“Pai, can I fight raptors before the deadline?”

“Yes, by special request. And yes, you will earn more credits.”

He glanced at his watch. Half past eight, leaving an hour and a half before the sporting goods store would open. That’s just enough time to pack and decide what to do with his system credits. “Can you tell me how I can make a special request?”

“I can send the request when you want. It will take about half an hour to relay the request and an hour to create the containment field in an isolated location and open the portal.”

“Good. Do it."

“Request initiated,” Pai confirmed.

Henry grabbed his backpack off the hook at the back of the front door and emptied it of the semblances of his old life: office security badge, lanyard, mints, tissue paper, glasses cleaner, and some old receipts.

Life had changed a lot since covid and now it changed even more. He wasn’t sure what would happen after the 24-hour limit, but sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day and analyzing medical risks felt like someone else’s life now.

He kept the cash he found and added to it while he went around the apartment to gather essential survival supplies. He ended up with painkillers, antibiotic ointment, antiseptic wipes, rubbing alcohol, bandages, cloth tapes, and latex gloves, along with around six hundred dollars.

I guess it runs in the family. He remembered helping with his grandma’s estate once she passed and finding thousands of dollars stashed in various locations. In drawers, between clothing, underneath sofa cushions, and so on. Grandma perceived any place out of direct line of sight as a good place to stuff some cash.

It did not escape his notice that the set of items he packed all dealt with getting hurt. He hoped it represented less a sign of things to come and more a reflection of the lack of weapons in his day-to-day life as an actuary. He needed guns. Lots of guns, as the great John Wick said.

“What kind of stuff can I get from the system? Show me the [Market Listings] while I brush my teeth." A huge list of items appeared in his vision, filling it vertically. He found that tilting his head up or down would initiate scrolling. And focusing on a particular item causes a second screen to pop up with more details.

“While it may seem overwhelming at first, you have many options to filter, sort, and summarize. Should I provide a summarized view of what you could purchase with 10 credits?”

“Yes, please,” he affirmed.

Type	Category	Subcategory	Items
Human	Weapon	Gun	7
Human	Weapon	Grenade	3
Human	Weapon	Melee	5
Human	Armor	Body	4
Human	Armor	Shield	2
Plasma	Weapon	Melee	3*
Plasma	Armor	Shield	1*
Plasma	Armor	Body	1*
Human	Medical	Treatment	2
Chemical	Medical	Treatment	2
Chemical	Drug	Stim	10
Advanced	Gear	Utility	15

Henry focused on “Human : Weapon : Gun” and saw item listings for items like pistol (3 points), assault rifle (4 points), rocket launcher (5 points), and so on. The “plasma” items all had an asterisk saying that they require a “Plasma Pack, Disrupter Class I (10 points)”.

He finished brushing his teeth and paused. Henry had been holding in his pee all morning, but after a whole cup of coffee, the urge to urinate had become unbearable. He still hasn’t figured out if she could see, and if she did, how to tell her politely to “close” her eyes and ears. 

He acted nonchalant and went through the motions slowly, allowing her to “leave” the room, if she could or wanted to do. He tried to convince himself that there was no one there and everything was completely normal.

If she snickers, I’ll just die. Literally.

He survived.

Henry went to his closet and grabbed what he called his Habitat For Humanity outfit. It consisted of an old pair of jeans and a ratty t-shirt that he wore when volunteering to build houses. More importantly, depending on how much protection the project called for, he would include goggles, earplugs, cut-resistant gloves & arm sleeves, or knee & elbow pads.

Fighting raptors definitely qualified as “protection needed”. He left the goggles though, reasoning that, in a fight, perception had more value than protection. His goggles always fogged up, narrowing his field of vision.

“Um, what does ‘human’ type mean? And what’s a plasma pack?” he asked, ready to engage with Pai again.

“Human-type weapons are similar to what exists in the world right now. The Overseer makes them available through the market because not all Defenders have easy access to those items." She paused. “Why don't you put on your socks right now, Henry?”

“Um, yes, I was about to do that." Henry puzzled over her suggestion, curiosity showing on his face. He figured she had a reason for it, though. Thus far, she had responded to his questions or offered information about the Defender’s Protocol but had never established conversation topics on her own.

“The plasma pack contains the technology and stored energy that powers plasma weapons and armor,” Pai continued. “Crucially, plasma weapons can disrupt Horde plasma shields.”

“What?! I’m fighting raptors with force fields?" Henry shouted. His body froze in a weird position, caught between jumping up and slumping down.

“Yes, they have Class I shielding, not like the stuff you see in movies. A plasma disruption can take it down with one hit. And even a regular human pistol can destroy it in seven to ten hits,” Pai reassured him.

“You keep saying it’s not as bad as the movies, but raptors with shields sound fucking scary.”

“I know. I’m sorry for not telling you this at first. I didn’t want to overwhelm you back then.”

“I-I don’t know if I can do this,” Henry cried in distress. “I thought I just needed to get a gun and pretend to shoot targets at a shooting range. Hitting them a couple of times before they reach me seemed doable. But now you’re telling me they can just shrug it off ten times. I mean, what’s next? They shoot lasers out of their eyes?”

He almost started reciting again the invocation against fear but realized that, in the long run, it would consume too much time. And the initial wave has not even begun, he thought. I cannot rely on reactively managing fear.

He needed a complete change in mindset. “I need to treat this as a video game,” he declared. “Quests and objectives. Buy gear and fight enemies. No fear. No emotions. Just missions and stages.”

With this perspective in mind, he browsed the market listings to get a general sense of the build paths. Like he would in a video game.

The human-weapons path had a lot of interchangeable modifications for different ranged options. Some of them looked advanced enough that they probably did not exist outside of secret government research labs. Unfortunately, he could not afford those cutting-edge guns. As for the basic guns, he would rather spend cash to get them in the real world and not waste precious system credits.

The other weapon-based tech tree concentrated on providing or removing plasma shielding. Its upgrade path focused on plasma pack power and compactness. And unlike human weapons, with their bullets and grenades, plasma weapons mostly delivered their payload through close contact.

Two other upgrade sets contained internal and external augmentations. However, they all cost much more than ten credits. Expensive enough that he cannot afford them in tackling the first invasion. But the future prospects of injecting nanobots and healing like Wolverine in X-Men or getting into a robotic suit like in Ripley did in Aliens excited him.

There were also two sets of what he considered as consumables. One for performance enhancement and one for medical treatment. For two credits each, he can temporarily boost various physical and mental attributes. But without knowing the extensiveness of credits, he would not want to waste them on temporary effects.

As for medical treatment, he had already packed a lot of the cheaper ones based on human technology. And, unfortunately, the cool-sounding stuff, like “Wound Seal”, was somewhat out of reach at exactly ten credits.

The last and biggest category consisted of miscellaneous gear. He hoped that his trip to the sporting goods store would provide enough substitutes to avoid spending any system credits on these items.

In role-playing games, Henry always min-maxed his character, trying to use the least amount of resources to get the most effect. However, most times, he just tweaked what other more experienced players created. So even though he had a good idea of his starting gear, he still wanted to check with Pai.

“Hey Pai, can you recommend what gear I should purchase?” he asked.

“It is not my role to decide for you how you should grow into a Defender. However, if you wish to discuss your thoughts, I may point out any logical fallacies or additional information to consider.”

“Understood. My overall goal is to spend credits efficiently and get gear I can rely on long term. In addition, I’m going to buy as much as I can with U.S. dollars, including trying to get a gun.”

Henry paused to see if Pai had anything to add. Hearing none, he continued, “Another goal–maybe not goal–more of a requirement, is to survive.”

Pai said, “A given. But good to state explicitly and remember.”

“Yes, so the problem with guns is that I cannot reliably shoot down all raptors before they come into range of hurting me. At least, I don’t think I can, since I have not actually used full automatic guns before. A life-or-death situation seems like a bad place to start.”

“While we have already requested a monster portal, the containment field will stay in place for several hours. So you will have time to become familiar with any weapons,” Pai said.

“True, but it goes back to efficiency. I’d hate to spend credits on stuff that I can theoretically get in the real world, especially on consumables like bullets. Just curious, how many shots from an M16 do you need to remove a Class I shielding?”

“Two to three, depending on range and angle,” Pai answered.

“Oh. That actually sounds doable. I didn’t realize rifles were so much more powerful than pistols. What about shotguns?”

“At long distances, still two to three. But within range, probably one is enough.”

“Still, I’m not trying to speed run through the invasion. I much rather go for a no-hit run with massive defense,” Henry said, alluding to the styles of play skilled gamers have challenged themselves with.

“Survival first and foremost.”

“Exactly. And I can’t use these long guns if I’m carrying a shield. That’s kind of what I’m leaning towards. I can still use the shield to block, even without the plasma capabilities, right?”

“Yes, it still functions as a big slab of metal,” Pai confirmed.

“Right. That’s a good way of putting it.”

“And raptors do not have enough bite force to chew through metal.”

“Oh. Um, what about a human arm?”

“They can easily chew through human forearm bones. They could do it with a femur too, like a hyena could. But it would not be like the movies in which a limb just flies off when bitten.”

“Gotcha. First, painful gnawing, then the arm comes off. Not sure this makes it better. Anyway, so I buy the shield, try to buy a gun with cash, and save up for the plasma pack for the second stage. How does that sound?” Henry asked.

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“How many credits do I get from killing a raptor?”

“I cannot say with certainty. The Overseer determines the credit allocations depending on the action’s contribution to the defense of humanity. It also depends on context.”

“Hm, are half credits, or partial credits, possible?”

“No,” Pai said, “the smallest denomination is one whole credit.”

“Okay. So, at a minimum, I’ll either get two credits from killing two raptors, or one credit from clearing a containment field, depending on how contribution gets calculated.” Henry almost added “if I survive” before reminding himself not to think that way. “So I should aim to spend only one credit or no credits in order to get a plasma pack at the second containment field.”

Looking through the system’s market again, he summarized, “One credit can buy either a human armor vest, plasma helmet, or some grenades. The latter does not seem practical though, with how fast I imagine velociraptors move.”

“Good thought.”

“And as for the helmet, I guess I could use this as a substitute,” Henry said as he picked up his bicycle helmet. Mumen Rider, let’s go! Henry thought, referring to the bicycle-riding hero from One Punch Man. “As for the bulletproof vest, I will check at the sporting goods store. Hopefully, they have something similar. But in any case, I do not want to risk not having enough credits for a plasma pack at the second containment field. So I’ll probably just get the plasma shield.”

“Good. Just bring enough other weapons.”

Henry stood at his apartment door with all his gear before putting it all down. In video games, he would explore all options, leaving no side quest unchecked. This meant doing something he, an introvert, would never do in real life.

He had to talk to a neighbor, someone he barely knew.