I glanced around my yacht. It looked like Tutor and George hadn't fancied the idea of living on a ship in space as much as I had because nothing had changed. Well, there was a stack of mail for me on a little table near the travel disk. The physical representation of paper envelopes was a nice addition to detail by Tutor. Next to the envelopes, there was a sheet of paper that I picked up. It had a list of past-due notifications that I had forgotten to attend to.

"Oh right! I was supposed to name that creature!" I said aloud as I thought back to the creature that had tried to eat the pod. I had two words that I liked that seemed to match the monster so I decided to mash them together. “Wräth” was my end result. I had mixed “Wraith” and “Wrath” together, just using a special character to denote the “i”. It seemed to fit.

One was a ghost or ghostlike image of someone and the other was extreme anger. I smiled as I wrote a little description as to why I had picked the name before sending it off to the two foundations waiting on it.

Next on my list was to go through several letters from my friends. I picked up Xa’s letter first and opened it to find a small photo along with a letter.

Dear Kevin,

It has been a year since you joined us and we all wanted to wish you a happy birthday! Here is a replica of the photo and one of the reasons why you are here with us. We three were planning on throwing you a birthday party but you still seem to be inaccessible in real-time for some reason. Everyone says hi and we will have to get together when you get back.

P.s. If it was for a courier job, next time talk to me first, I have plenty of clients that pay well.

Sincerely,

Xa the 3rd.

The photo was the same photo that I had taken of Xa back as a child. On the back, written in flowing handwriting, was a little note that said “Here is to not forgetting me. Xa.”

I smiled so big at the inscription and laid the little photo down reverently. It was an amazingly thought-out gift. “Hmm… I guess you kind of have to be creative in VR when anyone can have anything that they can think of.” I mused as I picked up Hxerdinand’s letters and read through them. The first one was a birthday wish very similar to Xa’s and the second and third were just short notes about my plans once I reached a new Core. The fourth and last letter was a collection of the times that he had tried to get ahold of me. It seemed that Tutor had started to add them all to the same envelope.

Kevin,

I have been in touch with Xa and Elaya and both of them say that they haven’t been able to reach you. Something must have happened to you right after you left us. Don’t worry! We are looking for you!

Kevin,

I feel like I have exhausted all options trying to find you. I hope you can forgive me. It has been years since we last heard from you in VR. We all have set our AI to search for any mention of you. Please forgive this old man for failing you.

Kevin,

I don’t know if you will get this but Elaya’s dad has gone missing as well. Xa and I have narrowed it down to Magus the 2nds Core. The lead culprit seems to be Magus the 2nd. Xa is trying to use the news to have the people help in searching for you but the Core has been under a news blockage for a long time. Ever since Magus the 2nd entered VR back when we last saw you.

Elaya’s messages weren’t letters in the traditional sense. They all seemed to be past due invitations to certain events and outings. It made me wonder if they taught younglings how to write letters in VR.

“Hey Tutor, I thought you said that you wrote me letters,” I said when I looked around for any from her.

“I did, but now that you are back I don’t just want to give them to you. They are not hidden, just laying around waiting for you to find them.” I heard her say as though she was next to me. “Some letters are best experienced anyways in the place that they were written.” Came a final comment before she seemed to leave and focus on something else. Fair enough. - I thought as I picked the book back up. It was well past time that I learned what I could accomplish with cr.

I carried it down the stairs and into the lower deck of my yacht that used to serve as my money bin before I turned it into a training area. I wiped the room clean of all the equipment and formed one of those lounge chairs that you would see by a pool with the adjustable back directly at the bottom of the stairs. I jacked the back all the way up and climbed on before willing the book to open to the chapter right after the history lesson.

In our universe, we know all about radioactive decay and how various materials, over their lifespan, will lose energy by radiation. Tela scientists have found that cr matter can be excited to release similar energy. This energy, dubbed “cr propulsion”, by the scientist who discovered it, is not radioactive in any form. The exciting use for this release of energy is the ability to propel and move our cr technology in atmosphere and space. This ability, coupled with the impervious nature of the interdimensional matter, has given the Tela race a key to unlocking the mysteries of the cosmos.

- Lesson one: Movement -

The chapter went into great detail about controlling a single cr within the vicinity of the student using a magnification device. There were examples and what the student should expect and how to track the tiny device’s movement.

“What am I reading? Why do they need a magnifier when VR can do it for them?” I asked as I started to flip through the chapters. Sure enough, all of the lessons were done in real life. The book appeared to have been written when the brains of the Tela were just beginning to be incorporated with the new technology. They hadn’t yet entered life in VR and everything was controlled via sight. Additionally, it really looked like cr was an even rarer commodity than it was now. Students tended to spend years working with just a handful of cr inside of a controlled space.

“Hmm… ok, note to self, learn and study in VR and prove that I have learned it in real life afterward,” I said to myself as I willed up a marble-sized ball of cr to practice with. It was just common grade cr, this meant that the speed would be maxed out at what mud density was capable of. I still needed to get with Meditati once we picked her up to have her give me an updated assessment on what my new gold-ranked cr was capable of.

Moving the cr around my empty cargo bay was really interesting. To propel it, I had to mentally imagine it traveling in exactly the direction and speed that I wanted it to move. It would stop and simply hover whenever I lost focus or grew mentally fatigued.

“It is like I am trying to learn how to ride a bike and all of my attention is focused on maintaining balance. There is no way I would be able to move and fight at the same time just yet. My focus is too much on just getting the ball where I want it to go, I wouldn’t know if someone had sneaked up on me at all.” I said as I stared at the little ball. It was currently 15 feet up in the air and 30 feet away.

A soft sound of potato chips crunching came from a little to the side and behind me. I closed my eyes and chuckled a little bit when I felt who it was. “Hey Silver, I was just talking about someone sneaking up on me.” I turned my head and found him laying back with a pile of various earth snacks stacked on his legs. He had copied my recliner and was enjoying a front-row seat watching me practice.

“Hey Kevin, this is very fascinating to watch.” He said as he tore open a new bag by the seam, causing the plastic to squeal. “What you are doing is considered somewhat of a sport for the Tela. On the north side of each Core’s sun, they hold special tournaments for Citizens who have spent years mastering this art form. Sectors of the sun are harvested of cr and there are paths through areas where the cr has not been touched. Contestants will try to gather as much cr as they can within an allotted period while using their weaponized cr to slow down enemy players. In the end, the contestant with the most cr wins. The best players today can control at most 5 or 6 of those balls at once, mostly just by throwing them in a straight line. The engineer that wrote that book could control 16 or more constructs at a time, intricately. I think it had to do with how many limbs the Tela race was originally born with or something like that.” He said as he tried one of the chips before making a face and setting the bag aside.

“Thai shrimp chips might be an acquired taste,” I said with a chuckle when I saw the wrapper. "What about fatigue?" I asked as a thought hit me.

“True but you will never know what it tastes like until you try it.” He said as he opened up a different bag. "Fatigue doesn't come into play until you strip mine an area of cr. They didn't realize it but I believe it has something to do with your sloth leeches needing space to work in." He said as he tried another chip.

"Sloth leeches?" I asked. I didn't recall naming them that.

"Hmm? Oh, that is reportedly what my sister named them, or rather, had the "undisclosed citizen" name them." He said as he worked his way through the chips.

"That is right... I remember that is when I asked her to remove me from being able to obtain IO and to be monitored by Citizen's Systems." I remarked as I thought back to the moments before I was going to try to harvest gold cr.

“So what can you tell me about games?” I asked as I brought the little ball down closer to me and willed up another one next to it. If I imagined them as though they were my hands, similar to how Silver had mentioned the engineer having a bunch of limbs it was a whole lot easier to move and direct them. They became phantom limbs for me, while my right and left arm laid at my sides, the two balls moved in the air smoothly under my muscle memory as though I was moving my own limbs. After a while, I changed the balls into tiny hands to help aid in the image.

“Huh, that is so much better,” I said as I waved my tiny fingers.

I glanced over at Silver and nearly jumped out of my chair from being startled. His whole form had changed to the very same creature that Magus the 2nd had used when he had captured me. “What the actual heck Silver?” I shouted at him. He seemed startled at my sudden aggression.

“What? This is one of my favorite game species that I used to enjoy watching back when all the Citizens were first implanting cr into their minds. They used to go to the planet Haoolla every season to battle against the elements and the natives while defending the spawning pools. There was one native, the avatar that I am wearing now, who managed to kill 13 Tela Citizens and survive 56 seasons. They named him Huli because it was what he would utter after he managed to take down a Citizen. The games were fun until Citizens began to get their hands on excessive amounts of cr. Then there wasn’t any contest because nothing could get through a shield or armor. It became less of a sport after that and the Citizens lost interest, simply choosing to build a dome over the spawning pools.” Silver said, leaning forward and making all of the snacks vanish. He seemed to come alive when he spoke of games and sports.

“So what about once they all entered VR?” I asked, wondering what sort of games they liked to play.

“Well, yes, they tried to replicate it once they entered VR, which lasted for a while but we soon discovered that with each new generation the skill level dropped. They began to get lazy, choosing to rely on AI-guided weapons rather than developing their own minds. Then, after many new generations, the games were put to rest all together when the younger generation accused the older generations of cheating. It seems that having lived and used 16+ limbs in real life was deemed an unfair advantage to a younger generation that could only put forth the effort to learn how to control 6 weapons at a time.” He said, his strange avatar's face wrinkling oddly as he stared off into the distance.

“Would you be interested in trying out one of those survival games?” He asked me with a new light in his eyes.

“You mean to go down to a remote planet to hunt down the native population? Genocide isn’t really my thing.” I said with a grimace as I wondered just what other evil things the Tela had done.

“Genocide? What do you mean? We didn’t hunt the local species, we mainly defended one native species from another during the spawning cycle. They were and still are called Fomys. They produce wonderful tasting milk and have beautiful teeth that fall out when they molt. The wealthy citizens would use their ground-up teeth to paint the walls of their houses with.” Silver said as he brought up images of an ugly-looking creature that looked like a cross between a maggot and a cow.

“The Tela would defend those things?” I asked as I gazed at the picture. I think I would prefer to be on Huli’s side instead.

“So would you like to give it a shot?” He said, rubbing his hands together before jumping up and making his chair vanish.

“Tutor and George? Any objections?” I asked the air around me before hearing something that sounded like a bathroom curtain being pulled aside. There stood Tutor in pajamas and holding a massive bowl of popcorn. Behind her, George was holding a cooler filled to the brim with ice and drinks.

“Did someone say that Kevin will be playing “Haoolla Defender”? George asked as he followed Tutor into the area and set down the cooler off to the side. Both Tutor and he had flags with Huli’s face on it, along with crossbones under his head. “What the heck guys?” I asked when they stuck the flags in little stands at the back of their recliners.

“What?” Tutor said with a fake innocent expression. I raised my eyebrows at both of them, already guessing how this was going to go.

“Sure, why not,” I said with a smile as I watched them both get settled in.

“Then, you will be needing this key I created myself back when I was young.” Silver said as I turned back to him. In his hand was a little silver cube that looked nothing like a key at all.

“What is that?” I asked as I noticed that Tutor and George had stopped moving entirely. “Oh, is that what I think it is?” I asked as I looked at George. He had a distant look on his face like he was seeing an old memory.

“Sort of. I gather that George has told you about Hxerdinand’s father losing his key gifted from a Core’s System. That Core was not me since his father was not from my Core at the time. What you don’t know is that besides Core’s developing personalities we also tend to create at least one unique key directly in line with our greatest interest or desire. My key was created from my love of games.” He said as he turned the little cube over in his hand.

“What does it do?” I asked as I looked at the shiny little block.

“This… makes it so that you always have another chance.” He said as he held it up.