Sevs turned around. What was this, some sort of hazing? Once he got a good look at the source of the voice, that thought left his mind. Sevs’s bunk was second to the bottom, so the drawer sat just above his knees. A head popped out to a bunk behind him, the bunk closest to the floor.

“Sup, I’m Jason.”

“Sevs.”

“Man, why are you so old?”

“Took my time in the tutorial and had a bit of fun.” Jason seemed young. Like really young. Sevs wasn’t sure how he had even finished the tutorial. If he was a day over ten… “How are you so young? Did you advance without finishing the tutorial?”

“Nah, I’m not that dumb. I was doing dex/agility, and I ended up jumping out a high window while saving my younger sister, mom, and dog from an apartment fire. Don’t ask; it was stupid. But it got me so much EXP I advanced on the spot. Now I’m here. Let me tell you, it's not fun being this young. I still have all the stupid kid thoughts tugging me around, and my voice hasn’t even dropped yet.”

“That sounds like quite the story you got to tell me about once I can buy you a drink. I tried a dex build for a while. Never got the hang of it.”

“Yeah, you look more the INT type, no offense. Though you got more muscle than I would expect.”

“I tried to balance out a bit more.” Sevs didn’t correct Jason’s mistake. A Charisma build wasn’t exactly looked down on, but Sevs felt a little awkward that he needed so much help to learn how to talk to people.

“Well, your size is going to come in handy. Just got in yesterday, so I don’t know much. But I have a feeling this place is going to get rough.”

“What gives you that idea?” Sevs asked sarcastically.

Jason, the imp, just grinned. “Maybe ‘cause I was offered to jump out of the airlock first thing? Seemed sad I didn’t take it.”

“Really? The guy who welcomed me was ecstatic I didn’t. His name was Alex.”

“I didn’t catch the guy’s name.”

“Big portly guy, seemed pretty cheery?”

“Nah, different guy.”

“They probably saw you and felt bad for how scrawny you were and figured it was better fate.”

Jason slipped out of his bed. His head only came to Sevs chest. “Alex probably thought you would be good eatin’ in case of an emergency.”

As he said this, he poked Sevs in the gut. Pulling his hand back, he shook his finger out. “Damn, maybe not then. We gotta put some meat on you. Come on, dinner should be served soon.”

“Like you are one to talk,” Sevs muttered as he watched the rail-thin boy run out the door before following.

Jason indeed had his stat boosts in DEX and AGI. The way Jason slithered through the crowd made it hard for Sevs to keep up. He had to shoulder his way through a bit to keep Jason in sight.

When they got to the mess hall, Sevs found that the Lieutenant’s advice was warranted. The meals here were actually pretty good rather than just edible. He and Jason had a quick meal, each ate fast, but it was pleasant. After not really being around players for so long, it was comforting. More than that, Sevs marveled at how effortless it was to hold a conversation. It was one thing to practice with people that he knew were simulations. Even if you treated them as genuine, you knew, in the back of your mind, they were not. Part of that ease was that Jason was talkative and generally friendly. Sevs learned through that conversation that intro training sessions happened every week on this ship. He just happened to show up right before the next one. “You are lucky you don’t have to wait around doing nothing. Lucy has been bored out of her mind the past six days.”

Typically, a session had somewhere between ten to twenty members in it. There was space for thirty-two in the recruit barracks, but it was never at capacity. Jason added, “That’s lucky for us as we can pick our bunks. Normally you sleep with your squad. There is a bit more space, but not much. However, you don’t get to pick your beds, and someone gets stuck with the bad ones.”

Sevs also learned they didn’t know how many ships there were in the armada. In fact, it seemed they weren’t told much of anything until they made it past the basic training. Apparently, enough players decided not to complete it. Jason had picked up a few things. They were in one of the smaller ships; the crew numbered under a thousand. There were a few platoons. That made Lieutenant Dan the second or third ranking officer on the ship. There likely were only a couple other Lieutenants and a Captain for the infantry. Apparently, the pilots for the ships and the smaller fighters were separate. Those were all commissioned officers and their flight crews.

After they finished eating, they chatted for a bit. Then they made space for someone else and went back to their barracks. When they got back, it wasn’t empty anymore. Another ten people were getting ready for bed. They all had decided that it would be a good idea to get some early rest for the training tomorrow. A couple grunted as they saw Sevs, and few didn’t react at all. He crawled into bed, exhausted from a long day before he got transferred and a fast-paced one when he got here. This might be a stressful couple of weeks. Whoever was closest to the door reached over and touched the panel to dim the lights once most people were settled.

As everyone was drifting off to sleep. The door opened, and Lieutenant Dan came in, followed by a new petite figure. The newcomer claimed a bunk by the entrance and hopped in as quickly as possible. It wasn’t fast enough to avoid a couple grumblings, but nothing too annoying.