“What if I don’t want to humiliate myself like that, but don’t want to starve to death either?”
“Then you crawl on over to a medblock and ask for the final injection. Once you confirm that’s what you want... well, that’s the end of that.”
“Jeez...”
“Listen...” she leaned in. “Don’t think too hard about it. All you have to remember is this one thing: just do the job the system gives you every day. That’s it. You won’t have any problems. The marks on the walls, floor, and ceiling will show you how to get around. Don’t ask anyone for directions! You’re lucky you met me. There are tons of dirty griefers here who look like normal people, but are actually rat bastards. They’ll send you the wrong way and make you late, or maybe even lock you in somewhere, and then you’re done for. If you don’t finish your job, you’ll get your first warning... Don’t ask anyone anything. Do your best not to look like a snot-nosed noob! Try and figure everything out yourself. If you do need help and have to ask for it, never agree until they tell you exactly what it’ll cost, and in front of witnesses — reliable witnesses! Otherwise things will get messy.”
“Okay... But what’s a — ”
She didn’t hear me.
“Once you get used to this place, find a permanent party. A strong and reliable partner. Or better yet, two. You’ll help each other. Work together. Protect one another. If one gets sick, the others can help out and do their job for them. Do you understand me? You need a party. An official one, approved by the system. You’re a weakling, more or less one-armed. You should look for a tank. Someone strong, tough, brave. Someone who won’t run away from the first plux he meets.”
“God damn,” I swore, shaking my head. All this new information was too much to process.
What was this bitter girl talking about?
Griefers?
Party?
Tanks?
Plux?
I knew the first three words, at least. Old gaming terms. But this wasn’t a game! I was alive, I could feel pain. I understood fuckall. Wherever I was reminded me more of a prison than anything.
Plux? What the hell was a plux?
“Good luck!”
“Wait!”
“What else do you want? I’ve earned this breakfast twice over!”
“Join my party!” I said, looking up at her, hugging my knees to my chest with my good arm. The left one still lay lifelessly on the floor.
“You think I want someone like you in my party? Listen, new guy... Double ones... Don’t get offended, but... imagine how you look from here. What can you possibly do?”
“You don’t know what I can or can’t do,” I said. “I don’t even know what I’m capable of yet. Don’t judge me so quickly.”
“No. I don’t want you in my party.”
“That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t asking to join your party. I want you to join mine.”
Her only answer was a quick laugh as she waved me off, then turned and started down the hallway. Before she had gone more than a few steps, I shouted:
“Think about it! My offer still stands!”
She was gone.
I used my right palm to make sure that the floor under me was dry and not too cold. Ninety-One’s words about getting sick had stuck with me. All around, people passed me by, heading in all different directions. Most of them looked down at the floor, shuffling their feet as they walked. Their limbs... What could I say — I had good reason to be jealous. But three minutes of observation made me realize that no one had truly ‘young’ limbs. I saw a lot of scars, even missing fingers.
Am I missing digits?
I looked at my hands and feet, then breathed a sigh of relief — at least I lucked out with something. The only thing missing was the very top joint of my left pinky. That, I could deal with.
I assessed my arms and legs, sighing again, but in disappointment this time. They had stitched me to me a set of junk. A set of complete trash.
How’s my torso?
My outward appearance told me a lot. My torso was toned and athletic, with solid pecs and abs. My neck felt thick and sturdy. My back muscles were strong, too. But my lower back... something hurt in that area, but I could barely feel it. Later, when the painkillers wore off, the pain would be stronger, but I probably wouldn’t notice. I’d be too distracted by the explosion of pain in my left elbow, which would overshadow anything else.
My elbow looks horrific...
But at least my headache was gone and I could think clearly. My whole body felt like it was coming back to life. Joints still cracked, but it wasn’t as noticeable. I heard my stomach rumbling, and my intestines churned. The weird feeling of tightness in my neck disappeared, the stiffness gone, letting me move more freely. I hoped my back would start to feel better soon. After that, maybe the elbow would heal, too.
Status. System. Ninety-One had repeated those words over and over. And that rhythmic blinking on the edge of my vision... I moved my eyes slightly and saw, as expected, one blinking green word:
MENU
The word started to blink faster as soon as I looked at it. Another green animation played, showing that I could use the virtual interface by moving my eyes or the fingers of either hand.
I decided to try the more familiar way. I put my right hand on my knee, then touched my thumb and pointer finger together three times. A clearly visible cursor appeared. I used my pointer finger to direct it to the MENU button and clicked.
Status.
Physical Condition.
Finances.
Jobs.
Status...
Number: Eleven.
Rank: Nullform (volitional)
Current status: ORL (three standard meals per day and standard water ration)
That was all it told me. It wasn’t much. Did these three measly lines really need their own submenu?
Physical Condition.
Overall physical condition: normal.
Limb condition and status.
URL: normal.
ULL: normal.
LRL: normal.
LLL: normal.
Are they kidding? The abbreviations were simple enough to understand. URL was Upper Right Limb.
I clicked on ULL: normal. I heard a barely-audible sound, and a notification popped up:
Access denied. (Insufficient rank — Nullform)
Fine...
That’s why the menu had such limited information — it was limited by my rank. I couldn’t go deeper into the menu. I tried the next submenu.
Finances...
Balance: 0
Debt status: in debt.
Debt details:
Limb lease: 4 sol.
Immunosuppressants: 1 sol.
Vitamins: 1 sol.
First meaclass="underline" 1 sol.
First water ration: 1 sol.
Total debt owed: 8 sol.
I carefully studied each line, rubbing my forehead thoughtfully. The cursor began to move around the virtual screen. Wow. I already owe the system 8 sol that I don’t have. I had a long day ahead of me, and going by the information from the first submenu, ORL status got me water and three meals a day. So two more liters of water and two more yellow cubes? That would mean I would owe 4 more sol by evening. I did the math. I’d owe the system 12 sol by the end of the day.
I looked at the last submenu in the list. The most promising.
Jobs...
Job: Collect gray slime. Easy (O)
Description: Collect and deliver forty standard containers of gray slime to the receiver unit.