course, as ranks are further assigned numbers in the range of 1 to a bit over two billion (2^31 – 1, to be precise), the lower the number the better. Predecessors and major bosses like space dragons are generally assigned a rank of S, humans a rank from F to A, depending on equipment and ability, and Haxlards a rank of D to S, for example. Once I possess more information, I will be able to also display enemy's ranks in addition to level.

After a few more introductions, Alan and the rest of the recruits were sent out in groups to tour the guild grounds, at least the parts they were allowed into. Alan had Aurora and Sidestep in his group, but stayed at the back, away from them

The tour turned out to be rather simple. First, they were taken to a capsule center aboveground holding hundreds of capsules, where they were told to set their spawn point. Then their guide, an android with limited intelligence, like a city guard NPC that you might find in an ordinary MMORPG, led them directly to an elevator within the keep. It showed them two floors, the training floor, which was a cool sort of futuristic gym, and their temporary rooms in an underground barracks. Those were the only floors they were allowed on.

Then they were led to the Simulation Dome. The building was, as its name suggested, a massive dome. The dome was made up of a huge array of tessellated, silver metal triangles. Surrounding it were huge power generators, filling the air with a low humming sound. Alan stepped into the dome, which was about the size of a football stadium, wondering what he’d find. A message appeared:

Alan glanced around, it looked as if he had stepped into a different world. The dome was split in half by a giant wall. On one side, there was a bright white artificial light, filled with a multitude of steel dueling rings about the size of a small field and stern looking arms masters in brown robes, Mason among them. On the other side there was a dark orange landscape, along with a squadron of Black Rose soldiers fighting what looked to be waves of Haxlardian soldiers.

Sidestep looked back at Alan.

“You think this is cool, newbie? I bet you’ve never been inside a spaceship simulator either, where you’re able to drop into any major space battle at will. I’d like to see your first test run. You’ll probably fire on your allies or break out of formation before the fight even starts. I bet your planet didn’t even have spaceships. What planet did you come from again? Dirt?”

Alan tore his gaze away from the simulated exercise and glared at Sidestep. He knew that he didn’t even know all the rules of dueling, and the accused would probably be better off, but he angrily blurted out, “I challenge Sidestep to a duel.”

Sidestep grinned, and Alan instantly knew this was what Sidestep had wanted.

Shit, Eve, why didn’t you stop me?

I believe this is actually to our advantage. Sidestep likely highly underestimates you. Standard coliseum rules go as follows:
The person who is challenged will choose either the number of points wagered or the rules of the duel from pre-set rule sets. The challenger will decide upon whatever was left undetermined.

Confidently, Sidestep looked over at Alan, and said, “I accept.”

With a flash of light, Alan found himself suddenly standing in a silver ring the size of a kiddy pool next to Sidestep. Right next to them was Mason, who was looking bored, resting his hands and chin on the handle of his war axe.

With a great roar, Mason lifted up the war axe, and cheerily said, “Finally! Actual warriors. Usually recruits dick around for half an hour trying to figure out all the rules and who best to challenge, waiting to challenge someone weak. 50 guild points to both of you for not standing about comparing dick sizes! Now, who challenged whom? Ah, Alan challenged Sidestep. Very well, Sidestep you may determine either the wager or rule-set now.”

Sidestep confidently stated, “Let the wager be 1000 guild points. How you got 5000 points I don’t know, but by the end of tonight I’d be surprised if you had a single point to your name. I’ll have to thank the examiners that felt sorry for your sad planet and wanted to give you a leg up at the start.”

Alan glanced at Sidestep’s guild mark, which showed Sidestep had 1550 guild points, then at the screen that showed up before him.

It listed a number of dueling rule sets, which seemed to consist of an environment, and weapon loadout. Eve highlighted a scenario as Alan was scrolling down the list.

“Open field. Melee vs. ranged, player may designate who uses a ranged weapon and who uses a melee weapon. Standard Recruit Equipment. Duel to First Blood (after shields have been destroyed). All abilities allowed. No technological or psionic limitations.”

Select that one, letting Sidestep be melee and designating yourself as ranged.

Um, are you sure? There seem to be a number of scenarios that are much more in my favor.

We are unsure of Sidestep’s abilities and items. This is more about demonstrating our abilities than winning, although winning is of course important as well. Trust me.

Alright.

Alan selected the scenario, designating himself as ranged, then looked up at Sidestep. A ten-second countdown appeared before Alan, as his equipment suddenly changed into light metal power armor with 100 shield energy, and a pair of basic laser pistols, which dealt 20 damage each shot. Eve likewise highlighted Sidestep’s armor, showing that it now had 100 shield energy as well. The blade he now held apparently did 50 damage a strike.

“Alright recruits, good luck. May the best fighter win. Oh, and try to put on a good show,” Mason said.

A good show?
 Alan thought, glancing around. To his surprise, it looked as though every other recruit was now crowding around the metal ring they were in, watching the battle. Eve highlighted Kitana, standing in the back of the crowd, and Aurora, who was at the forefront directly behind Sidestep, calmly analyzing the situation as well. A sudden spike of nerves rushed through Alan, as he looked around at all the onlookers.

Calm,
Eve told him. 
Simply follow my guidance and we have an above 70% chance of winning this fight.

Taking a deep breath, Alan closed his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself standing in an open green field, all signs of the dome and spectators gone. Sidestep stood about 100 yards away. He let the adrenaline course through him, and activated his hypercognition ability, allowing him to experience every second as if it were hundreds. The seconds counting down slowly shifted from 2 to 1 as Alan felt Eve calmly analyzing the environment around them, simulating almost every possible scenario.

Now that Alan was a Machine Lord, he no longer had to simply mimic a blue holographic projection that Eve gave him. Instead, he could incorporate Eve’s projections and calculations within his own mind, allowing him to act as if he were the projection, not simply following it. As each moment passed, Alan watched as the calculations and predictions shifted, as Sidestep begin to favor one leg over the other, demonstrating a high chance he was going to try to approach from Alan’s left, thus Alan should begin by stepping right.

Alan aimed his laser pistols forward, aiming not at where Sidestep stood, but at where he was predicted to be. Eve made two simultaneous calculations, one for if Sidestep moved at the speed using his special blink ability Alan had seen earlier, one for if Sidestep simply ran forwards like a normal being, if his blink ability had been dependent on his armor and thus he wasn’t able to use it. A third projection began, though it was hypothesized to have a lower chance of happening and thus wasn’t prioritized. It predicted that Sidestep would still be able to use the blink ability, but to a more limited degree and shorter teleport distance. Predictions that Sidestep might retreat or step in a direction away from Alan were considered but shortly discarded.

Further projections into the future began, trying to calculate where Alan should fire his subsequent shots, before the first two even began to approach where Sidestep might be. These projections branched from the original two decisions, then expanded, then expanded again exponentially. Alan saw the optimal shots to take, one with each pistol, and the likely next places to fire, even as Eve began to incorporate data as new information came through, making miniscule adjustments as Sidestep shifted his stance. Alan began to feel a slight headache.