“Dude, you are a cold motherfucker.” Thomas said with a mix of awe and concern. He felt he had reason to feel this way regarding his friend. After all, Axton had just brutalized someone who looked very much like a normal human until they were naught but a corpse, and then immediately proceeded to loot the dead man’s pistol and check his mail.

That wasn’t something a ‘normal’ person did, regardless of whether they were merely facing what they knew was merely a simulation or not. There was a damn good reason why most modern games and VR entertainment did not let Players fight other humans. Such a thing could lead to people becoming sociopaths, and even though many restrictions were in place to try and prevent that kind of thing, the more sensible people in power realized that fighting realistic humans to the death was a potential gateway to instilling violent tendencies in the Players.

Axton had indeed been hardened by his time in the Beta, but it wasn’t that he was becoming a sociopath like some would have feared. Instead, he was able to separate fiction from reality to a much higher degree than most. He was fully aware that he was in a game, and he knew that everything in it was just a complex line of ones and zeros, and his own innate comprehension of this fact was one of the reasons why he was able to transition so easily from violent combat to utter calm.

In a manner of speaking, this trait would have made him the ultimate soldier, at least until his general disdain for authority and assholes would get him dishonorably discharged. Still, that was beside the point.

Axton opened the message he had received just before he and his friend lured the bounty hunters into their death trap, smiling ever wider as he read every last bit of it. He typed out another message and sent it as a reply to the reply and motioned for Thomas to follow him. The two walked down the paths that snaked through the Zone, and Axton marveled at how utterly unoriginal the place looked. He knew people could be lazy and take inspiration from other sources, but the whole city he was in looked to be a jumble of various assets thrown together from generic post-apocalypse style video games and movies.

To put things in perspective for readers, imagine looking at the settlements of Megaton and Rivet City from Fallout 3, some generic Mad Max-style settlements, and a bit of slightly futuristic stuff all mashed together. It all looked like an ugly mix of Dieselpunk, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, and Art Deco, all with a hint of Futurism partially blended through. If this was to be the first taste that a Player would get of this game, then it would easily be enough to make any graphic designer or artist scream in agony and exit immediately.

Axton followed the disgustingly tasteless streets down to a large building that looked like someone had taken a look at some buildings in DC’s Gotham City, decided that it needed to have holes blown into it and have random bits of other types of building styles jutting out from it and then made such a thing real. Sure, it looked like something utterly improvised on the fly over an indeterminate amount of time, but the way the various bits and bobs clashed together gave the inner art critic in Axton a bad feeling.

Thomas silently followed his friend as the Beta-Player walked into the building and approached what appeared to be a nearly broken-down ATM covered in no small amount of graffiti. Axton typed a few things on it, following the instructions in the message he had received, all as Thomas watched on with a growing feeling of concern. During this whole ‘tour’, Axton had not said a single word, let alone shown any interest in responding to Thomas’ questions and inquiries, and this continued silence was starting to cause anxiety.

Axton finished whatever he was doing on the Atm and then motioned for Thomas to follow him some more. Begrudgingly, Thomas followed Axton to what looked to be a large military installation that had been taken over by pirates, outlaws, and people with exceptionally poor taste in architectural design. Even though Thomas knew even less about art and building design than Axton did, even he found the building that they had walked for nearly 15 minutes to get to way too ugly even for his standards.

Axton led Thomas to a certain spot and then finally spoke up after what had been essentially just over 1.25 hours.

“Stay here and watch for the unexpected. I’ll be out in a bit.”

In response, Thomas grabbed his friend and refused to let go.

“No. Not until you tell me what the fuck you are doing. I can only take so much silence, so let me in on your plan, or I’m not letting you do jack shit.”

Axton pointed behind Thomas, who held onto Axton as he turned his head. Sure enough, a group of bounty hunters were doing a piss-poor job at hiding themselves. The main difference between the previous four and these ones was the fact that the current threats were had much better equipment and even were followed by what appeared to be an APC covered in scrap armor.

Thomas’ face dropped when he saw the firepower arrayed against them this time. Had Donovan really put out a bounty in the game that was that high? How had he even managed to get in so quickly? Unless…

Axton flicked Thomas on the nose to snap him back to reality.

“They are after me, not you. They likely won’t stop until I’ve either been ganked to oblivion and back or until they capture me. I want you to do something for me, something only you can do. Record everything. Not for evidence, but for views. If Donovan’s going to hunt me until I can do something about that bounty, then I want him to know that he will not be able to do so outside of the public eye.”

With that, Axton broke free from Thomas’ grip and entered a large hanger that was labeled ‘Bay 1’. Almost immediately after entering the building and disappearing from sight, the bounty hunters began to advance. They started to close in on the hanger, only for a few high-ranking NPCs to force them to stop. To roughly summarize what was said, the high-rank NPCs insisted that the bounty hunters wait outside the compound. This was a place for War Suit pilots and their equipment, to say nothing of the Outworlders who no doubt would be an asset to The Revelry.

The ‘official’ Pirate NPCs kept the bounty hunters at a distance under threat of retaliation by the Admiral’s Council for a while. As they talked and threatened the hunters, a certain Player was going through the process of cashing out his winnings. His gamble had paid off in spades.