There was no message from the weird Virus guy, and no sign of Scales or anyone else, just the lonely symbol carved in a rock.

If this was a prank, it was an extremely drawn out and annoying one.

He shrugged and climbed down the hill as quietly as possible. He could race down, but he wasn’t sure what kind of a foe he was facing. Presumably this wouldn’t be a strength challenge. He probably had to sneak up on—

The ground crumbled under him and he scrambled onto a nearby ledge. Rocks and dirt flew around him.When he looked down, he saw a deep crevice where his feet had been.

All right. It was also an agility challenge.

He jumped onto the next ledge, half-expecting it to give way. It didn’t and he leaped onto the next one.

The rock broke off and slid down the hill. He was almost thrown off, but he manacled to regain his balance and hang on. After a nerve-wracking second, he found himself surfing down the rocky slope.

He used the controls to guide his rock down the hill. A too-slow response meant that his rock smashed into a nearby boulder or a cactus, incurring damage. A too-strong response meant that he leapt out of the path and had to find his way back.

The ride was bumpy, but exhilarating. He had to hand it to the designers. He’d been in surfing simulations that weren’t this much fun. A particularly close shave against a razor sharp saguaro took his breath away, and by the time he successfully maneuvered his slab onto the bottom of the hill he was out of breath and down a couple of HP.

He was also out of jackalopes. His gun was out and he was ready to fight, but there was no one there.

The rabbits had scurried away. All that he could see were the shadows of their horns, hiding between the rocks. Funny, it seemed the horns were mechanical parts, not organic.

He’d been following cyborg jackalopes. Figures.

But the rabbits had left something behind. The treasure he sought was half-hidden behind a rock, the metal covering gleaming in the sunlight.

It was his avatar’s cyborg arm.

He was excited, but disappointed. This hadn’t been as hard as he’d expected. The rock surfing had been fun, but the jackalopes hadn’t put up much of a fight. Was this the best the game could do? So far, he’d acquired a bag of gold, multiple healing potions—he refused to call them cactus juice anymore—and now a robot arm. Hopefully, this was just a super-easy tutorial. This game wouldn’t be that much fun if it turned into a monty haul.

That’s when his screen turned red.

He’d just taken a hit from the back. A big one.

He ducked behind a boulder and assessed the damage. It hadn’t been a kill shot, but it had wiped most of his HP. He quickly consumed his two healing potions.

He winced as a rock blew up next to him, shards of stone flying everywhere. Then another. Whoever was shooting at him had a lot of firepower.

This tutorial wasn’t as easy as he’d though. He had to take out his attacker pronto or he’d be toast, but all he had was a revolver and a couple of grenades. Both seemed puny next to his opponent’s pulverizing weaponry. This was going to get interesting.

He glanced around the rock, tying to identify his enemy. All he saw was rocks. Big rocks, small rocks—

And a very large figure in a brown duster coat and a cowboy hat dodging between them.

It was Deadmark, the gambler he’d stolen the gold from, and he had a shotgun, a very large shotgun.

He turned to scan the ravine, and Charles noticed a large symbol etched on the back of his leather coat. It was the same crow calavera symbol he’d seen on the rock. Was this the Virus guy?

But he didn’t have time to figure it out. Deadmark stepped forward and words appeared in front him.

“You think you can take my gold and take it to your Queen?” Deadmark snarled. “You picked the wrong victim, rebel.”

Then he aimed and shot a nearby boulder. The rock was immediately pulverized.

Whoa. Another hit from that baby and Charles would be jackalope kibble. Well, they probably vegetarians, but something like that. His crappy six-shooter revolver was no match for that shotgun. With the cyborg arm, he might have had a chance, but his limb replacement was lying on the sand a couple of feet away.

He was trying to come up with a plan—maybe use the grenades— when a message came through the game’s com system.

Username Virus: If you know what’s good for you, quit now. You are not supposed to be here.

He frowned. Who the hell was Virus?

And why was he asking Charles to quit? After what felt like an eternity walking through the desert and chasing mutant bunnies, the game was finally starting to get good. Sure, his situation seemed dire, but he wasn’t quitting now.

Also, he wanted that arm. The Legions of the Universe Ranger had a machine gun embedded in the arm, a laser, and even an expandable chainsaw. That was super cool. Did this Ranger have a similar feature? That was worth exploring.

Deadmark blew up another rock. The vibration reverberated around the valley. That was a pretty cool trick.

And, speaking of tricks, he would not be able to shoot his way out of this with his gun, but the grenades had possibilities. If he distracted Deadmark with some explosions, he may be able to reach the arm, hide behind the one surviving boulder, and use the arm’s weaponry to finish the baddie off.

“No one steals my gold,” Deadmark shouted.

Another rock blew up to Charles’ left. He was rapidly running out of options.

It was time to act.

He launched a grenade, and sprinted toward the cyborg arm with his gun drawn. Deadmark took some grenade damage, but still managed to raise his shotgun. Dreading another hit, Charles launched another grenade.

Explosions rang out. Charles got two shots off his gun and then reached the arm.

Then screen went dark.

Charles cursed under his breath. Had Deadmark killed him?

Glowing letters appeared. Do you wish to acquire the DeathShot 7500 limb replacement system, Pak-Man?

What the heck? Of course he wanted the arm. He was going to be jackalope chow without it.

He frantically pressed the pick-up-treasure button combination, trying to get his hands on the arm as quickly as possible. After an impossibly long period of time, the letters changed.

DeathShot 7500 acquired. Thanks for joining the game.

Good gravy, this game was messed. Why was it making such a big deal out of this? He’d stolen a bag full of gold with a heck of a lot less drama than this.

Finally, the game arena returned. The cyborg arm appeared on his avatar, all shiny metal and flashing lights. He raised it and aimed it at Deadmark.

But he was too late. The shotgun was aimed straight at him.

He stared helplessly as Deadmark pulled the trigger and the world dissolved in darkness.

Everything was black.

Wait, not red. Black.

But red was the color of death. Black was—

Charles pressed the buttons that activated the cyborg arm. He didn’t know why, but he was pretty sure that he now had a chance.

The black faded aways slowly. It was a cloud of some kind. When it dissipated, it revealed Deadmark’s prone body on the sandy ground. The villain vanished slowly, leaving behind a bag of gold.

He got up to grab the gold, but he wasn’t fast enough. The bag disappeared before he could reach it.

“Payment for services rendered,” a saucy female voice said.

He turned to find a pirate figure dressed in a corset vest, a flowing skirt, and high-heeled leather boots. The costume was not very appropriate for fighting, but that was probably fine for this character. Tekaneer was a hacker and a sniper. She didn’t do much hand to hand fighting, even though a mean-looking cutlass hung from her hip.

But the cutlass was her weapon of last resort. Tekaneer’s primary weapon was the blunderbuss in her hand, with that she could hack an enemy and make their weapons and other equipment malfunction.

That was likely what had just happened. This Tekaneer had hacked Deadmark’s shotgun, creating a cloud of black and letting Charles bring down his enemy.

Was this another NPC? If so, was it friend or enemy? Would she attack him now that Deadmark was neutralized?

Tekaneer’s eyes narrowed. Oddly enough, she didn’t seem to have Tekaneer’s cyborg eye. The equivalent to Ranger’s cyborg arm, the eye allowed Tekaneer to discern weaknesses and strength in other characters and pitfall and opportunities in the gaming environment. Without the eye, this Tekaneer was compromised.

But that didn’t make her blunderbuss any less deadly.

Charles raised his cyborg arm. His arm was precisely the kind of item that Tekaneer could hack, but if he hit her before she recharged her blunderbuss—

“Oh, please,” The Tekaneer rolled her eyes. “I have a recharge pack, you idiot.”

She pressed the trigger and electrical charges crawled over Charles’ cyborg arm. He groaned as his hp count plummeted.

The hack would leave him helpless for several seconds. Plenty of time for Tekaneer to kill him off.

Charles tensed, as the pirate stepped in for the kill.

Then a message came over his com system.

Username @BucARoo: How did you get here, Charles?