The sun finishes setting as I pass through the gates, just in the nick of time. Anyone still out there in a few minutes is going to learn a very harsh lesson in time management, and the value of a safe place to spend the night.

Nighttime on Merrow is dangerous. Most monsters are dormant during the day time, but all of them receive a hefty boost to their stats the moment the sun dips out the sky and the starfields take it's place. Some species of monster even gain all-new abilities, just in case you thought you had a strategy down for the pack of monsters you were safely farming.

Depending on the area, being stuck outside under these circumstances is as good as serving yourself on a silver platter to monsters, but it's not an insurmountable task if you know what you're getting into. You can't always rely on ready access to a defended settlement, after all.

The first night is the third and final blow to the launch day player numbers. With so many people trying to grind monsters heedless of the lore and time, especially the bloodthirsty mass of idiots at Taladi's Waystation, the casualty rate for players soars to a staggering height, and the already frustrated players can't help but feel like it's the final straw that broke their backs.

As for me, I also need to log out. There's not much I can do until tomorrow, and frankly, I'm getting tired from the long session. My real body needs a chance to rest as much as Silver Nosster does.

Before I do that, though, I need to find somewhere safe to log out. I was originally planning on leaving my Vessel at one of the city's inns, but now that I've got Geronil's goons gunning for my Crystal Heart, I can't be certain that the 'event' will supersede the protections that staying at an Inn provides.

When a player logs out of the game, their Vessel doesn't just vanish into thin air, only to re-materialise when they log back in. The Vessel persists in an inert state until the player returns to inhabit it once more. This means that your character is vulnerable to any thief, troll and murder happy passerby. Places like inns act as a layer of security, which players can pay for if they don't feel like waking up in the Cathedral's vaults when they log back in the next day.

Public Rest Areas like inns are not infallible, but depending on the Tier of Innkeeper and Inn, the difficulty will increase tremendously. It's not wrong to say that killing a player in a high tier inn is like trying to assassinate a beloved emperor through legions of his bodyguards - don't even bother if you're not willing to pay a hefty price.

With that in mind, I can only think to ask a favour from Henna. I am, ostensibly, her Apprentice after all, so I may as well make use of that status and the promise to provide me assistance in exchange for Geronil's head on a spike.

---

 

When I arrive at Stone Arsenal, the markets have already gone quiet, the travelling merchants absent along with their wares. There's still a few players milling about unsure of what to do with themselves now the City is switching to nighttime operations as the magically powered crystal streetlamps flicker to life in a wave emanating from the direction of City Hall.

I try the shop's door and find it conveniently unlocked still, Henna sat behind the counter with a vial of ink, a quill, a pouch of I'm assuming sand, and a thick leatherbound ledger.

The tinkling of the shop bell causes the serious blacksmith to jolt out of her focused state, cursing.

"Stars Alight, Apprentice. Wasn't expecting you again today," She coughs, placing the quill in the inkwell, "Was there something you needed?"

I smile apologetically, "Ever since I left the Pioneer's Alliance, I've felt like I was being followed. I need a safe place to stay until I can track down whoever hired them and was hoping you could help with that, since you offered."

Henna closes her eyes, "I see. Well, I can put you up with a blanket in the attic for a night, but I'm not running a bed and breakfast here, so one night's all you're getting. I'll ask around in the morning about somewhere more accommodating on your behalf."

I nod, her terms more than reasonable, "I don't mind paying my way, but I don't have a lot to spare - I've got plans of my own."

She shrugs, "We'll just have to wait and see."

 

 

With a tired sigh, Henna places her ledger back on the countertop, "Follow."

Henna leads me above the shop into a small common area with sparse furniture and a scattering of extra merchandise in various states of completion or disrepair. Besides a pair of wooden stools, there is nothing to indicate that this is where someone lives and not just another storeroom for the shop below. It reminds me of a digression from Henna's Story, earlier, but I keep my thoughts to myself.

In a corner is a rickety-looking ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling, a light breeze wafts through the opening, promising a chilly rest for my Vessel. Recalling the slight disrepair of Stone Arsenal's exterior, I connect the dots quickly. Unless Henna was willing to sacrifice her bedroom - Not going to happen - I can see why staying here long-term is an impossibility. While high-class accommodations are exceptionally safe, the worst accommodations can have negative effects on you - as part of the Body Adaptability System.

All that being said, it's time I logged out.

---

 

Room 12, Gaming Sanctuary

The exfiltration process is never a pleasant one. It's like having full-body pins and needles for a minute or two, followed by an intense stiffness. Such is the price one pays for splitting mind from body then reuniting them hours later.

One of the Gaming Sanctuary's staff members enters the booth part-way through the recovery period, "Welcome back from the digital beyond, Mr Ivanovic. Let's get you reoriented with Reality."

The hatch pops open, and with their assistance, I detach myself from the capsule. Getting out of it is a little trickier, thanks to this model's design, but I manage. Slowly stretching my limbs and spine, feeling returns into my extremities but the stiffness lingers.

When I'm done the short employee nods, "Alright, as part of Gaming Sanctuary's legal responsibilities and our duty of care to customers, we are obligated to perform a rudimentary psychological and physical check for first-time users and at regular intervals - non-invasive, don't worry."

"Yeah, I understand," I agree, slowly rolling my neck around back and forth.

The man pulls out a dog-eared little handbook from his back pocket, flips through a few pages and recites a series of questions, "Do you feel any pain or discomfort, not within expectations?"

"No."

"Do you feel any disconnect with your body or the world around you? Examples include feeling like a spectator."

"No."

The questions continue like that and conclude with a simple test of my coordination, vision and reflexes. All in all, nothing unusual - businesses and governments have to cover their asses and make sure that the person who goes into VR comes out sane and as healthy as can be considered possible. Private capsule ownership licenses are far more uppity about who exactly is allowed to qualify in comparison, especially since government bodies aren't empowered to perform regular inspections like they are with publically available capsules - not for lack of trying by lobbyists, mind you.

Satisfied, the short employee rams the handbook back in his pocket and claps his hands, turning them into joint fingerguns, "By the power invested in me by blah blah blah, I declare you not a zombie."

He grins, "So, how was your first dive into a new world of entertainment?"

I shrug, wincing from pain, "Productive. Still gonna need to take some time to mentally process everything."

The unnamed employee nods sagely, "Yeah, I get what you mean. It's a real trip and a half. Especially for high-end games that go in for the 1:1 recreation of the world - or try to. But I'll leave the philosophy to someone who gives a crap; Do you need help getting to a taxi? The first couple weeks are rough."

I consider it, before shaking my head, "Need to keep my expenses down. My metro bus pass is still good 'till the end of October."

"Fair enough, you should probably get going then," He glances at his watch, "Pretty sure a few of the lines will stop soon."

Thanking him, we exit the room and head back to the main hall, now much more populated than this morning, a healthy buzz of conversation, as well the occasional rage-filled cussing out of some guy on the other end of their voice chat client all give the internet cafe a lively atmosphere. From amongst a trio of loitering employees, one of them sticks their head out as I move along the path between them.

"Hey, Alex right?"

The familiar woman smiles at her co-workers then walks out to greet me, followed a moment later by them, "Mr Big Spender?" The tall guy questions.

She nods, "Yeah, this is him. So, how was Astral Reckoning, huh? Been keeping an eye on the feeds since yesterday, and people are piii-hi-hiiiissed."

Though it takes longer than I care to admit, I remember that this is the hungover teller I spoke to yesterday, Winfrey. Scratching at my chin, I shrug minimally to avoid aggravating my body, "Went better than expected on the whole. Not surprised to hear that people are annoyed though. Controls are hard, but I got three World Firsts despite that."

Winfrey looks surprised, "Three? Nice."

"Mhm. I'm not blind to the problems, but I'm sticking with it through the growing pains. Don't want to fall behind when it's all patched over in the next couple months."

The short girl behind her snorts, "Wow, you're already an apologist? The devs are getting raked over the coals because they didn't do a good job the first go around. Fuck 'em."

"What can I say," I wave farewell and get to walking past them, "I'm a believer in second chances."

---

 

Winfrey

When Alex is out of sight, I jab my elbow back into Sherry's shoulder.

Sherry yelps, "Ow, what the hell?!"

I fix her with my best glare, summoning the spirit of the manager, "Firstly, don't mouth off at the customers. Second, and this is the big one - don't ruin this for me or I will empty your liquor cabinet into the toilet and flush."

Sherry narrows her eyes, "Really? That creep? He barely even made eye contact and even when he did he was looking straight through you."

"He just came out of his first VR session after like 7 hours. 8? Cut him some slack," Henry points out, "Dude was practically limping up the stairs for chrissakes."

Confronted by a highly reasonable argument, Sherry's hamster wheel brain runs into difficulties, her face scrunching up before she gives into logic, "Yeah, yeah. I guess."

I laugh, "Anyway, it's not like that. I just think he's interesting. Guy's cute, but he has the sexual energy of a block of concrete."

Sherry plainly doesn't believe me, pencilled eyebrow arched, "Uh huh. And since when do you ever call people cute?"

"I call you cute in my head all the time, like a yappy little poodle," I smirk, "But for real, I was thinking of giving Astral Reckoning a shot. If he's gotten three world firsts, he's probably a beta tester that stuck around for launch. Can't think of a better tour guide. We're off the day after tomorrow, we could ask him."

"You two might be, but I've got the night shift again," Henry complains.

Sherry pouts, "You can enjoy your date with the creep, pass."

"Buy you a bottle of Killimanjaro if you do~"

Sherry stands to attention, "Sold. But we're getting it tonight when shifts over. You in Henry?"

Henry rubs his hands together eagerly, "Fuck yeah. Who's turn is it to pay for the taxi?"

I think for a moment, "Ollie. But he's studying tonight, so...split?"

Seeing Sherry and Henry both nod, I pump my fist in the air, "Then tonight, we make regrettable decisions!"

""Woo!""

---

 

Alex's Room, Le Chevalier

Finishing one more set of stretches, I take a seat on the edge of my mattress. Feels better already, and despite having technically spent all day asleep, I feel just about ready to pass out. The VR community calls it VLag - like jetlag but for VR games, it's caused by the expedited time players experience in-game which varies from game to game and just the overall stress it places on your mind's ability to process information.

Playing a bunch of games back to back with different time ratios can really mess you up, so it's recommended that you stick to the same one as much as possible to let your mind and body adjust. Broadly speaking, AR has a roughly 2x increase in in-game time compared to Reality, but the exact conversion varies.

Turning on my Pane, I go on a trip through various messageboards, social media outlets and news outlets to gauge the current situation with Astral Reckoning. I can't be too sure how much the existence of at least one other...lets go with 'Inheritor' has changed things from a top-down view.

Fortunately, everything looks about the same. AR's launch numbers are as abysmal as ever, the community is throwing a shitfit...

Nothing out of the ordinary, save for a thread on Gabbygab wondering about who I am and how I managed to get my trade skills up so quickly.

"Who the hell is Silver Nosster??"

Good to see people taking an interest outside the game as well. Hopefully means I've left an impression.

Speaking of which, who the hell is Irikis Falk?

I run through my encounter with him again a few more times, then summarise my observations in a new text document.

• Inheritor, but not to the same extent as me.
• Knew where to find and how to get into Secret Reminiscence - but not how to resolve it despite presumably spending all day trying.
• Somewhat experienced Assassin - unclear if Inherited skill or from other VR games like Valiant Advance
• Arrogant and cocky, immature but can recognise a losing battle.
• At least 10 Agility, probably more.
• Antagonistic and greedy.
• Vindictive

While I should be fine while in the City, for the next few days I should be wary of getting ambushed while outside the walls. With the Monocle equipped, it'll be difficult for him to get within twenty feet of me, but I believe he's petty and self-assured enough to try the moment he thinks I'm vulnerable. I should expect him to make at least one attempt before he gets bored.

The most irritating thing besides his attitude is that he knows I can't catch him if he wants to leave. If I'm to get anything out of him and neutralise the threat to my plans going forward, I need a way to keep him from escaping, and also simply logging out the moment shit hits the fan for him. If I can do that, there are a few options I can explore to interrogate him.

Dealing with him permanently, however, is beyond my means unless I can somehow convince him to work on my behalf, it would get me a useful ally and limit the damage he does. Thinking about it, however, I realise that its unlikely given his personality - he's the sort to go his own way and act out when reality doesn't comply.

I'll sleep on it, see if I can't figure something out after my mind has a chance to rest.

Other than that, I'm fairly pleased by the amount of progress I've made today, though I have yet to actually gain any levels. At the start of Astral Reckoning, Questing is generally more about enriching the skills, relationships and understanding of players, any experience point gains made over the course of its completion being their own reward. Only once a player steps upon The First Path at level 10, will quests start awarding bonus experience. Any experience you would have gained from quests up to that point is also awarded retroactively.

It's a dumb idea if you ask me. Hectic Works eventually gives in and patches it out in the follow-up to the Rise of the Adventurers Update, leading many to question what the point was.

Segueing onto the Main Storyline, while I had planned on having a go at it, I didn't want to turn Meteo City into a game of Dodge The Assassin at Level fucking One. The rough plan was to get the requisites for a starting gear set and the Monocle, get the Monocle, farm Donation Crates and then sell my Appraisal services once players start tackling the local dungeons. Using that as an excuse, I'd be able to identify which players are worth investing in and leverage a discount on my services to get them on my side, tagging along to their runs to gain levels; re-investing the money I gain in the meantime to powerlevel my smithing and carpentry as far as I can take it with the resources available to Meteo City.

Once I'd gotten enough personal power and a network of talented combatants, I'd steamroll through the Main Storyline and cement my name as something to remember.

In broad strokes, I'm still on track for that, but Irikis and the early trigger have definitely complicated matters. I suppose I could have just declined the quest or delayed it. I guess I just don't know how to back down from a challenge, for which I mostly blame Jannis' influence and my own stubborn nature.

I think tomorrow, I need to find the Fighter Mentor a little earlier than projected.