-Robert Fayn-

June 12th, today was the today: the grand opening of the Old Fashioned after a week-long rush job of getting everything ready, exploiting everything we could as blackzone managers. I could help but sigh with both relief and frustration as I was watched the old fashioned new staff work on setting up the party space on a cleared out part of the casino floor: the last time I managed to open up a resort in a week was back when I first created the Colada and that was a soft opening, not to mention must of the resort was already made when my Enigma got that expansion. At least this is an excuse to do a soft opening event for the Alexander and the Milky Way, I thought to myself before going to grab a drink from the bar.

With a group of Borolio’s plague clouds nearing Sugar Hills, it was perfect time to invite the sweet tooths along with paying citizens of Sugar Hills and the frequent delvers from the Endless Strips the chance to try out a new resort in Sins of the SteelStar. Was honestly surprising how many of the delvers bought rooms after we put out a discount: you’d think they just move to delving in a different part of Endless Strip, it wasn’t like there was the one Las Vegas for them to pick from. Or you know, just hunker down under all the warding and medinical glyphs of the Endless Strip.

“This is an interesting recipe of an event isn’t it?” asked Sous as he watched me try to maneuver the oversized hand of my SteelStar to drink a cocktail. He wasn’t wrong: almost everyone on the list was coming in a proxy body, real-to-proxy transformation, or simulated body, something about it being a show of prosperity here, especially among all the sentient otherworlders, monsters, entities, and beings. Even Sous was making use of his simulated body from the Hybrid System of Flowers and Neo Draceld Z went out of the way to use one of her faux-system slots to do the same.

“Yeah it’s weird, but I’m not going to complain about it. It’s just how they do things around here,” I replied with a sigh before feeling my SteelStar’s mouth visor part and went to downing the cocktail, scowling internally at how little I could taste with this body.

“To think that SteelStars are capable of consumption. It is such a strange thing for a machine to be able to do.”

“These things have wetware in them, you know that right?”

“I couldn’t tell when I was using mine.”

“Maybe it's just your model is more on the mechanical side of things,” I pointed out as I went back to reading the guest list that Sal had set up as a translucent screen: all the guests were broken down into name, occupation, race, tier, sentient, partial-magi-sentient, or magi-sentient, and what they were coming in. Sprirops Matrix Windings’s Hybrid System of Guards… gah why does this place make use of so many systems, I internally moaned to myself as I kept seeing that Hybrid System pop up with proxy bodies and simulated bodies used by enlightened monsters and entities. Reagan’s pamphlet was light on information about the systems that Ring-1 was using so I didn’t have much info on it outside of the fact that Sprirops Matrix Windings is a World Prison hub for the Cyber universe group and its system makes use of arm guards or something. Not like I was liking to have my Enigma expand toward that World Prison in the place. “You think everything is going to be ready in time?”

“It should be.”

“Indeed the old fashioned new staff are working diligently and the bartender-waiters and chefs have prepared a feast for everyone,” followed up Sal before slipping in a report about our other events. “As for the Alexander and the Milky Way, Mita is working with Umi to make sure that everything goes just fine with the Alexander and the Milky Way’s event is gaining a lot of traction because Louella has invited some of her spellman housemates.”

“Of course Louella would bring in the Goltinium Spellman Nine,” I noted with a sigh. “Let’s just get the show on the road and see how things go.”

Unsurprisingly the bulk of the first attendees to arrive were the Glyirian nobles that Ras invited, pretty much all of them using simulated bodies from the Hybrid System of Flowers, exploiting how surprisingly easy it was to wrap around their real bodies like a physical glamour if need be. They are probably here for more of that testing us for compatibility with that gem of fancies to see if one of us can turn into a stargranted, I noted to myself as I watched as the rest of the attendees slowly filtered in: no Reagan but instead one of his system assistants, Mata. 

“So that is the Mata I’ve been hearing so much about?” asked Mita, walking up with a pair of nobles, eyeing the silvery SteelStar that was physical glamoured to have the enlightened robotics’s head. 

“Yup,” I replied, surprised to see just how many people from Ignae Automata were here at the party, even Eris was attending although I guess it was only natural for her to show up. 

“I wasn’t expecting her to look like a…”

“Spellite?”

“Yeah, a spellite.”

“Well not everyone can be bothered to look like a noble,” I replied as I watched everyone intermingle and enjoy the music and casino games set up. Ras wasn’t wrong about Mata, she did look and feel like a spellite, but then again a lot of the crowd had the same vibe going: expensive proxy bodies, real-to-proxy transformations, and simulated bodies, fancy physical glamors to show off, and devices and ability to ooze ambient mana, some of even going as far as giving off some of the rare types and blends of mana.

“It’s not hard when you know what you are doing.”

“Elegance is not something easily gained,” chimed Neo Draceld Z, making an appearance with a smile in her simulated body, flashing the honeysuckle protruding from her chest and the conjured cupid-shaped bow that came with it. “Although money and blooodlines do help covver it up.”

“Neo Draceld Z…” muttered Ras with a furrowed brow as the two Glyirian nobles shifted awkwardly at the demigoddess of Zethuron’s appearance.

“Please, let’s drop the formalities, this is a party and we need to put on our best face. Just call me Draceld, like how Umi does,” replied Neo Draceld with a calm face and teasing voice. Just Draceld? Well it is way easier to say.

“Fine, Draceld, what do you want? Shouldn’t you be greeting the guests?”

“I havve been, but I can’t just chit-chat-chit-chat with the guests. I neeed to talk with you two also or else people will get a bad impression of us.”

“And why is that?”

“I think Draceld is talking about the demographics,” I interrupted, catching her drift and remembering the pamphlet. “We're in a place where magi-sentients aren’t the majority but in the terms of races, the various kinds of aliens as a group still aren’t in a majority. She can only do so much by just talking to the various groups that are primarily or only made of sentients.”

“Why is it now of all times you’re exceedingly competent?”

“Cause I was a tour guide before becoming a blackzone manager? And Reagan literally gave me a pamphlet on this to read, a long pamphlet.” Seriously Ras, there are more things in life to be competent in other than magic and blackzone management.

“I think you are doing just fine,” chimed Sal supportively as Neo Draceld Z laughed slightly as Ras and me. 

“Thanks,” I telepathically replied back to my system assistant before putting an oversized army green hand on the Glyirian’s shoulder and telling him with a frustrated sigh, “Can we not talk about what I’m good and not good at? Dealing with this grand opening is already more than enough for me.”

“That's more than fair enough. Now then, I asssume your Glyirian friends are trying to find a person to be turn into stargranted?” asked Neo Draceld Z to Ras with a coy smile. “Because that gem of fancies that originally meant for me. Meaning it is only compatible with entities, monsters, and spirits, like Sous.”

“Does that mean, I could use it to become a magi-sentient?” interrupted Sous with wide eyes as the two Glyirian Nobles that Ras brought along started to whisper to each other and fiddle with some magical device. Wait, what? You’re kidding me right? There was an easy way for Sous to become a magi-sentient, and it was just sitting around in Ras’s safe for like four months now? I mentally shouted to myself, feeling a rush of emotion from Sous.

“Of course, and it would grant our Enigma access to Witch Synthia, as my father, Zethuron, intended.” 

“Ras, could we let me use the gem of fancies?”

“That does solve a lot of problems… but the fact that the black wyrm of abstraction wants us to enter Witch Synthia complicates things, we’ll have to do some paperwork and get the proper permis-” replied Ras before being suddenly cut short by a loud bang. At first I thought it was just someone fucking up a spell they were doing to impress the others but then there was screaming and more explosions.

What the fuck, you got to be kidding me! I shouted to myself as I saw a group of SteelStars start to storm the venue and indiscriminately fire into the crowd. Seeing the violent crashing of our grand opening, Sous and Ras went conjuring their weapons: a rifle from Sous’s wallflowers and a blade-edged shortbow from Ras’s crimson rain flowers. Not wanting to be left behind and seeing that there were people not protected by the fact they were in proxy bodies or simulated bodies, I readied my burster gauntlets, only to have Neo Draceld Z grap me and say,

“There are tooo many of them, you neeed to secure the frontier core.”

“This is our event though, we should be helping out,” I quickly shot back as the sound of fighting increased as more of the invading SteelStars entered the casino floor and the attendees started to fight back in splintered groups.

“That’s what the brandy cheesecake knights are for, and none of this mattters if the expansion is destroyed and everyone is shunted into the city.”

“Neo Draceld Z is right, there is a tangent of SteelStar Supremacists heading toward the frontier core. The Oak Barrel General is currently engaged with them, but it is only a matter of time before he is defeated,” followed up Sal with a sense of urgency in his voice. I couldn’t help but groan in frustration at all of this: we only made those heavy armoured cannon-hammering wielding knights a few days ago and now we're already going to be forced to repopulate them. Not only that… this area was already going to have its first deaths...

Seeing that Neo Draceld Z was already dead set of being the only one protecting the attendees along with the cheesecake knights, I let Sal guide me, Sous, and Ras back to the frontier core while the Glyirians evacuated to get call for reinforcements if things went even more pear shaped. At least there were some very powerful players and mages in the crowd like Mata so it wasn’t an one-sided slaughter, but since the anti-Vraglixian invaders were all in SteelStars that meant they wouldn’t have any actual casualties like someone decided to pull out some very fucked up magic.

Bolting out the backside of the resort toward the frontier core’s cake-style skyscraper, I could already see the Oak Barrel General throwing up wood-and-metal barriers reinforced with wellspring protection and mountain as its underlings battered away the SteelSTar Supremacists with their cannon-hammers. Mita definitely modeled that cheesecake general after my SteelStar, I noted as I rushed toward the nearest invader: a red SteelStar with a skull covered in holographic flames for a head and generic enough looking rapid fire rifle. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?” scowled the SteelStar as he whipped around and started to take flaming pot shots at me. On instinct, I awkwardly slammed a fist on the ground to activate Crash Barrier: as soon as the crystalline wall formed it started to get torn through by flaming gunfire. This was good at all, these psychos were likely in rank 2 or 3 SteelStars and I was using a rank 1 level 3 SteelStar: Sous and Ras weren’t in much better positions with their low level simulated bodies. They couldn’t even dispel them to make use of their real bodies because both of them opted for the easier option of keeping their actual body in one of the towers created by the Hybrid System of Flowers.

“Getting rid of you,” I shot back, flinging myself from out of the cover to create another Crash Barrier, this time at an angle to slam into it. I could tell it did barely any damage to him but it threw off his center of balance and sent him teetering into the path of a cheesecake knight’s attack. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sous and Ras doing similar tactics and trying to covering fire to let our Enigma’s monsters maneuver into better positions.

“Well too bad scumient-lover,” laughed another one of the SteelStar Supremacist, appearing out of the blue in a black model SteelStar and slamming a scythe into my side before I could activate my Mana Buckler. Feeling lancing pain, I saw my proxy pod and gear console freak out and start to throw up warnings as black manas were flooded into my system. What the hell?! Don’t these psychos know those sort of attacks are illegal to use against other players? I mentally shouted in pain before realizing of course they knew: these guys were obviously criminals that were using stuff like unlicensed proxy pods to mask their activities from the authorities of the Game System and wherever they’re from.

Bearing through the pain and making sure my surcia-curcumedioia side didn’t get aggravated enough that I was forcibly unplugged, I grabbed the black SteelStar and tossed him and myself into the path of the Oak Barrel General. With a single swing, likely orchestrated by Sal, the general swung down its oversized cannon-hammer and slammed the SteelStar into the ground before detonating the payload. Struggling back up to my feet and feeling how little integrity my Technologia of Holts SteelStar had left, I saw that the other SteelStar Supremacist were already starting to back away after seeing one of their own get obliterated and hearing the sounds of Glyirian reinforcements. 

“Are you okay?” shouted Ras, running over to see how badly damaged my SteelStar was.

“Yeah, just got hit by an illegal ability. Nothing major though,” I replied with a wince, feeling the damage done both to my SteelStar and my actual body.

“What scum would do something like that?”

“The type that can get away without, not every nation or world actually has stuff to track or stop this sort of stuff-” Before I could continue talking, another wave of pain through my mandalas and somehow also my system slots. It took me a second to realize what happened: they somehow managed to draw Neo Draceld Z’s real body through her simulated one and killed her. “Fucking hell! They got Draceld!”

“Yeah, they did… and it hurt,” suddenly commented Neo Draceld Z from the back of my head. Looking over to Ras I saw his own look of shock: clearly I wasn’t the only person hearing this.

“What the hell? You’re dead, how are you talking?”

“I may be a magi-sentient, but I am also a monster, an entity, and a spirit with multiple contracts and dominations on me. It isn’t easy to true death me… Although evven though my mandalas are set up for this… I’ll need to recuperate some before I can revvivve myself.”

“So you’re safe, sort of. I don’t know if I should be happy, sad, or freaked out right now.”

“Be pisssed for me please.”