Looking up as the last of the stragglers filled into the general seating. Many of the seats remained empty, guessing these kinds of auctions didn't bring much in for credits. Walking on stage was a well dressed Uzal gentleman, He was a little shorter than most Uzal but none the less looked the part with his hair tied back, and a well-trimmed mustache on his face. "Ladies, gentleman, and others, I welcome you all today for our weekly open auction," he began. Behind him, two well dressed Uzal wheeled in a glass display case, inside held samples of ores, and refined metals. "First up, we have some high-quality ore we recently acquired. Each lot will be 100 kilos, we have 10 lots, first come first serve, bidding will start at 1000 credits, in all bids will be in increments of 100 credits. Now begin." The ores sold fast, each lot taking only a few minutes apiece, most sold to one individual and the rest split between who I'm guessing are competitors. "Next, we have two sets of armor, both type 1 by Nebula, they are light-weight and durable. Both feature maneuverability thrusters, and integrated life support, great for orbital maneuvers. The starting bid is 500 credits apiece, well be selling one after the other. 50 credit increments." The armors sold fast, both going to two young Gaian men in the front row, both barely look old enough to be out of high school. Shaking my head, the next few auctions went roughly the same, mainly weapons and armor. "Now, for our final auction, we have a piece of Valik technology recently excavated no more than 50 miles from us," A Uzal women walked out from the side stage pushing a cart with a red drape over a box. "Without furthermore, I present you a Valik data core, fully intact," as he said the last words the women in a long blue dress that sparkled in the stage light pulled the red drape, most everyone let out a gasp when a copper box lined with glowing blue lines was revealed under the red drape. "This item is still functional, which is rare for most artifacts of this nature. Our own in-house we're able to view the data inside and found it valuable but of no use to our sect. It would normally take a spot on our yearly private auction in two months' time but was just recently replaced by something of far more value. Now, I must warn you all, the starting bid maybe a little high for some of you, but I have high hopes this will sell well. Now, the starting bid will begin at 50,000 credits, with 1,000 increments, now begin." He said, and took a step off the stage, keeping the core prominent. No one bid, most just chatting around each other. It was never revealed what was inside, just that it was valuable. "How much does the box itself sell for on market?" I asked Zero. "Roughly, thirty to forty-thousand credits." "So, whatever is inside is probably only worth 10 to 20 thousand credits?" "If, that. This sounds more like a promotion for their upcoming auction than selling an actual commodity." "Is this something we need or want?" I asked. "Not without knowing what's inside, no." The well dressed Uzal came back on stage after a couple of minutes with no one putting down even the lowest bid. "Well, I didn't expect that. I'll reveal what's inside. Inside there is a partial star chart revealing some of their explored space. If you have the means, you could explore and maybe discover even more Valik treasure." He said. Or you could find nothing, I thought "We should bid on it, we have roughly 70 thousand credits to work with." "...51..." "...53..." "...54..." Bids started coming in, one was from an Uzal, he was well dressed, standing in the back, while the Ghul I followed in were the other ones. I grabbed the tablet next to me, "We have fifty-five thousand from one of our VIP's." The auctioneer announced. The audience glanced around at each of the VIP rooms. Noticing the Uzal who made a bid looked straight at the one I was in like he knew. "...57..." came from the Ghul. "...58..." came from the other gentleman. "Let's just get this over with," I said, typing into the tablet. The auctioneer did a double-take at his tablet. "We have a bid of seventy-thousand from our VIP, Who can beat our VIP," he said, looking from the tablet to the Ghul, they shook their head, and finally to the gentleman in the back, who also shook his head no. "Going once, going twice, sold to our VIP." With those words, my credits were removed from, well, not my account, but I would pay him back, eventually. Zero informed me that each person we took from would look like some form of fraud and they would get their credits returned to them even before we paid them back. My HUD flashed with a message informing me that my package would be delivered to my residence later tonight. By the time I left the VIP room and to the main floor, the Ghul had already left. I left and started to return to the Villa. On our way, I noticed the old man's kiosk was gone, I asked a neighboring vendor when he left, and she just said that he and his stall seemed to vanish in the middle of the night, no one even saw him tearing the old stall down. She just showed up, and it was gone. I thanked her and bought some fruit from her stall. "Think he left cause of us," I asked. "I'm not sure, probably not." Walking into the dome housing the villas, it felt like someone has been watching me the entire way; it started right after leaving the auction house. I greeted the attendant walking through. I was about to enter the door when I felt like my whole body was weighted down, a suffocating feeling. "Leo, are you okay?" Zero asked. "Hello, it would seem like you came into possession of something I'm interested in, would you like to make a trade?" A scholarly voice said from behind me. The suffocating feeling vanished along with the feeling of being weighed down. Standing behind me was the Uzal from the auction wearing the fancy suit. He was tall, a few inches over me. His suit was similar to what business suits wore on Gaian look like. Though his was made of high-quality material and he wore all gray, the suit looks similar to a 3-piece suit back from Earth but it didn't button forward just hung open, it curved to the inner hip and flared out near the neck, no tie just an undershirt wore under the inner vest. The vest held 5 gold buttons, and the fabric had gold embroidery of some sort of flower. He wore shiny black shoes, which somehow didn't have a speck of dust. His hair was groomed close, with a neat beard on his face. No visible tattoos could be seen. His olive skin looked flawless. "Are you okay?" He asked. Blinking and coming back to my senses from feeling like I was drowning a second ago. "Yes, sorry, how can I help you?" I asked. "You won the artifact from the auction, did you not?" He asked in his native language this time. The Uzal by the front took a glance at us and hurried out the dome's main entrance and stood outside like a bouncer. "I did, I thought it was supposed to be anonymous, I'll have to tell the auction house they aren't so good with secrets," I said to the Uzal. "My, If it was someone else I would say that would worry them, but alas, I am Vilden Aeson, and my sect owns these Villas, and the auction house you had just came from," he said, gesturing around the entrance into the villas. "Now, I know you purchased the artifact, and they delivered it to your residence. I am not here to take it back, but I am curious why would you want it?" He asked. "I'm not sure what you mean, it's working Valik tech, even if the maps inside aren't of use I can resell the tech and make a profit back on Gaian," I said. "Oh, so you're a Gaian, the armor is Gaian, but these old models are widespread now, hard to say with your visor so tinted." He took a step closer, "Well, I am glad that you got it instead of less favorable sorts." "Why were you bidding on your own auction?" I asked. "Good question, this may be my sect but I don't control this branch, I saw the Ghul bidding on it and decided to jack up the price, if I won I would have just sold it off in my own branch, even would have probably made a little extra." Standing there looking at the man in silence as he stared at me, "Well, if you don't need anything else I must be going." "Wait, there is something else. Can I buy the maps inside, I am very intrigued by them." "Don't you already have them? I asked. "No, this branch will hold on to them until they can reap as much of the benefits as possible in the nearby regions." "Oh, so you guys are competing for resources against one another?" I asked. He yawned, "Each branch is independent of each other, only yield to the inner sect. Each branch is rotated between inner sect and outer depending on how much they earn by year's end." He said, looking bored. "I'm close to becoming an inner branch sect, but this variable may set me behind. My spies informed me that the maps were going up on auction, so I came." "You have more money than me obviously, why not bid higher?" I asked. "Simple, I don't need the memory core, just the maps, I can get them from you cheaper and not put more money in my competitor's hands," he said with a smile growing on his face. "So, how much?" Aeson asked. "Zero, what do you think they're worth?" I asked. "Depends, I gotta see them, they could be nothing or priceless, I'll know when I scan over them." "I'll need to run inside and make a copy, let me ballpark you an offer after." Looking at his manicured nails, "That is fine, I'll be waiting here, but please don't take to long. I have other business to attend too." With that, I went inside and found the package on the counter. The drone waiting there with confirmation of delivery. Tapping the drone, it flew away through a slot in the wall in the kitchen, reminding me of a doggy door for drones. "Just touch the core and I'll transfer it to an empty data cube in your bag," Zero said. "Okay," grabbing an empty one, I placed my hand on the core and closed my eyes. "This is good, very good, I remember being to most of these places, I just lost most of the navigation and jump points when I downsized." "Good," I said. "How much should we sell it for?" I asked. "One hundred and fifty thousand." "What, but we bought it for less." "He wants it, he wants to beat this local branch, he flew to this back hole for this, he'll pay." "Okay, is the transfer done?" I asked. "Yeah." Walking through the gate, Aeson Villas had a smile on his face. "Now, how much do you want for it?" he asked. "Two hundred thousand credits," I said. Squinting at me, "This is robbery, are you being funny, human?" he said with a sneer "You want it, I have it right here," I said, showing him the core. "One-hundred thousand." He said. "One-hundred and eighty thousand," I countered. "One-hundred and fifty and that's final, take it or leave it Human. "On one condition," I said. "What?" he asked, "I want a perk at your auction houses whenever I come?" I said. "Easily enough, do we have a deal?" He asked, his sneer leaving and becoming neutral again. "Yes," I said, putting out my hand. He looked at it, "Oh yes, Earth traditions." he took my outstretched hand. The credits transferred over, but he didn't release my hand. "Human," he began, taking in a breath and squeezing my hand. I felt the metal begin to buckle, "You have guts to try to profit off of me, but you don't have a ship, and all the caches near here have already been sacked. The map is useless but I commend you on making a profit non the less." with that he let go of my hand. "Here, this is a silver VIP token, it will help you in any of our establishments. Oh, one less thing human, try and find me in the future, maybe we can hunt some treasure together in the future, who knows maybe you can find some sort of weapon to save your little planet." with that he left, briskly walking past the greeter who bowed low to the man before returning to his post. "Did I just make an enemy or friend, also my hand hurts," I said, holding my hand. "I think both, and I believe you have suffered minor fractures in your hand." Walking into the villa, it took me a while to get my armor off and sat on the couch. I called a service drone to come and check my hand. Should be here within a half-hour. "Well, at least, we made some money," I said. "Yeah, and he only got about 1/3rd of the maps we got," Zero said. "!/3rd, you didn't give them all?" "No, and he doesn't know we pulled a fast one on him and made a buck," Zero said laughing. "Wow, I didn't even think of that. "Guess training is out until my hand heals." "We can still do VR and meditation." "Okay, this probably set us behind." Zero said nothing else. The drone showed up and performed some adjustments; I had two minor fractures, curtsy of Aeson, 1st, and 5th metacarpals. The drone was able to set them and with the aid of a regenerative pad, in about 2 weeks it will be good as new. Looking down at the blue bag over my wrist, the regenerative pod would increase healing, but I felt useless. After the drone left I ordered food, something not a nutrition pack. It came, and it was some spicy noodle dish, with wide flat egg noodles and spicy sauce and vegetables and stewed meat that tasted similar to goat. It was different, not in a bad way, more in a unique I don't think I'll order this again but maybe kind of way. I got a drink and some sort of dessert with it. The drink reminded me of sweet tea, but also like coffee with too much cream and sugar. I liked it, and like coffee, I got sort of caffeinated high off of it. The dessert was good as well, three small spheres, each one was a different color, one pink, one green, one blue. Biting into it was fun. The outside layer was like a thick wafer, and the center of each had a distinct taste. The inside of all of them was like a chocolate mousse, but the pink had a kind of strawberry taste, the green had almost a mint, and the blue had almost the taste of coconut. Feeling satisfied. "I think it's time for some training, don't you?" Zero asked. "Sure," I said, getting up and quickly cleaning my mess from dinner. The room that was the gym held a pod, similar to the ones on the Njord, but instead of standing you could sit, and it closed around the user. It was glossy white, like most things in the house, only broken up by paintings, or statues that made the house look my luxury than minimal. Sitting down the pod shifted and closed around me, instantly the light of the day was replaced by pure blackness, then like nothing I was within the city, an exact replica of Vestale the domed city. I was standing in the center of the city, right next to the spire. Letting out a whistle, "Wow, it's almost perfect." I said out loud. "Should be, it's an updated replica from only 3 months ago, not much has changed," Zero said, his avatar coming into being right before me, not the mechanical golem but an avatar of Hannibal lector. "Will you please at least change the avatar?" I asked. "Sure, anything in particular?" "It's your avatar you pick." The body shifted to get taller, reaching 6 feet, the same height as me. His build was lean and thin. His face changed to a human, surprisingly. Tan skin, black hair, and cybernetic eyes of blue and black stood out. His face was sharp with high cheekbones. He wore a suit similar to Aeson Vilden. Though Zero's was black, not gray, with white accents. "How do I look?" He asked. "Looking sharp, where did you come up with it?" I asked, walking around him. "Well, mainly from movies and feeds. Other people's features I liked and merged them together, really." "A unique avatar, no one would know any difference in, say, Caliber one," I said. "I'll take that as a compliment, ready to get started, I have multiple training exercises and programs." Finally, looking over his avatar, I stop right by him. "Let's start, you won't need gear for the first few," he said. "We'll begin with navigation, get acquainted with every inch of the city, I dialed down the time so every hour here is only 20 minutes in real-time, we can jam-pack your head with as much knowledge before we call it quits." "Okay, let's get started," I said. I spent two days moving in and out of buildings, checking every dome, the airport, and even some surrounding area that was mapped. I may have only been in the pod for 2 hours. "Good, we'll do that every day to start, but I'll randomly give you objectives. It should help and moving faster and relying on less navigation and HUD control. Sometimes you won't have me to rely on." I nod while sitting down on a park bench near the center of the city. "Next we have weapon training and target practice," Zero said. A table appeared across from my bench, all of my gear was loaded on it, including my new weapons. I got up and geared up. "We'll start slow and move up to moving targets, I want you to master the new weapons and your old mark two." Started by running three blocks nonstop, then had to fire at some stationary targets with the pistol found that it had a semi-auto and automatic function though the ladder emptied the clip in mere seconds. Stopping to reload and simulated random weapon jams to work through or fix before resuming. Zero then made me climb the spire in the center of the city and I was trained in long-range shooting. Most of it was easy due to the ability to skip the scope with my integrated HUD. Then I was tough to use the scope without the hood and the proved more difficult especially at targets further than 100 meters quickly became very hard to see or hit, I started getting the hang of it after a few hours. "We'll you been in the pod for a few hours. Would you like to go longer or not? I suggest stopping and letting your mind catch up." Zero said. "Let's do one quick scenario before we log." "I have just the one, one second," Zero said. The city became populated, and it began to rain hard. "Okay, get to the main road." I took the stairs and go to the lobby, walking past the NPCs that would look my way but not interact was different. Then I saw it, right ahead of me past the crowd was an arbiter, walking with the crowd. "Terminate the Arbiter by any means," Zero said. I started jogging towards it, had my auto pistol in my hand. "Automatic fire," I said to zero. An indicator in my HUD pinged me as it changed. "Fastest RPM," another indicator. 3 meters away..2 meters... 1... I pulled the pistol towards the arbiter, I heard a gasp to my left by a female NPC. Then all I see is the sky and movement at the corner of my view, a shoe? Scenario complete... player deceased - Cause: Severe blood loss Time: 01:68 "Well, Leo, No reason to lose your head over it," Zero said with a chuckle, showing a replay of me running at the Arbiter, as soon as the women saw my weapon get raised in the crowd, she gasped, alerting the Arbiter, in turn, he spotted the weapon and moved. In a blur he was on me, his metallic limb sheared through my armor and helmet severing my head from my shoulders and they were sent flying away from each other. "I'm actually surprised you lasted that long, I thought it would have heard you sooner, your approach must have been drowned out by the combined noise of the crowd and hard rain. Bravo, would you like to try again?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Nodding, the scenario would reset time after time, I tried for another hour in-game. Feeling mentally exhausted, I finally called it a day. "How'd I do?" I asked Zero. "Well, for the 30 times you attempted to kill the Arbiter you managed to graze it once with a burst of rounds from two meters away. It killed you by throwing a trashcan at you in retaliation. Honestly, didn't see that one coming." he said, "Though I didn't expect you to last that long honestly. Now, are you learning something from your deaths?" he asked. "No, not really besides they have super fast reflexes and strength to boot. They can hear a pin drop from a mile away, as well it seems." "That is only but a small extent of their abilities. You must be ready, and next time, we'll work on tracking instead of attacking. Using the element of surprise is key to taking down an Arbiter."