Undisclosed Location

Time Until First Wave: 2 Years, 9 Months, 17 Days

"What the hell are you drawing? Is that an ant?!"

"It's a giant ant, we're trying to design a video game and you're gonna need bad guys for the players to fight, keep up Christopher."

"How was I supposed to make that distinction with a drawing, Cassie?"

"Hmm… you're right, I should probably put a person next to it for scale," she said, tapping her pencil against her lips before looking over at Christopher. While she was buckled in, she was sitting with her legs crossed and a drawing pad in her lap. Much like she had been every few days, she was accompanying her friend as he searched every single computer shop he could find for anything that might at least get things moving for the game. "So still out of luck?"

"No, clearly it's just invis- sorry, sorry… I shouldn't take my unrealistic expectations out on you," Christopher sighed, leaning back into the driver's seat of his beat up car. "We must have checked every small parts shop in the tri-county area at this point… Maybe Cal and Jeff were right to bail…"

"What if we checked other types of resale shops?"

"Come on Cassie, you know as well as I do we aren't going to find a server at a Good Will," he replied, turning and reaching into the backseat for the large map he had drawn all over. "Maybe if we headed out to Greenville… though that's a bit of a drive."

"If you're driving to Greenville then you can drop me off first, I've got things to do and don't want to be on the road until midnight," Cassie said, her nose scrunching.

"Aw don't be like that… we can put on one of those romantasy audiobooks you like," Christopher said with a coy grin, folding the map back up and shoving it into the backseat. Cassie objected by smacking him on the head with her drawing pad in the moment he had turned around.

"I am not listening to one of those with you," she said, her cheeks burning as Christopher let out a bark of a laugh.

"Want me to swing through a drive-thru before I drop you off then or should I wait until after?" he asked, cranking the A/C up before throwing the car into reverse.

"Nah, just bring me home, my Auntie dropped off some of her curry goat last night and I want to finish off those leftovers," she said, causing Christopher to scrunch up his nose. Cassie of course saw this and chuckled. "You need some spice in your life and your food."

"The spice is fine, I just don't get why you couldn't make it with chicken instead," he complained as he continued to drive.

"Have you ever even tried goat? Do you have the palate of a five year old?"

"Six thank you very much."

Cassie rolled her eyes as she flipped the page on her sketch pad and started to doodle. "I wonder what we would do if your little procedural system works and someone gets some sort of food based powers…"

"Food based?" Christopher asked, raising his brow.

"Yeah, like, the whole idea for your system is that anything that could be a power will be an option and it will mix and match right? So what if the system decides to give someone the power to shoot curry out of their hands… or… maybe their mouth, actually scratch that… no one needs the vomit vibes," Cassie said, her hand moving as she sketched along with her own narration.

"Is this your way of saying you want your character to have food powers when we eventually do get to a beta testing stage?"

"Oh lord no," she replied, shaking her head quickly. "I was gonna request something, like, music-related. Let me have a mermaid siren sort of vibe."

"You want to make sailors crash their ships against the rocks of a cliff?"

"In real life? Not since I was a little girl. But in a game? Hey, it could be an effective way to beat up some bad guys," Cassie shrugged. Christopher was just about to agree with her when his phone started to ring.

He reached into the center console and pulled out the little flip phone. As he opened it, Cassie pointed for him to put it on speaker and while he wasn't sure why, he obliged.

"Hello?"

"Hey there, Mr. Kirkman, right?"

"Uh, just Christopher's fine."

"Ah, right, sorry. This is Theo over at Midtown Electronics in Madison, you stopped by the shop a few days ago looking for some budget friendly server equipment, right?" the voice on the phone asked and Christopher had to resist the urge to slam on the brakes. Instead, he turned on his blinker and quickly pulled off into the first parking lot he could find.

"Yes I was! Did you happen to find something?" he asked as he parked the car and turned for the map. He quickly unfurled it, trying to get it oriented as he tried to remember where Madison was, cursing himself for not finally giving in and buying a GPS. Though it wasn't like he exactly had a lot of disposable income to throw around.

"Well… it's certainly something. I was taking some stuff out round to the dumpster here and found a big box left by the back door where I tell folks they can drop off their old electronics for disposal and all that. I can't exactly promise it's quite what you're looking for, especially since it doesn't look like any of the inputs on this thing are standard. I don't really got the time to figure this thing out and it's taking up a whole lotta space right now," Theo explained, a slight bit of static coming through on the line. "If you come and haul it away, I won't even charge yah for it and who knows, you might be able to pop it open and scavenge it for parts. Like I said though, I don't think I've ever seen any of the branding or connectors that's marked on it before, I think it might be something foreign, so it might not be exactly reliable or easy to work with if you do decide to try and do anything with it."

"Haul it? How big are we talking about?"

"Oh you'll need at least a pickup truck. I can probably put the crate back together around it to make it easier to transport. I kinda pried the thing open with a crowbar but all the sides would be fine if I nailed them all back down."

"I can make that work, how late are you going to be open?" Christopher asked, finding Madison on his map and tracing his finger along the roads. It would probably take him about 45 minutes to get over there and it was barely past six. Still, it was better to ask.

"I live right upstairs so I got nowhere to be and I kinda want to get this thing out of here so it's not just sitting out back of the shop overnight," Theo responded. "How far out are you though? I was planning on running across the street for some food but don't want to leave the shop if you'd be here soon."

"Give me about an hour and I'll be there, thanks a ton Theo." Christopher waited for Theo to say his goodbye before hanging up, practically bouncing in his seat as he traced the roads they'd need to take with his finger. He looked over at Cassie, his eyes lighting up hopefully. "So uh… think I can borrow your dad's truck for a few hours?"

"You realize he's just trying to use you to haul his trash away for free… right?"

"One man's trash could be this man's treasure," he replied with a shrug. Cassie only shook her head.

"Fine, let me call him really quick and ask… I guess my leftovers are gonna have to wait till we get back," she said, pulling her phone out. "Just don't expect me to help you do any of the lifting and if this turns out to just be trash, I am so gonna tell you that I told you so."

"Lighten up Cassie, what's the worst that can happen?"

Wildcard Assembly's Squad Base,

Multiple Locations

Current Phase Points:

98295

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

10

End of Phase Two: 27

D:09H:31M:08S

"I mean, really what's the worst that'll happen? You just get a few bad augmentation options?"

"Look I won't say that I haven't considered using one on Personal Gravity Laws, but I wanted to wait until I absorbed the books I bought, in case I have an ability evolve or I have a sudden bit of inspiration for something new. Hell, maybe I'll think of a new heavy hitter and I might want to add a little augmentation to it," I explained.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"See that just sounds irresponsible," Pinky shot back. "Why would you upgrade something that you haven't already tested in the field? You could end up with an augmentation that's totally useless to you."

"She's got a point Loophole," Jon called over to us as we walked into the main lounge area.

Pinky and I had entered our squad base through a discrete entrance in a small alley behind a party store. I had never even heard of the town that Pinky had led me through after we decided not to pursue The Colony's insects and Pinky, as much as she said she didn't want to know what my powers were until she beat me in a fight, couldn't stop herself from peppering me with questions.

While I would still have to step back outside in order for Duskbreaker to transport me back across the country before I could use the exits back to my Safe House or to Central Park, I had been planning on helping Pinky out on the west coast for the rest of the day so it really didn't matter too much for the time being.

"Look, let me just absorb the books and then I'll see, hell my current frontrunner for an Augmentation is probably Float Like a Butterfly," I explained as I walked down and dropped into one of the seats, opening my B.E.L.T. in the process. "Did Freak and Swan find our token?"

"Yup, spawned only a few blocks away from where Swan had been waiting. Freak scooped it up and then decided to go and see if he could spot any more of the Forges. Swansong's out doing her healing thing so we can just do a big token drop later in the day assuming you guys keep scooping them up today," Jon explained, leaning back in his chair and popping a chip in his mouth. I finally realized he had his feet up on his counter and there was a window that was obscured by a few others that was clearly playing something.

"Are you watching a movie in there?"

"Nah, the news. The channel that airs that Grigsby dude's Frontline America show has apparently become Wildcard Assembly super fans," he said, chips still in his mouth. "They've been doing "Team Highlights" all morning and have had "experts" on talking about you guys and breaking down the pangolin fight every damn way they can. Would be cool if I could go on there and really school them but oh well."

"They're doing news coverage? I wonder if we could-"

"Nuh uh Loophole," Jon shook his head. "I ain't gonna be the reason you procrastinate on getting the rest of the Level 20 stuff done. Come on, absorb your books already and let's augment an ability."

"Right, right…" I said, briefly wondering if maybe I had ADHD before dismissing the thought as just another distraction. "Books first."

I went through my list of books, going one by one and absorbing each of the six books I had bought. While I could have gone about it a bit slower, absorbing them one at a time and trying to let myself sit with each bit of knowledge, I knew how easily that could have gotten me sidetracked for every bit of time we had until the next token spawned. So I let myself become awash with new knowledge, first Inertia Physics and Reverberation, then knowledge on Electrical Currents. With those out of the way, I absorbed the Level 3 prerequisite I had bought before finally taking in the Level 6 Rules of Engagement book. Even though I still had one more to absorb, I did briefly get distracted as a new window opened.

"New Achievement! Speed Reader. You have absorbed five knowledge books in less than 30 seconds. At this point, maybe we should sign you up for a Quiz Bowl with just how wide ranging your knowledge banks are becoming. This is a Gold level achievement. Reward: You have received a B:Tier loot box."

I let the window fade, a bit unsurprised that there would be an achievement for it. Truth be told, the game had such a wide ranging, varied assortment of achievements that it would have been odd if there wasn't one for absorbing so many books at once. I turned to the last book I had in my B.E.L.T. and hovered a mental cursor over it. In truth, it was the book I was most excited to absorb and the real reason I had waited to use the Level 20 Ability Augmentation. With a single click, I absorbed Gravitational Redline.

"Your Gravity knowledge has increased to Level 6. ALERT: Two of your abilities have evolved. Please Note: The evolution of these abilities will not remove the original, weaker ability from your Ability Catalog. Evolved abilities will have the option to transfer any amount of the original ability's augmentations to it."

"Gravity Punch has evolved to: Mass Driver. One of Two Augmentations are eligible to be migrated. Would you like transfer Augmentation: Limit Breaker to it?"

"Mass Driver. Level 1 Activated Ability. When activated, your next strike creates a gravitational disturbance in an area directly in front of where your punch ends. This punch does not have to make contact with anything physical. Now here's where things get a bit complicated, I'd suggest maybe picking up a book on math next time you're at the store. For an initial cost of 250 points of Stamina, deal damage equal to 100% of your base damage to anything within 1 foot directly in front of your fist. For every 250 points of Stamina that you add to this ability beyond the initial cost, deal an additional 100% damage and extend the reach of this ability by one foot in all directions except toward you up to a maximum of 50% of your Stamina (50% of Current Stamina is 2600 points.) Enemies caught in this extended range take 1% less damage per stack. For example, an enemy 1 foot away from the epicenter would take 99% damage for every 250 points of stamina used, while an enemy 2 feet away would take 98% damage for every 250 points. This ability has a flat 10 foot knockback distance at all levels of use. This ability has a 5 second cooldown."

"Dude that is fucking strong… and it's not using a flat percentage either…" Jon muttered, his voice as awestruck as I felt.

While I hadn't exactly needed Gravity Punch to evolve, it was hard to argue that Mass Driver was a huge upgrade. And one of the benefits of no longer being limited to an action bar meant that, at least in theory, I might be able to use the abilities in succession if I really wanted to. Though I probably should have asked Jon's opinion, I barely even hesitated as I went with my gut and transferred Limit Breaker over to it. The ability screen lit up as a new bit of text was added to it, adding the same effect that it had done for Gravity Punch, meaning every strike that went over 50% of my stamina would add, at least at a base level, 200% additional damage to the blow for every 250 points of my stamina.

"Yeah, I would have done that too," he said, not even complaining about my choice. The window faded and a new one quickly replaced it.

"Personal Gravity Laws has evolved to: Gravitational Field. There are no augmentations to transfer."

"Gravitational Field. Level 1 Movement Ability. Your control over Gravity has increased to envelop your entire local area. You may float freely within your local area at an initial cost of 2.5 points of stamina per second of use, increasing by 5% of the base cost for every additional 10 miles per hour of speed. You may select any number of allies within your local area to move with you while this ability is activated. While they may move freely within your local area, they will move in relation to you as you move at all times and will not be able to leave your local area until the skill is deactivated. For each additional ally you target, increase the base cost of this ability by 2.5 points of stamina."

"Well, guess I have a way to taxi folks around now," I said with a laugh as the ability faded. "Now let's see…"

I opened up my Ability Augmentation window and quickly scrolled through my list of abilities until I landed on the Gravity section. Unsurprisingly even though it had just lost one of its Augmentations, Gravity Punch was still on cooldown until I hit Level 28. But even though I had just gotten Mass Driver and given it an Augmentation, it was still 100% available to be selected. Sure Pinky might have been right about it being irresponsible to use one of the limited Ability Augmentations on an untested skill, but Mass Driver wasn't necessarily new and I could already feel myself itching to use it the next time we came across a swarm of Giant Ants.

So, although it might not have been the best idea, I selected it. Given that I had just read the ability, I ignored the reiteration of it at the top and instead looked toward the options it was giving me.

"First Modification Option! Overload Launch! Mass Driver's knockback distance is now extended by an additional 3 feet for every 750 points of Stamina used in the initial strike. Any enemy knocked back at least 20 feet is now slammed with a secondary shockwave upon coming to a stop, dealing 50% of the total damage taken from the primary strike. If they were still standing, this second hit forces them into a prone position as gravity pulls them downward with a violent crunch. Enemies knocked into walls, terrain, or other targets may take additional collision damage if environmental physics allow."

"Second Modification Option! Shock Spiral! Static knockback distance increased to the edge of your local area at all levels. After Mass Driver is activated, the knockback effect creates and includes a gravitational spiral, pulling all enemies in toward a central point until all enemies meet. Deals an additional 25% total damage per enemy that meet together at the end of the spiral to each enemy affected. "

"Third Modification Option! Compression Burn! Mass Driver now becomes a channeled ability, requiring you to charge the strike at a rate of 250 points of Stamina per 0.25 seconds. While charging, you become immune to Stagger and Movement Interference, standing as a gravitational anchor point. Upon release, all enemies affected by the ability are afflicted with the Compression Burn debuff for 1 minute, reducing their Armor and Elemental Resistances by 30%. Compression Burn is stackable up to 2 times if applied again before expiration, refreshing the timer and intensifying the effect."

"Hmmm… now which to choose…"

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