Play 2 Wage: Linked

The dwarven line moved along quickly, the bearded aliens spoke to the clerk for only a moment before either quickly marching out of the building, or walking down a lane that ran through the middle of the desks to enter one of the doors.

The human line was another story. There were only 5 people ahead of me, but the person at the front of the line was jamming a finger at a tablet they had set on the counter and seemed to be arguing with the dwarv at the counter. There must have been some kind of privacy filter around them. Silence filled the massive chamber, only broken by the occasional cough or shuffle of feet from the small waiting crowd.

After a half an hour of waiting, I finally got my turn at the counter and walked up to the dour faced dwarv when they waved me over.

“Name and business, Human Kaninak.” He asked, his hand poised over a strange spiraling input device.

I nodded and smiled. “Nicholas Spenser. I’m here to meet with Chane Galidurn?”

He tapped a few buttons on the device, and I spotted the distinct metallic line of a retina projector on his cheekbone just above the border of his thick brown beard. His eyes scrolled side to side as if he were reading something, before he nodded and grunted.

“You can wait inside, Chane will meet you in the lobby. Welcome to the Clan, beardless.” He waved over at the door I had seen the other dwarves going into, dismissing me and calling up the next person waiting in line.

I felt the looks from the other humans on the back of my neck as I stepped through the door. They could stare all they wanted, at least my turn at the counter had been quick.

Inside was a plain box of a room, white and gray along the bottom half of the walls and floor, and that same dark metal above. I glanced around and felt the floor drop out from under me. I panicked for a moment, remembering the fall under the mountain, but calmed down after assuring myself that I was just riding an elevator downwards.

The ride only lasted a few moments before the doors soundlessly opened. I stepped through and looked around at a sort of bustling office, long tables filled with dwarves silently working at stations with blurred screens.

I’m not sure what I expected, but after the awe of the statue and the open shell of a building, I found myself surprised to find an actual office hidden away.

I looked around and spotted a dwarv jogging towards me from the left. He had less bulk compared to the two I had spoken with the day before, and his beard was only a handspan in length, yet he was built to the same proportions if a little less filled out.

“Lo! Nicholas?” He called out as he approached. He stopped in front of me and gave me a somewhat awkward smile, showing off his metallic teeth. “I am Chane Galidurn, it’s great to meet you, nephew.”

Unsure of what to say, I nodded and answered simply. “That’s me. I’m glad to be here, uncle?”

He smiled again, a quick emotion that lit his face up before vanishing entirely a moment later. “Excellent, Grandfather will be pleased by your prompt arrival. I am to show you the way to Teurniting, the Underhome.” The name he gave for the place sounded like turn-a-ting and made me smile.

He continued on, despite my amusement, “I am to guide you as you acclimate to the ways of our people, feel free to pressure me with any questions. Your first challenge will be to prepare for your initiation to the Clan.” He moved closer and grabbed me, bodily spinning me around and pushing me back into the elevator.

“I will bring you to the Underhome and show you, it will be easier. You can portal to your old Factions capital, yes? I will meet you there.”

The elevator doors closed behind us and we rode back up to the statue room, he kept speaking and pushing me forward when the doors opened again, his hand firmly gripping the back of my belt. It was uncomfortable, being pushed around like a little kid. I resisted the urge to start struggling with the dwarv, deciding to just roll with it.

Like all the rest, it was just another day of getting pushed around. All part of the job.

“You, Kaninak must learn many things before your Trial: how we Live, how we Battle, how we Make.” He spoke with a reverence to his voice and a vague focus in his eyes, as if reciting rather than speaking.

The doors opened again and he ushered me out through them, between the lines of now slightly bemused staring people. “Grandfather has spoken of great hope for you, and your ability to weld within the House and Clan. I give you trust that you will ensure he is correct. I have heard, also, of the wealth you bring to the Clan already, and look forward to calling you Brother when you come of age.”

I got the impression that Chane was slightly flustered as he rushed me out of the building. He kept hold of my belt as he pushed me across the floor and away from the statue, finally releasing me when we hit the Hub’s streets outside.

I went along with it as I struggled to grapple with his awkward manner of speech. I wondered why he spoke without the heavy accent of the other two dwarves I had met.

“He probably has not spent much time with humans or other Xenos. Their translation system is especially complex; their language is all clicks, pheromones, and ear/antenna twitching. Each of the houses has a strong dialect, which breaks down further into the smaller bloodlines and individual families. They claim to have a universal language they all agree on using with the translation system, pssbbbhhtt, but most of them are so bad at it, it takes a while for their translator to get a solid match.

As Max made the raspberry noise while speaking directly to my brain, I could have sworn I felt little flecks and drops of saliva sprayed all over the side and back of my neck and one half of my face. I twitched an eye and flinched away from the gross wet feeling.

“Damnit-” I cut myself off before I said anything else as I glanced at Chane. I shook off the feeling and turned and looked at him, straightening out my clothes and trying my best to hold the anger I was feeling for Max from my voice.

I gave Chane an apologetic bow, because fuck it, why not? A bow is a common enough expression. I expected it would translate easily and help smooth my reaction out for the translator system. “Are you always so pushy with new recruits? Us humans don’t normally enjoy being man- er, dwarv-handled like that.”

He shrugged his shoulders and scrunched his eyes up in a difficult to read expression. “It is our way, nephew. Until you are initiated as full Brother, you will be given strong guidance and direction from all House members. You would be best served to, ‘suck it up and deal’, as your kind might say. Eight humans have already found homes within our houses, including one within our own, you will be fine so long as you work to learn.”

He half turned away from me, looking at me sidelong. “Now, I will meet you outside of your Arktrian Factions Central. Quick fast, beardless. We are waited for.”

I nodded, bowed again for the same reason as the first time, and turned away and started jogging off to the nearest Factions portal. I started to curse Max out under my breath as soon as I turned.

“What the fuck was that? Did you actually somehow just spit on me?” I raised a hand and rubbed at the back of my neck, then looked at my hand.

“I wish. I could probably manage to tweak the game into doing that if I fully linked in myself, especially in the Hub. No way it would fly on the Factions layer. I’m just piggybacking off your connection and that would set off all sorts of alarm bells. We don’t want to get the attention of an Admin, although I do expect we’ll have to deal with a Mod eventually. All I did was fire off some neurons, you're fine.”

I stopped at an intersection and looked around for one of the large glowing portals, spotting one a half block down.

“That’s fucked, Stick-man. If you want to be on good terms with me, you can’t be messing with me like that while I’m in the middle of an important conversation. You were so close, so damn close, to being helpful. Then you totally glitched out.” I got weird looks from a couple of people as I hustled down the street whilst grumbling to myself.

I turned and walked straight into the Factions portal when I reached it, and directed my anger at the menu when it appeared out of the fog of the in-between void.

Default: Eora - Rome - Free

Home: Arktrian - New Heustings - 5 Cr.

Recall: Rosso - Private Reserve - .5 Cr

Faction: Theedrite - Teurniting Hive Central - 5 Cr.

Random: Planet wide (Coastal) or (Inland) - Free - 1/week

System message: Your Faction has changed, change your Home spawn to match your Factions portal to receive a spawn discount. Speak with your new Factions Administrator to change your Home.

I attempted to sigh at the message, yet was unable to in the spawn void without a body. I nearly selected the Theedrite option, yet thought twice about it. Chane was probably aware of the options I would have, if they had dealt with a Faction transfer before. This could be a test, so I followed directions and forked over the 5 credits to spawn in New Heustings.

“It’s just part of the fun, harmless fun. Defrag your drives, man. What else am I supposed to do while you’re farting around with your buddies other than mess with you? Plus, you needed to show some anger in your response to Chane back there, and I knew your diplomatic ass wouldn’t unless I poked you a little.”

The familiar sights and sounds of my country's Factions Capital building blurred into existence around me, and I stepped down from the platform. I walked down the ramp and pushed my way through the crowd towards the open exit doors.

I continued to grumble at Max, “What do you mean? He’s essentially my new boss, not someone I want to antagonize.”

I stepped through the doors and stopped at the top of the stairs that ran down to the street, scanning the busy sidewalk for my bearded guide, or uncle, maybe mentor? I wasn't sure what exactly to call him yet.

“It’s a whole thing with their culture. Some old proverb about balancing pressure and heat and measured responses. He pushed you around to see how you’d react and if you would push back.”

“Couldn’t you have just told me that? Instead of spitting into my ear? Jackass.” I growled back at him, not seeing the dwarv in question, but noticing a familiar salesman I had seen before.

“Yeah, I could have. Would have been far less entertaining though. Anyway, forget all that for now and go check out that vendor. He has Engrams, see if you can talk him into selling you one!”

I looked around for Chane one last time, and after still not seeing him I reluctantly followed Max’s advice. “Just don’t pull something like that again, or I’ll… I don’t know, start looking for a way to annoy you back.” That seemed like a good idea, and I resolved to think more into that when I had a chance. I’d been so caught up in a whirlwind of change lately I had hardly had the chance to give anything much thought over the last few days.

Max did not reply and I noticed a message ping into my inbox. I quickly glanced at it as I crossed the street and walked up to the traveling Gelgin salesman's setup. I expected it to be a stupid meme or something from Max. A bit of extra salt in my wounded pride to hammer in his point. Thankfully, I was wrong. I opened the message and cracked a smile when I noticed Tevin had changed his in-game nametag back.

Since we reconnected, he had been using an officially assigned tag for his military service. Since he was now on a more discrete assignment, it looked like they had let him choose his own private tag. So of course he went back to the gamertag he had used back in the day.

.

ShadowS: Where you at? Friends list says you went into Factions?

I paused and thought for a moment, would Chane let me bring along a bodyguard? I kind of doubted it, but made plans to ask him once I met up with him. I typed Tev a quick message back.

Kaninak: Getting a tour from my new guide. I’m waiting for him at the Capital, not sure if he’ll even let you tag along tbh. I’ll keep you posted

I turned back to the salesman. He was sitting on a small folding chair and idly scrolling on a small entirely transparent crystal slab that I guessed was a fancy mobile-com. His personal storage space was open and floating next to him, the edge lined in glowing blue like any of the portals throughout the Links. With a little cloth banner that read “Parzee’s Party Supplies”

I looked over the goods he had on display, mostly small personal tech items: mobile-coms similar to his own, a few sets of AR glasses, some fancy looking jewelry, a number of filled decorative flasks labeled as having rare imported drinks inside, and a selection of various gray-market alien pharmaceuticals.

I glanced over at the Gelgin man and noticed he was watching me out of the corner of his vertical eye. I nodded to him and did my best to not stare at his strange features. His long pointed ears twitched as he looked me up and down, eyeing my dusty and worn clothes.

“Can I help you, workmen?” He spoke with an oddly drawling yet precise diction, a somehow familiar accent I couldn’t quite place. “Perhaps a new com-crystal? Or a rare intoxicating treat?”

I shrugged and eyed the five shimmering badges marking a line up the side of his neck. Two were green, while two were black and the other the color of steel, and they all caught the light and glimmered with each movement he made.

“I’m more interested in your Engrams.” I waved towards him, pointing at the badges.

He scoffed, his eyebrows parting and sliding towards his ears. “I may be convinced to part with one or two of them, human, yet I doubt you can make an offer enough to tempt me. Flash me your bankroll and maybe we can talk.”

I shrugged and brought up my UI, clicking the icon next to the trade menu that would send a generalized valuation of my bank account, which was displayed as a “B” next to my credit total in my HUD. The request went through when he accepted it and I was given a text box with his info as well.

Bankroll level - A

Parzee Yezztizz

Geiangelgin - Social :Scholar D1

Faction: Point C7

I raised an eyebrow at him, knowing that it took more than half a million credits to qualify for an A rank and that I only barely qualified for B myself. “Good enough to talk?”

His expression vanished, going completely neutral before splitting into a strained smile, and he nodded. “Yes, I believe we can talk. Of course, my Hatchback Engram is not for sale. The others I might part with, for the right price.”

I waved in a rolling gesture with my hand between us, “Well then, Parzee, what's on offer?”

He laughed melodiously. “As you must know, Engrams cannot be stored and must be worn openly and visibly. Simply inspect my loadout, and it will give you the details.”

I nodded, trying to play it off as if I had, in fact, known that. “Of course. I, uh, did not want to appear rude.” I said lamely.

I looked up at his nametag, and intented on the Inspect option, and got a window pop-up with a full breakdown of his gear. Towards the top was a secondary box titled Engrams that I highlighted and willed open. The first was his Hatchback Engram I had already heard about, but now I got some extra details.

Hatchback

(Holo Engram, Utility, Commodity grade)

-2 Speed

-5 Grace

+2 Size

Increases inventory size by 20%

Allows summoning of a customizable display case and creates a small secondary inventory tab. Objects within this tab will generate proxies of the items within the display case. The display items are only avatars of the items held within the inventory tab and cannot be stolen or taken further than 2 meters from the case before reverting to their original position.

I nodded along as I read the first ability, it made sense why he would want to keep it as a traveling salesman. The free extra inventory alone made it worth it, especially if the percentage boost applied to extra inventory space rented from the Bank.

I moved on to the next item eagerly.

Mage Laser

(Holo Engram, Hybrid Ability, Commodity grade)

Range: up to 100m

Damage: Varies by selected focus, power, and range.

Both an Attack ability, as well as a Utility. Mage Laser allows for the projection of a directed variable focus laser in pulses or a continuous beam. The User can dial the strength of the laser from .5 kW to 50 kW.

Provides a 200 kWh battery that recharges at a rate of 20 kWh per hour. Additional batteries within the Users personal inventory can be used to power the laser, but will not be recharged by the Engrams recharge rate.

From metal workers, to stage magicians, to combat; this Engram is a common piece of kit for many who feel the need to bring the heat.

My eyes widened as I read over the second Engrams info. Mage laser seemed like a goofy name to me, as the idea of Magic, Mages, or casting spells at all was not something I had seen much of in the tech focused game. Before I could get hung up on that, I kept reading.

Double Jump

(Holo Engram, Traversal Ability, Bulk grade)

+2 Grace

+5 Speed

Allows for a single step in mid air lasting no more than 1 second.

I was not sure if such a short description was a good thing or a bad thing, but it seemed like a useful ability all the same. Especially with the bonus stats.

Dodge

(True Engram, Defensive Ability, Bulk grade)

+3 Poise (Grace, Speed, Reflex)

You may assign one non-static target for this ability at a time, which can be transferred by reactivating the ability on a new target. When active you will receive advanced visual warnings of any threatening moves or attacks against yourself from the target.

I scratched at the stubble forming along my jaw and thought about this one a little longer. It seemed quite useful, until Max spoke up.

“Pretty cool, but also totally something I can do. He’ll probably want a whole pile of credits for it too. Even if it's Bulk grade it's still a True item, think of it as a cost multiplier. The laser is easily the best one, but you’ll probably only be able to afford his Trash rank one even though it's also a True item.”

I nodded in reply to Max’s advice, assuming the Parzee would read it as me reacting to his goods and moved on to the last Engram for sale.

Megaphone

(True Engram, Social Utility, Trash grade)

-1 Empathy

+2 Social

This engram amplifies the volume of your spoken voice by 10 times, for up to 30 syllables per hour. Available amplification regenerates at the speed of 1 syllable per 2 minutes.

I read it over skeptically, not sure how much it would be worth paying just to yell loudly. Since Max had recommended it though, I decided to ask about it anyway and took a moment to plan my negotiation before asking.

“What's your ask for Megaphone? It’s Trash, but seems like it could be a fun cosmetic.” I waved the info box off to the side of my UI so I could look at the Gelgin.

“It is a fine tool, more useful than it may sound, especially for a salesman such as myself.” He turned and made a grand sweeping gesture with his hand as he yelled over the noise of the crowded street, his voice booming out loudly enough to hurt my ears. “Many items from far and wide! Come one, come all, to Parzee’s Party Supply!”

I shied away at the volume of his yelling and nodded, shooting him an annoyed look before replying. “I can see that. So, where are you at on it?”

He smiled widely and his ears twitched as he shrugged. “I’d like to see at least 20 thousand out of it. Engrams, even the lowest of them, are in hot demand and difficult to source.”

I watched him closely, trying to guard my cringe at the cost of what seemed like a kind of lame ability. If he wanted that much for a Trash rank, I knew the asking price for the more useful abilities he had would be exponentially more expensive.

“That seems steep to me, how about 10k?” I shot back, hoping I didn't offend him with too low of an offer.

He scoffed, and there was a glint in his eye that I couldn’t quite read. “Nonsense, you’ll be the talk of the town just for having an Engram. Not many have amongst your kin have gathered such wealth to afford them. Surely you could make it closer. Say… 19?”

I frowned and shook my head, hoping he would have moved further towards the middle.

“15 thousand still seems too steep, but that’s the best I can do.”

A kind of creepy smile spread across the face of the salesmen. “Make it 17, and you have a deal, Nicholas.”

I stared at him for a moment before I answered. “16 is the most I can do, last price.” I reached out with the offer of a handshake.

His grin grew and he tilted his head to the side as he studied my extended hand, “16500 and the badge is yours. I will accept no less, but only if you give me your contact info as well, so I may send you more deals in the future.”

I held myself back from agreeing for a second, before I nodded. “Deal”. Only then did he reach out to shake my hand, and it automatically popped up a trade window with the details we had discussed already filled in. We both confirmed, and the small steel colored badge appeared in my hand.

I sent him a friend request as well, which he instantly accepted. Then I was startled by a hard poke to my lower back and a grunt from behind me. I turned and saw Chane standing there looking up at me with a neutral expression.

“Is your business concluded, nephew? We must make haste to the launch pad if we are to make our flight on time.”

Chane started to drag me down the street again, and I waved in parting to the salesman. Parzee nodded and waved back at me, his vaguely creepy smile still smeared across his face.

“Until next time, Nick Galidurn. Be well, and profitable!”

Thirty-Eight-Thousand-One-Hundred-Fifty-Two-Point-Five-One-Five