《The Center of the Galaxy is...》 Galaxy Galaxy Galaxy is one of the countless Virtual Reality games existing on the market, however it''s the most popular by far. It''s succes is thanks to the unique marketing of the game. At first it wasn''t any different from the other games, being a Sci-fi MMO, but their success meant they had a lot more resources to improve and expand, gaining a monopoly over the genre and they started placing all their funds into development. The reason was that it was the first game to successfully implement advertisement into a not Free-to-Play game by makimg it a feature. As usual they grew by promoting big brands, giving benefits to users buying those products and services. Before that however the game was still in "early access", at least they called it that anyway, so they were trigger happy with giving out keys for free or at a large discount. This lead to the game becoming popular since you could get the game for cheap or even free, so those players who bought the cheapest VR headsets that you could get in any store, all swarmed the game. That''s when they started making deals with large companies. At first many of the users were annoyed or mad at all the ads and promotions popping up on their HUDs so they complained. The players thought this was the downfall of the game and they player count started decreasing. The developers were silent however. It took them 4 months to release an update that would change the history of VR forever. First of all the new update completely got rid of the popup ads and promotions. Next they completely remade the game engine, and it felt the same as any of the top VR games on the market which were famous about their realism and immersion. And actually these two things were enough to bring back all the old players and many new ones. But there was one thing they did not expect when playing the game. Yes, it did not have any pesky ads in your face, however when you left the creation center you were immediately greeted by giant neon advertisements with all the real world brands on them. Many of the players who first entered were angry or confused, since this didn''t change anything! However after leaving the city when they arrived to other places, the advertisements got less and less with only the biggest company logos showing and next to them were the fictional advertisements. And this was not all, have you ever thought that: ''Damn this (Generic Large Brand)?-Cola was good, now I''ll take this (Generic Large Brand)?-Cola-PlasmaBoosted-LaserRifle ver. ZX79 and kill some aliens with it?'' If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. No? Well after playing this game that thought will become as natural as breathing. That''s right, all these companies that sponsored the game, had their own weapon, armor, spaceship, AI, grenade, and many other things in the game. And all these objects were on par with the fictional weapon distributor''s weapons. You bought some chips? Let''s hook you up with some acid infused grenades with the company logo on them. Got a new pair of shoes that look awesome? Wear them in-game as well, with unique bonus stats! Bought our new car? Why not enjoy this spaceship as well! Etc. Etc¡­ You get the point. At first everyone was sceptical if this new neash thing would take off, but oh it did. Many call the start of Galaxy''s Golden Age when famous clothing companies started advertising. All the designs from the real world were brought into this one, and the professionals put together even more items for the game. Not only that, all kinds of companies started joining in, Vehicles, Construction, Tourism, Entertainment, Etc. These all meant you could get professionally designed items and services in the game and it became more realistic. And the thing that made the game keep growing, is that companies could fight in the game for advertisement space, weapon factories, plans for a new spaceship, own property... And after a while the developers could afford to not to single out one company. Oh, you could still pay to be advertised, but if you wanted an infrastructure in the game, you had to pay a lot more. And that''s when players could be hired to do work for the company. This was when the game turned subscription based. It had a 30 dollar minimum option, however even that could seem a lot to people. But this is where it all comes together. Companies could pay your subscription if you made a contract with them. In the background the companies didn''t have to pay the full price as they usually had an agreement with the creators. These subscriptions granted the players some ingame currency every month, but if you paid yourself, you got more. Hence the reason why companies don''t have to pay the full subscription. One could argue that this makes it a free to play game, but you had to do the company "quests" in the game for it which could even mean¡­ Be a shopkeeper¡­ Or run around the city advertising the company¡­ Help build this¡­ Obviously this had limits and being in a contract with a company did give you bonuses, but you could still at any time throw in the towel and quit. The company was not charged and you were freed from slavery. However you can''t play until you pay the subscription. To fight this, players realized they could open their own "companies" and get players in cheaper. When the developers were asked how this exploit got through testing, they said it was intended to be this way. This intensived players to group together into companies and this was a very interesting concept to many and this caused another influx of players. This is how Galaxy became the world''s largest VR game¡­ Chapter 2 Aiden angrily stormed through the streets of Mauden while grumbling to himself. "I''m sick of all these fucking guild wars and shit. Why, for what fucking reason would anyone want to go to war right before an update. " he paused for dramatic silence. "Before THE UPDATE?" This got him a lot of annoyed stares and after he realized he was standing in the middle of the street and screaming like a madman he quickly set off. He was on the starting planet of the game, the most populated place in the game¡­ At least by human standards. Some of the aliens had colonies with tens of hundreds of billions of inhabitants. Well theoretically at least, there is probably no way anything could process so much information. By the way he didn''t really need to be shouting to be noticed, his full-body Adias energy armor and gun of the same brand got him enough looks. That''s what usually happened when a higher level player came back to the starting planet and entered the ''residential'' area, which basically contained tons of warehouses, spaceship hangars, and many crude looking player homes. At first the planet was mostly controlled by aliens, however it has been completely take over by humans. That was the first Galaxy grade quest. Basically these were quest that threatened humanity as a whole in the game, and all the players banded together to fight the enemy. Actually players could trigger these as well, since if a group angered some aliens, it could be a full out war. But the thing Aiden was mad about is that there was always ALWAYS a Galaxy quest after a big update. ''Why would anyone think that having these little squabbles is going to lead to anything?'' ''Your little brother started playing the game and wants his own guild? I don''t give a fuck!'' He cursed his guild leader as he turned a street. ''But now our enemies are continuously attacking their base and we have to babysit them¡­'' When one of the players tried to come up to him to ask him something, he delicately pushed him out of the way, which meant that after they hit the ground they only slid 2 meter before stopping. He didn''t even turn around when the player yelled he would skin his pets alive and shove their pelts down his throat. Truth to be told, he didn''t have any pets else the guy would have been in a world of trouble. "It''s the AI update man! AI! Ever heard of them?!" And he was mad for a reason¡­ Well, not many people agreed with his reason to full extent, it being that everything is going to be smart and now pointing and pressing the trigger on a gun wouldn''t be enough to kill things. Of course people knew things would become more skill based, but the general idea was that the update was more lore based, making the NPC¡¯s more life-like and immersive, with combat only being just a part of the update and not something to worry about. He finally reached his destination when he arrived to an area surrounded by an energy fence at least 10 meters tall. Inside it was almost completely vacant of buildings except for what you could only call a fortress. He clicked his tongue as he fished out an identification device from his inventory, which was to him basically just a glorified employee card. As soon as the item left his inventory the doors opened and after a moment he grudgingly stalked through the door towards the building. ¡°And I had to walk here as well, how lovely¡­ I hate the starting area rules.¡± He had to walk for 5 minutes before he reached the huge building which actually looked very plain. It was basically a dark-grey hexagon shaped oversized building block¡­ A building block peppered with tons of weapons all over. Next to the fortress were many ground vehicles of which about the half of were also military vehicles. Tanks, Battle Mechs, Portable plasma cannons, Photon Artillery, Shield Curriers all the good stuff. The other half was transport and construction vehicles. These were all the prerequisites of an official fight classified as a "Ground Battle", even if the rules were as simple as:
  1. No use of vehicles capable of flying(Levitation is allowed but only vehicles that have a max levitation height of up to 3 meters)
  2. Any Collateral damage must be paid to those who suffer the damage
And that¡¯s it. The fights being official ensured that people in the area knew a battle would be happening and wouldn¡¯t join in not knowing what¡¯s going on. Despite the abundance of vehicles not too many people were to be seen, most of them would be either controlled from a station, or they used combat AIs.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. The game encouraged players not to camp in Control stations however by making people actually fighting on the battlefield a lot stronger. You could still be OP this way¡­ If you could afford having a dozen or more machines and you were able to control them all at once efficiently. AI controlled vehicles were the weakest in this aspect, so usually they were equipped with the strongest weapons possible to be installed, but this meant they were basically stationary and had almost no armor. And so they were always placed behind shields. This has been the meta ever since the balance patch that nerfed the AI controlled vehicle damage. He walked in through one of the hangars irately and threw short and impolite greetings at his other guildmates as he went towards the waypoint on his HUD. Despite his rudeness the other players were not offended. They knew him to have a short temper so they greeted him like they would anyone else. But obviously no one tried to stop him for a chat. And that¡¯s how he basically crashed into the room indicated by the waypoint. The large bang of the poor door slamming into the wall quieted down any conversation in the meeting room. He paused for a few seconds looking around the room with a scowl and raised his hand for a few moments which was meant to be a greeting before he started making his way towards the center of the room with angry steps. Some nodded or returned the wave, but they stayed silent. The heavy footsteps were the only sound in the room before Aiden arrived before a girl. She had a slim figure and long black hair. She wore black clothing which gave her a gothic look. She looked beautiful... Although that wasn¡¯t really unique to her, this was a video game after all, you could look like anything you wanted¡­ Within reason of course. He looked into her purple eyes which stared back at her coldy as if to oppose the fury in his burning eyes. They stood like that for a few seconds like lovers lost in each other''s gaze. Before Aiden ruined the scene by asking: ¡°What the fuck are we doing here?¡± His voice was quiet, yet everyone in the room heard it since it was completely silent. The girl blinked once and if you looked hard you could see the internal sigh she let out. ¡°Obviously, we are here for a battle. It is you responsibility to fight for the guild when asked.¡± ¡°Why? Why would you fight before a DAMN update?! Everyone in the game knows that another Galaxy quest will come right after the update and we have to be ready.¡± ¡°We are always ready, we prepared for months.¡± ¡°The update is coming out TODAY! We should all be at the markets waiting to get the new items!¡± ¡°Our other members are alr¡­¡± ¡°HAH! Sure, they will get what the company needs, but what about what I want?!¡± He scanned the room before turning back. ¡°What about what everyone in this room wants?¡± The room went silent¡­ No one came to the defense of her as if confirming that they weren¡¯t here because they wanted to. ¡°I clearly informed everyone that they would be getting a bonus for participating in this battle.¡± ¡°For being FORCED to participate.¡± ¡°I asked everyone their opinion before they agreed.¡± ¡°Oh really? I can¡¯t remember agreeing to anything!¡± ¡°The majority of the people agreed to the battle, and you were informed in a message.¡± Aiden clicked his tongue. They did probably send him something about it but he thought it was just some marketing garbage. ¡°Obviously they agreed, you would kick them out of the guild otherwise! I bet anyone who didn¡¯t agree will get no bonus at all!¡± This time it seemed like despite her cold expression so far she could not help but let out a sigh. ¡°That¡¯s obviously not true, everyone will get a bonus of equivalent value.¡± Before Aiden could continue she raised a hand. ¡°I admit that this is a personal matter I asked your help for, and I¡¯m glad so many of you agreed to help even if you had other matters to attend to.¡± Aiden snorted before commenting mockingly ¡°Ob-fucking-viously they have ¡®other matters to do¡¯! If you want to help your little brother do it by yourself! Do you know how old my AI¡¯s model is? It was added 17 years ago in two-thousand-twenty-fucking-eight when I just started going to elementary school! I want a new AI, and the blackmarket will be empty in second after the upgrade launches!¡± Aiden didn¡¯t notice because of his fury, but she looked away for a moment and her expression turned sad for a moment. ¡°One of the guild rules is that we do everything together, I can¡¯t afford to not have everyone here, we our fighting against our biggest enemy.¡± He shook his head sadly. ¡°I really don¡¯t give a shit you know. I dropped out of college half a year ago and lost my job a few weeks ago and I have to go to interviews basically every freakin day and what do I come online for? This fucking shit!¡± The girl took a breath but couldn¡¯t say whatever she wanted. ¡°You just love working me like a slave don¡¯t you.¡± Whatever compassion was about to come to her face immediately disappeared. ¡°You should be happy to be in this guild.¡± ¡°Yeah right, maybe I should just quit!¡± This got some blinks from the audience which seemed to be the first real reaction they had. ¡°Go ahead for all I care.¡± ¡°Great then we agree!¡± ¡°You forfeit you discounted premium subscription, and please leave all your items you got with the help of the guild here and leave right now.¡± This made him pause. They kept silent for about 20 seconds before one of the other girls finally spoke up. ¡°So do we still have to keep silent for dramatic effect or¡­¡± Aiden¡¯s rage finally seemed to abade as he glanced at the girl he was arguing with and seeing her angry expression he realized he was an ass. Aiden¡¯s ego still didn¡¯t let him apologize in words, but at least his expression turned apologetic. She noticed this and her expression softened. *Sigh* ¡°Fine, you win! But I still hate you Lilith.¡± ¡°That feeling is mutual then.¡± Lilith had her usual cold expression but the tone of her voice was mocking. ¡°And one last thing¡­ Sven, if I see this video online I¡¯ll take that recorder and shove it right up your ass!¡± That comment caused the whole room to burst out laughing. Sven could barely contain his laughter as he replied. ¡°Oh no no no, we will release this alright! Another episode the Aiden vs. Lilith drama.. WHOA!¡± Sven was startled when the boy lunged at him suddenly and barely managed to roll to the side. ¡°Pass it here! Quick!¡± Shouted one of the girls. ¡°Fuck you too Nira!¡± Shouted Aiden when he failed to get the device and he didn¡¯t realize he gradually started grinning as he started chasing the others as they tried to keep the device away from him. Seeing these 20-30 year old ''adults'' playing around, Lilith couldn¡¯t help it and her mouth turned into a small smile as well. Chapter 3 When Lilith entered her temporary ¡®office¡¯ as she called it, which was actually just a plain room with a desk and a chair inside, she slumped down in the chair with a long suffering sigh. ¡®Why did Aiden have to make things so difficult¡­¡¯ She obviously knew this was the stupidest idea ever, this was the most obvious feint in the history of the game, they would most likely send a few hundred units and wait until the beginning of the update if they see their large army. She argued with her parents for multiple days that giving his little brother all the help he needed was not necessary, and improving the existing guild was better, but no. They told her to do everything she possibly could to ensure his guild built up as quickly as possible. Funny thing is, he didn¡¯t even like this game. This was basically just another for her parents to expand the already existing guild by using some exploits her parent¡¯s lawyers cooked up. But that¡¯s what being the daughter of parents having large shares in multiple international companies gets you. When the other guild realized how strong their defenses were, they would die from laughter. She was honestly mad. And not only at her parents, but Aiden as well... And for that matter all those little shits in the meeting room were at fault for letting that situation escalate into this garbage by keeping silent. Aiden was avoiding her all the time. When she exclusively went around and asked everyone to help her with this useless mission, and told them the circumstances, almost everyone immediately agreed to help her¡­ Except for him. He did all the tasks given to him by the company but as soon as she asked to meet him, he did everything in his power to avoid her. She just didn¡¯t get it, he used to always stay around her and helped her with everything in the guild, they were together all the time. She thought that he liked helping her, that¡¯s why she always relied on him for help. He was obviously used to be in love with her, anyone could tell that, and she couldn¡¯t lie to herself, the feeling wasn¡¯t one-sided by the end. But one day he suddenly started ignoring her and she didn¡¯t know why¡­ ¡°Intruder alert! Enemy sighted to the west of our position! All personnel take your positions. Enemy estimated to arrive in¡­ ¡° Suddenly the confident feminine voice stuttered a bit. ¡°Umm¡­ maybe... 5 minutes¡­ I guess¡­ Damn it I messed up again! Sorry guys I..., so like get ready or.. something¡­ Thanks.¡± With that the voicecom stopped. ¡®That¡¯s Luna for you¡¯ Lilith was rubbing the ridge of her nose as she smiled. After a few moments she abruptly stood up and after a quick glance at her inventory she steadied her expression, and the usual stern one replaced it. She loved roleplaying the cold, confident leader character, but this might have been one of the reasons Aiden got sick of her. At that thought her expression weakend a bit, but after shaking her head to get rid of the thought, she quickly left the room. ¡­ The vehicles that have not lined up yet quickly took their positions on the battlefield and the weapons on the fortress were all initialized and readied for battle. The Shield Carriers moved a few hundred meters forward of the other machines and the globe shaped device fixed on them started to glow and spin very fast before projecting a large energy shield in a half sphere. After a few seconds the shields linked up creating a large wall. All the artillery weapons charged up a shot waiting for the beginning of the battle. Many of the players were just casually chattering as they waited for the enemy to reach the walls. Before attacking in an official battle, one of the sides had to announce the start of the battle and it would begin 1 minute after the declaration. Once an official fight is decided, it had to be carried out, or the side that initiated it would be punished. After about 15 minutes everyone was getting impatient, their opponents have yet to declare the start of the battle. ¡°Okay this is so damn disrespectful! It¡¯s obvious that there is not nearly not enough of them to attack!¡± Noted one of guys through voicecom ¡°I fucking knew it¡­¡± Grumbled Aiden as he glared at the enemy¡¯s lineup which seemed to have only about a few hundred units. ¡°Oh for god''s sake Aiden, stop sulking already! You just majorly fucked up and that¡¯s it! Not like your life is over or anything.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re helping Sven¡­¡± Said one of the girls. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I think he still has the hots for Lilith and he just lost any chance he had with her.¡± Said one of the other boys in a clearly teasing tone. ¡°Whoa, whoa dude, don¡¯t say that through public coms, he¡¯ll kill you!¡± Sven waved his hand¡°Nah, I wouldn¡¯t be too worried, he has been standing in one place not moving an inch.¡± He waved a hand in front of his mech. ¡°Hello, you still in there?¡± ¡°I think he quit since he was so embarrassed.¡± ¡°*Sigh* You boys are really dumb sometimes¡­ Leave him alone already.¡± ¡°Why, I was just¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m going in.¡± Everyone went silent as Aiden¡¯s mech started moving forwards. Sven quickly got out of the way, since it was not fun getting trampled by a mech even if pain was majorly decreased in the game. ¡°You knew this would happen¡­¡± Said the same girl as she facepalmed her mech. ¡°Murphy, please do us a favor and shut the hell up next time.¡± ¡°Give me a break Nira, I was dying from boredom, and Aiden is a beast when he is mad.¡± ¡°Okay, WOW, what¡­ What is going on?!¡± Suddenly the Luna¡¯s voice could be heard through the radio and it sounded she was just eating something just a second before. ¡°Aiden stop! I mean, uh. Stop soldier uh¡­ M-23..., you are infringing military¡­ uh. Damn it! Like, Stop him already guys! He is going to trigger the battle!¡± ¡°Finally! come on guys, let¡¯s get going.¡± ¡°You know this is your fault Murphy right?¡± Asked Nira with a sigh ¡°Come on, I might as well lie down and sleep if I had to wait another minute.¡± With that he quickly stepped on the gas of his Hover-Tank and started following Aiden as he gradually sped up from a walk to a run. ¡°STOP GUYS! STOP! What are you doing?!¡± Luna¡¯s shout bellowed through to voicecom, but there were many who ignored it and moved ahead of the Shield Carriers. ¡°Hey Sally, can you disable those shields? I can¡¯t snipe well enough with them in the way.¡± Asked Nira betraying the word she said just a few seconds ago. ¡°Eh, sure.¡± With that all of the vehicles that were projecting the shields deactivated the shields. Similar exchanges were going on everywhere too ¡°You are coming too right?¡± ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go.¡± "Don''t leave us behind either guys! " ¡°Listen to me guys! Come back!... Okay! Screw you guys, I hate you all!¡± The commander''s shout didn¡¯t even register in Aiden¡¯s mind as he ran through the fields leaving deep footprints in the ground. He was too immersed in the thought that he was apparently retarded. He has not for one second thought to ask why they were doing this battle. When his friends told him why they were doing this mission it was like he was hit in the face with a brick. He hated Lilith, but she never did anything that wasn¡¯t for the benefit of the guild. The guild which granted one of the best subscriptions for basically a fraction of its price and everyone did their best to help each other. But he was addicted to this game and he knew it. Not being able to play nearly as much as he used to because of those stupid interviews and having to work part-time while he found a proper job was taking a toll on him, this update was the sole good thing for him in his life at this point. Still, he acted like a 9 year old child. A notification popped up on the side of his vision. ¡°You have started the official battle. The fight starts in 1 minute.¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. He was still far away from the enemy so this basically didn¡¯t mean anything. ¡°Combat system activated and in peak condition, Our chances of victory, as always: 100%, good luck.¡± He clicked his tongue at the sound of the preprogrammed cheesy AI message that always played before a battle. Arriving closer to the enemy made it obvious that this was indeed just a small force of enemies despite the fact, that when they fought against the them usually, they had at least five times this many units. It was obvious however that they wouldn¡¯t go down without a fight as the millisecond the clock ticket to zero, all the artillery weapons placed behind their shields fired. Before the shot could hit their own shields, a small hole appeared on the mostly transparent shield and the lightning fast projectile shot through it. And most of them were aimed right at him - the prime target, as he was in the front. Expecting this he activated his mech¡¯s emergency shield a few seconds before the battle begun and overcharged it as much as possible. ¡°Red Alert! Systems in criti...¡± Before the AI could finish the sentence he ripped out the chip that contained it a placed it in his inventory. Doing so would make the mech less responsive and slower, but that didn¡¯t matter, he hit the eject button. a split second after he was practically fired from the mech, all the shots connected and there was a large explosion. The noise was deafening and he thought he blacked out for a moment as hit the ground with tremendous force and rolled on the ground keeping some of his momentum. But the mech did its job, even though the mech was reduced to atoms, he was safe. He quickly jumped up and scanned the area¡­ or at least tried to but air was full of smoke after the huge explosion. This was good, if the enemy couldn¡¯t see him, they can¡¯t shoot him. Just as he thought that a plasma bullet hit the side of his helmet knocking his head to the side. ¡°Fuck.¡± He quickly started running towards the enemy. Using his power armor¡¯s strengthening he started running fast. ¡®Obviously the enemy has these damn sensors¡¯ He thought to himself but the large explosion did seem to confuse the sensors a bit as many of the shots seemed to miss him. In the rush of things he didn¡¯t remember how far away he was from the enemy, but if he didn¡¯t get enough close, his gameplan was useless. After a few seconds the smoke seemed to get less dense. This was the moment of truth. As soon as he got out of the smoke he could only say one thing. ¡°Oh shit¡­¡± He appeared right before the enemy, and suddenly all enemy AI weapons and players turned towards him and almost immediately fired. He closed his eyes waiting for death¡­ But it didn¡¯t come. When he opened his eyes, there was one of the Shield Carriers right in front of him blocking all the shots which exploded on the shield. "And I have to save your idiotic ass again." He blinked once upon hearing the monotone voice sigh, but then got a hold of himself. ¡°Thank Sally, and I¡¯m taking this for a ride.¡± ¡°Oh, no you don''t, I still remember what happened the last time you took one of them. ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, there won¡¯t be any scratches on it.¡± ¡°If you think about destroying it just like you mech, keep dreaming.¡± Aiden rolled his eyes ¡°Fine, just get me in there already!¡± He jumped on the remote controlled hover vehicle. ¡°Not that one, jump to your left¡± The shields of the Carrier did seem to be wavering as continuous shot bombarded it. Aiden raised an eyebrow but looked to his left to see another one of the Shield Carriers speeding towards him and jumped quickly not to miss his ride. The Carrier ran through all the gunfire like an unstoppable monster as it got him closer to the edge of the enemy line. Aiden quickly grabbed his gun from his back. ¡°Pulling all brakes¡­ Now.¡± Aiden launched himself forward just a the truck stopped and his brain stepped into overdrive as he was flying in the air. He was heading towards an enemy player very quickly and they had no time to react as Aiden¡¯s feet connected with their face. He planted the player¡¯s head into the ground and used him a surfboard. As they slid on the ground Aiden fired a point blank shot in the head of an enemy instantly killing them as he passed by on his new toy. Stupefied by this sudden ridiculos attack, the mech rider right in front of Aiden couldn¡¯t react to him jumping right at him still having some momentum from the slide soon enough. Right as he started wanted to react somehow, Aiden crashed through the wall of the mech using the power of the momentum He jumped from his seat as the enemy landed next to the control chair. After fumbling for a second he managed to fish out a handgun from his inventory and tried to fire it at the sudden intruder. His opponent however reacted too quickly and punched him in the face sending him into the side of the control room, then finished him off with a quick shot from the shotgun to the head. Aiden pulled the same AI chip he used in his mech and quickly slammed it in the place of the original, then he jumped out of the machine. The mech stayed still for a few seconds, but after a few seconds took control of the mech. The AI followed its programming and immediately started following Aiden using the damaged but still functional mech. Meanwhile Aiden quickly grabbed a remote controller from his inventory, which was a futuristic looking glove and had the controls on the palm side of it, so the user could control the mech with one hand. It only had a few functions, being able to move the AI based on preprogrammed basic movements such as running, jumping, turning and if the AI managed to hack the weapons/shield systems of it, it gave a basic control of them. But what made the glove special was its special function, which let him manually control all of its movements. Aiden tried to dodge as much gunfire as possible while the AI was done and tried to return some fire as well. And he was not very successful, he was hit by countless bullets, while his relatively short ranged weapon didn''t do much. He managed to block enough shots with his glove to survive at least. However as soon as the AI arrived to his side, he started running right at the enemy, and the mech copied his movements. It being bigger meant it was bigger in size and so took longer steps, leaving behind Aiden. While hiding from gunfire behind his mech, as the controlled mech reached an enemy Hovertank, he pulled back his gloved hand and punched the air with all he got. The tank fired a shot at the mech, but it wasn''t enough to stop it. Mimicking its controller''s movements the mech punched the tank with its fist making flip on its side. Now that everyone was focusing on the mech, Aiden quickly approached the enemy and before the controller of the vehicle he targeted realized, he jumped on top of it. The jeep like car he jumped on was fitted with a plathera of weapons on it, and one by one he started destroying these weapons by kicking or shooting them. And just as the mech returned he took manual control of it and punched at one of the players trying to stop him from destroying the vehicle. The player had to dodge backwards, but the mech was not done as after hitting the ground, it dragged its hand across the ground. The enemy reacted quickly, jumping on the hand and grabbed a grenade and threw it at the gaping hole which was on the mech. Just before it landed however, Aiden jumped in front of it and holding his shotgun by the barrel, he hit the grenade as if it was a baseball. The enemy fighter quickly moved his head to the side barely dodging it. The grenade exploded behind him, making the mech''s right arm not functional. After clicking his tongue, Aiden used the controlled mech other arm to catch him and fired a shot at the enemy in the meanwhile. The player took the shot, but it didn''t seem to have enough power to kill them, so he answered by showering Aiden in bullets with a machine gun. Using the manual control, he turned the mech''s arm so the shots didn''t hit him. He quickly scanned the area to notice that the battlefield has turned into chaos as his teammates also got close enough to fight. This was good, he thrived in chaos. In the quick second he scanned the area, he noticed some enemy mechs a few hundred meters away. He grinned and activated manual control. The mech raised its one functional hand, and stood in a throwing pose. The enemy player realizing that something was about to happen, quickly jumped into the mech. Completely ignoring the enemy however, Adien made a throwing motion sending him flying like an arrow. "AI retrieval!" The enemy guild member cursed as the AI chip disappeared right before his eyes, and just as he looked at the screen he notices a flash of yellow light coming from the direction of the fortress. "You''ve got to b¡­" Aiden turned around while flying to see the mech explode. He couldn''t stop grinning as he quickly said: "Nice shot Nira." "You are welcome, by the way you owe Sally and I a drink." "Sorry, but I''m flat broke." He nailed one of the mechs right in the middle just as he finished the sentence. The mech stumbled a bit at the sudden impact and there was a dent where Aiden collided with it This one in particular seemed to be controlled from far away, so it didn''t have a place for a driver. These mechs also didn''t have an easy to find place for an AI, so Aiden fired a pointblank shot at the mech and slapped his AI in the created hole. This was risky, because the controller might try to fight the hacking, but Aiden didn''t give them an opportunity as he fired another shot at the mech to overwhelm the controller with damage reports as to hide the hacking process, while hoping he didn''t actually destroy something important. The controller obviously noticed that one of their mechs had an enemy on it, but hesitated with shooting at it with their other controlled machines, since they didn''t want to destroy it if possible. In the room he controlled the mechs from he was frantically trying to make the mech shake off the enemy, but failed and in his panic he didn''t realize for a few seconds that it was being hacked. As he realized, he took a sharp breath through his teeth, and reluctantly, but quickly hit the self-destruct button. Aiden was still hanging on the side of mech when he got the signal the mech was hacked, but just as he was about to use it¡­ "Self-Destruct activated." For a moment Aiden was scared shitless, but realized that it was his AI that said it. This meant it was prolonging the process as long a possible. He reacted quickly and sent the mech running towards another one. "5¡­ 4¡­" Aiden grit his teeth and made the mech jump towards the enemy. "3¡­ 2¡­" He quickly grabbed his AI and jumped¡­ The AI continued the calculated estimate: "1¡­ 0" The mech collided with another just as the countdown finished and. *BOOM* Aiden covered his face as the debris hit him, but one of the bigger chunks hit him in the torso, and pinned him to the ground. He tried to desperately get the large metal object off of him when he noticed the other mechs coming right at him and pointing their guns at him. He cursed one last time before being pell¡­ Suddenly the screen turned black. "Dear user, the next update is about to be released. The servers will be offline for approximately 16 hours while the update is finished." At first Aiden was stupefied but then sighed as he felt his real senses return and he read the message. "Seeing you were in battle right before the maintenance, you will be teleported to your or your allie''s closest safe spot. Thank you for playing" He laid on his bed silently for a few minutes staring at the notification, and sighed one more time before standing up and started getting ready to sleep. Chapter 4 Aiden was browsing the net through his VR headset, which was set to transparent mode. There was a motion sensor built into the thing, but he didn''t like to exert himself by waving his hands for no reason, so he just used a mouse instead. He was already late for the launch if the update because of his damn job, so he decided to quickly check the forums before jumping into the game. ''Why the fuck would fast-food restaurants still be using human employees¡­ Because we are goddamn cheap of course. " He was still grumbling about yesterday, but that fight was pretty cool. He scanned through the general forums first, and noticed that everyone was talking about the new NPCs being a lot more lifelike, and even when you said something random to them, they usually had an answer. He grimaced, since the starting planet had little to no NPCs since humanity conquered it all, but that was the least of his worries, there were already tons of theories about the Galaxy grade quest going around, with a large amount of things pointing at it being a conspiracy between many alien races against humans. And obviously, everyone was talking about the tons of new types of equipment, new planets, spaceships, modules, and¡­ He stopped when he reached the discussion about personal AIs. It seemed like some of the original AIs got upgraded a bit, but many of the new types seemed to be strong or even OP. If he didn''t have a headset on he would have slapped his forehead with both of his hands but he was content with pulling his fist together in anger. There was also some talk about some kind of very rare kind of AI but he closed the forums by then being annoyed and angry. He booted up the game after that and while getting comfortable in bed. He was prompted for a password which surprised him, he set the device to remember it. After getting out of the comfortable position with a sigh, he quickly typed in his password. "Welcome back, our terms of service has been updated." He rolled his eyes as he quickly scrolled down the list and hit "I agree. " "The new update uses a technology capable of monitoring your brain activity and uses it to grant a more immersive experience. This is optional, and older devices might not be capable of using this function. For information about what we record of and use your data for, please read the terms of service" Aiden pulled his eyebrows together. The technology did exist, but it was not widely used yet. A bit interested he started reading the terms, however upon noticing its length he sighed ''I should have read about this on the forums.'' He clicked enable and finally, he awakened in the gameworld, just like waking up from sleeping. Except you didn''t usually sleep on the floor. He pushed himself up and looked around. He was in one of the fortress'' private rooms, which meant it was just a plain room with nothing inside. Used to this he simply ignored it and went to open his menu. Just as he was about to use fast-travel to hop to a market, hoping to buy something even if it was ridiculously overpriced, he was stopped by another notification. "Your ''Sagittarius AI - Model EX-812'' is eligible for the advanced AI upgrade." He couldn''t help but blink with wide eyes as he continued reading. "Please note the following: If you accept this upgrade, you agree to the following terms:" "Oh come on, even more of this s¡­" "PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS." He was taken back by the text turning red and being displayed in large capital letters. ''Is it reading my mind?!'' As if really hearing his thoughts the text returned to normal. For a moment he was scared to do anything, but seeing that nothing else happened, he slowly started scrolling. "By agreeing to this upgrade, you allow us to access your memories, which we will use to upgrade your AI and also use for other research purposes. These results will never be made public, and only our computer algorithms will have access to it. This is a one time process, and in the future only your surface memories - as stated in the new updated terms of service - will be used¡­ " The list went on and on, describing that something going wrong was near impossible but the user accepts at their own volition. There was also a lot of detailed description about what this process entailed, but by the end of it Aiden was just quickly scrolling and only glanced at the titles or important looking points. He reluctantly pressed yes, but the system seemed content with him not reading very hard. "This process will take a significant amount of time, during which you might experience mild headaches, you c¡­" "Okay, I''m done with this shit" He just pressed OK and waited a bit to see if he felt anything, but after not sensing any change, he shrugged and quickly went on the forums again to read about this. And yes, people did talk about getting this message and all of the posts said they accepted. He just hoped he wouldn''t pass out like one of the guys did right after agreeing. He closed the browser, and¡­ Actually, now that he was getting a new AI, he didn''t really need anything. He never really purchased weapons or armor elsewhere, as the Adias company had pretty great stuff in those, but they did mostly just sell those two things, while he liked to save for special and unique items just like his glove. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. His AI was basically a collectors item, being 17 years old. He bought it 4 years ago when it wasn''t as valuable as now. It was not widely used even on its release however, being an AI that was good for a very specific role. It granted almost no bonuses to the mech/vehicle it was attached to and didn''t by itself auto aim and fire weapons which made it a big no for the majority of players. The thing it was good in however was hacking, it was one of the fastest in the game at finishing the hacking itself, but while that was true, if the enemy controller noticed it in time it was easy to remove. The reason spies, ninjas, criminals or whatever they wanted to call themselves didn''t use it is because it also had another very big downside, it didn''t remove the enemy AI, but worked over it, so you can''t just swap it with a purely combat AI either if the original couldn''t be removed manually. On the other hand it did have the AI retrieval function, which made it possible to teleport it in your inventory if you were close to the controlled machine and it was off cooldown. But that was only good for his kind of playstyle specifically. He left the room and decided to check if there was still anyone left in the building. He was surprised to see that there was still a few dozen players here and they were chatting in the meeting room. This time instead of practically destroying the room, he entered silently and looked around. Most of the people he knew, but most of them only by their face, he didn''t talk much with people outside of his squad. And after a few seconds he noticed that they were here as well seemingly discussing the new update. As he got closer they noticed them one of them noticed him approaching. "If it isn''t Rambo himself!" Exclaimed Sven with a grin. He was a tall guy with golden blond hair which was in a mess, yet organized, basically the classic hero type look from fantasy. As the others turned towards them, they clasped hands like the cool guys usually do. He smiled as well and waved at the other two squad members. Nira and Sally said hi as well. Sally in her usual monotonous behaviour and Nira with a big smile. If you looked at Nira and Sven, you would think they were brother and sister since Nira had blonde hair of the same color and she was also tall, but this was just a coincidence, they didn''t even know each other in real life. Sally was of average height, and had hair which was a mix between grey and dark purple. This was the usual set up of the squad, but when needed they formed bigger groups, or in Sally''s case took a bigger part in huge battles given her capabilities. "Someone had to attack those fucking idiots, they would have waited until the last minute." "Yeah that''s just what we were talking about. They actually brought more than we were expecting, they probably thought we wouldn''t take the bait." Said Nira with smile. Aiden grimaced a bit but didn''t say anything. "You are lucky Sven and the others got there in time to defend my Carriers or you would be paying for them." "Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the help, but I knew he had our back." The two of them grinned at each other again as Nira shook her head "boys¡­ " And Sally just sighed. "Hah! If it isn''t soldier M-23! Or as most people would know him, a disobedient, meanie with anger issues." "Hey Luna." He said in the most neutral voice he could muster. "Don''t ''Hey Luna'' me! You disobeyed orders again and this time I will get an apology!" Aiden was keeping a stony expression as he looked at Luna like she was invisible. What annoyed her most was the very slow blink he did after waiting a few seconds. The bit shorter than average girl with translucent blue hair clicked her tongue. Everyone, being most people in the room who heard this conversation were already chuckling. "This goes for all of you you know!" She said in an annoyed tone. "You could''ve stopped him but instead you went to follow him!" "Sorry commander Luna, we won''t do it next time." She glared at the player who said it hearing his tone. "There, you got your apology." "I want an apology from you, you¡­ Imbecile." Seeing that Aiden didn''t budge, she sighed but suddenly a smug smile appeared on her face. "So that''s how it is¡­" "Yes¡­" "Pssst! I''m talking! So did you know what I did after I left command because if you guys?" Seeing that Aiden wanted to reply with a snarky response she quickly continued. "I actually grabbed a teleport crystal that I''ve been saving up for and used it to teleport to an offplanet market, since apparently I''m such a useless commander!" This shut up quite a few people, who suffered from not having such a luxury. She was walking in a circle explaining to the whole crowd, and so she didn''t see the edge of Aiden''s lips twitch. "And do you know what I bought other than all the new stuff I wanted for myself." She smirked at the crowd and slowly turned towards Aiden. "A new type of AI that is practically built for your playstyle!" Some people ''ooohed'' at this and Sven swore as he quickly fished out his recorder. When she noticed Aidens still neutral expression she paused a bit but Luna decided it was just her imagination and continued."So if you would be so kind to apologize, I would maybe think about giving it to you." She was gazing at Aidens expression with a grin but that grin slowly faded as she saw that Aiden was beginning to smile, like he was stealing hers. And after a few seconds Aiden was smiling like the happiest man on earth¡­ Or Mauden in this case. "While I am truly grateful to you for your consideration commander. I didn''t mention one important detail yet." Luna was completely clueless why Aiden was having such a fun time, she looked around to see the others also looked confused. "And w¡­ What would that be?" Aiden kept silent for a bit for obligatory dramatic effect before he opened his mouth. "I got the advanced AI upgrade." The room was completely silent after that as everyone was trying to process the information. As some people got what this meant they looked at each other and after a few seconds chaos broke loose. Some people started cheering and others were cursing him for his luck. "You lucky bastard! And you crying about not being able to buy one!" Sven hit him in the back with enough power that be staggered forward. "More like bitching, go to hell." Said someone else but it was obvious he was just joking. And Luna was just staring stupefied for a few seconds before turning around with an angry expression and she stormed off. ''That stupid idiot, and I would have given it to him even if he didn''t properly say sorry!'' ''In the past he would have apologized and thanked me, now he is just a stupid jerk. This is what I get for trying to be nice to him¡­'' But in the room no one noticed her leaving as they were celebrating. Except for Lilith, who was standing in the doorway peering at the group and she felt the same way about Aiden¡­ Chapter 5 As the Adias company''s mercenaries left behind the fortress, the construction has started on a new district of the city. One of the most often used was the industrial area that would grant the company access to better and more diverse options in equipment that they could provide, and of course increase production. And in this way they earned more currency ingame and advertised their brand through products. There were many kinds of districts companies could create, which would encourage continuous expansion for better and better rewards. There was of course the industrial district, but there were others such as research, commercial, agricultural, governmental, tourism, etc¡­ All of these would grant different bonuses, such as the commercial district itself being the advertisement and a place for selling products, and the more such districts one company had, the more their advertisements appeared all across the gameworld where even 1 player was present. It also helped with spreading out the products, making them purchasable further away. There is also governmental, which to the disappointment of many companies only affected politics with the NPCs. But why would you need to have good relations with them when you could just enslave some? At least that was the old way of thinking. ''Why do you need NPCs at all though?'' one might ask, and the reason is that they boosted the effectiveness of the districts by working there, just like players could boost these too. Although not many players take upon themselves to work like that. At least that''s how it used to be, but for some reason many companies started investing into governmental districts, and there was just one reason, the AI update. The company informed the companies in advance as to not lose their trust, but it was difficult to properly build these districts to be ready in time for the update since the developers got informed half a month before the release that these districts would be important and why. But some didn''t even bother. The Adias company did however begin the construction of such a district, and they didn''t want to risk anything when it came to being able to build it, so they put all their available resources into completing as many as fast as possible and as securely as possible, even if it would be finished after the update was released¡­ After renting a teleport pad, Aiden and the others arrived back at their main base, which was a huge space station with many combat capabilities. It was in a nearby - take that with a grain of salt - planetary system. As soon as Aiden got back on Gloria, which was the station''s name, he hurried back to his own quarters, because the system signaled him that the completed AI has been relocated to his homepoint, which he set to this room. It was neatly furnished like a bedroom with a few wardrobes, a table, some chairs and it even had a nice carpet. Courtesy of the player who designed this ship. Despite the nice aesthetics of the rooms in the station not many used them for anything but as a place to withdraw their items from the cyber storage and a log-in point. As he walked towards the door, it automatically opened and inside the lights turned on. He was about to open the storage to get the new AI when Aiden suddenly froze because he noticed two eyes staring at him. It was a short girl with snow white hair and pink eyes. Her clothing very elegant and was also white with pink markings on it. "Hmph, Took you long enough! I was getting bored out of my mind here." With that she turned away like her feelings were hurt. Aiden was speechless not only because there was someone in the room which should be impossible, but also because seeing the cute girl caused him to hold his breath for a reason he couldn''t understand. She looked back at him with one eye open and suddenly a victorious smile appeared on her face. "At least that reaction I like." The smile stunned Aiden for one more second before he shook his head to regain his wits. "Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" He tried to muster a more fierce response, but couldn''t manage. "Oh, so that''s how it is¡­" Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a sad expression. "I''ve been waiting here just for you, and this is how you treat me?" "Okay, this isn''t funny, tell me who you are or I''ll shoot you right now." Aiden quickly fished out his shotgun and pointed it at her. "We''ve been through this already, you come home angry and vent it out at me!" Aiden raised an eyebrow being truly confused at the sudden change in the conversation. "I warned you, tell me¡­" "And I work hard each and every day, and the first thing you do is at your wife." "Okay¡­ What. The. Fuck. Is going on?!" "Well no mister, next time you barge in without even saying hello, I''ll throw you right out the door!" If I find a hidden recorder I''ll kill Sven! How the fuck does someone come up with this shit?! "Okay, this is your final warning, if you¡­" The girl facepalmed. "Are you serious? Now I''m actually sad because you weren''t joking. I''m your AI¡­ Idiot." ¡­ "What?" *Sigh* "Sagittarius AI Model EX-812. Does that ring any bells?" Seeing Aiden blink in confusion she sighed again. "Look at your friends list." By now she was sulking again and pouted as she looked to the side. Aiden cautiously opened the menu while keeping an eye on her. And indeed there was a new friend there and it simply read ''Sue''. He clicked on it and the girl was highlighted. "Sue?" She finally smiled and said: "The one and only! The name comes from my AI name and model, I choose it myself." Sue posed proudly. "So you are like a companion NPC?" Asked Aiden still a bit sceptical but he lowered his weapon. She rolled her eyes, which were actually mechanical which he didn''t notice at first, although it was hard to tell at first glance. "Well you know how to twist the knife in someone''s heart, I like to call myself an AI or a person thank you very much.¡± Aiden didn¡¯t know what to make of this so he opened Sue¡¯s profile. What made him surprised that she was classified as a player and had a username as well, being his old AI¡¯s name. Her origin instead of earth - like every player¡¯s - was empty. There was also a new tab that players didn¡¯t have access to on friendslists which was labeled as statistics. He was about to click it when suddenly¡­ ¡°Hey, don¡¯t click that! No looking at my personal info!¡± ¡°What? But that¡¯s just your stats.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ But don¡¯t click it please.¡± She was blushing very hard and looked really embarrassed. Aiden blinked totally confused at how¡­ Realistic that reaction was but he shook his head trying to get the image out of his head. ¡°Why the hell would me looking at your stats be bad for you, will something happen if I open it.¡± Sue glared at him with a pout. ¡°Yes¡­ I will die¡­¡± ¡®of embarrassment¡¯ added Sue in her mind. ¡°Umm¡­ Why the fuck is that a thing though? How do I know what you can do then?¡± She blinked at him. ¡°Can I ask you if you are actually serious when asking these questions, or is this some stand-up routine I¡¯m not getting? Obviously you can just ask me.¡± This hit Aiden¡¯s pride and he was getting annoyed but he managed to keep his temper¡­ For now. ¡°Fine, then. What can you do?¡± She gave him a mischievous grin. ¡°Obviously the same thing I¡¯ve been good at until now.¡± ¡°Are you fucking kidding me?¡± Her attitude was really starting to piss him off. ¡°Why, were you expecting something different?¡± ¡°I certainly wasn¡¯t expecting a 12 year old brat replacing my favorite item in the game.¡± ¡°Excuse me, I¡¯m actually 2 hours old for your information.¡± Aiden couldn¡¯t help but rub the ridge of his nose. ¡®This is going to be fucking annoying.¡¯ ¡°Go to the inventory.¡± She seemed very offended at that. ¡°What do you mean go to the inventory? I¡¯m not just some toy!¡± ¡°You are annoying, just shut up.¡± ¡°Oh, come on, let¡¯s go and meet the others.¡± ¡°What do you mean others?¡± Sue clasped her fist under her chin trying to stop herself from acting sarcastic again. ¡°You should make up with Lily and Luna by the way.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Aiden was about to freak out but seeing Sue¡¯s expression, which was just waiting for him to say something stupid, he remembered what he agreed to in the terms¡­ Wait¡­ ¡°Hold up. So you know ev¡­¡± But when he tried to find Sue she was already out the door like she always lived in this place. ¡°Oh my fucking god¡­¡± He grumbled as he followed the girl. ¡°Stop, I don¡¯t have the mental capacity to speak with anyone right now.¡± ¡°You can go and lay down for a bit if you don¡¯t feel well. I¡¯ll go introduce myself alone.¡± ¡°What I mean is that, I don¡¯t want you to talk with anyone!¡± He could already hear all the idiots teasing him. He grabbed the girl¡¯s shoulder to stop her. She shot him a sly smile. ¡°Too late.¡± Aiden glanced up and noticed Sven walking towards them. ¡°I fucking hate you.¡± He whispered as he grit his teeth. ¡°I love you too.¡± ¡°Hey Aiden, and new girl! Who is she, finally got a girlfriend?¡± ¡°Hi, Yeah we just started da¡­¡± The death glare Aiden shot at her almost made Sue burst out laughing but she couldn¡¯t stop snickering. Sven looked on with an amused expression as he closed in. ¡°Well that¡¯s surprising, I didn¡¯t know Aiden was hanging out with anyone. Sorry for the joke and I¡¯m Sven by the way, Aiden¡¯s best buddy. Nice to meet you.¡± Aiden was still glaring at Sue and noticed a glimmer in her eyes so he quickly decided to introduce her himself. ¡°She¡¯s Sue, my AI apparently.¡± Sue tsk-ed. ¡°Wait what?¡± Sven froze. He blinked twice as he inspected Sue. ¡°I can¡¯t even tell! I totally thought you were a real player.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a complement, nice to meet you as well.¡± It seemed like he wanted to ask a lot of questions but his eyes jumped back to Sue¡¯s shoulder. ¡°By the way when I first noticed you two I really thought you were close. You¡¯ve been holding her shoulder since we met Aiden.¡± Like hit by lightning Aiden removed his hand from her shoulder and gave her a ''don¡¯t you dare'' look. To his surprise she was blushing like she was embarrassed. ¡°Wait¡­¡± Sven squinted as he put a hand to his chin. ¡°Are you trying to get back at me for always recording your drama or something?¡± ¡°Huh? Why would I?¡± Asked Aiden as he shook his hand as a greeting. ¡°I still don¡¯t really believe she is an AI, you could have just made that up and this is all just a ploy.¡± ¡°Nah, no way Aiden would do anything like that, don¡¯t you know him?¡± ¡°Then you are his sister and you planned this.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t we decide already that I¡¯m his girlfriend though?¡± ¡°Okay, I don''t get it. Explain." This time he looked at Aiden for help. "She is an AI or an NPC at least. She is on my friends list but has a statistics tab." "Really? That does seem weird. What do the stats say then." "I don''t fucking know, she will die or something if I open it." Sven raised an eyebrow. "Won''t you just respawn though?" When Aiden shot her a questioning glance Sue sighed. "No, if I die I''m just gone forever. Before you ask, that was in the warning of the update." Aiden clicked his tongue, he definitely should have read it. "Wow, that''s messed up." "Yeah it is, I get a so called upgrade and what do I get? My AI can now talk and is a smartass¡­" Sue just rolled her eyes at that. "And if it''s destroyed, it''s just gone, no repairs or anything." "You do know I''m right here." "That''s exactly the reason I said it" "Are you a little kid or something?" "I don''t want to hear that from an NPC that was put in the game a few hours ago." "That''s actually racist to advanced AIs you know, we aren''t NPCs. Many of us would beat you for saying that." "Go ahead, try me." "Umm¡­ guys." The two of them turned towards Sven with a glare. "I forgot my camera mind if I go get it?" "I swear that one day I will come to your house and format all your goddamn hard drives." "What he said!" "Shut up, at least try to come up with something different before opening your mouth." "I''ll have you know I actually had more than 275 ways to approach that situation and choose one which would annoy you." "And I have more than 275 ways of telling you to shut the¡­" "Sooo, yeah¡­" Sven quickly slipped between the two. "I think we should go and meet the others and introduce Sue here probably." Aiden scoffed. "I might as well just go and sell her or something and get a normal AI." Despite knowing that Sue was an AI, he looked at Aiden with a damn expression. And Sue was¡­ She was just standing there frozen as if lightning had hit her. She had a depressed expression as she looked at the floor. When Aiden noticed it he almost recoiled from surprise. The crestfallen girl looked so sad that it gripped his heart. It was heartbreaking just looking at her. He did not understand how a virtual thing could have such an effect on him, he was starting to feel like be had killed puppies and kittens or something. ''What the fuck is this manipulative bullshit?!'' It took him a few moments to tear his gaze away. He clicked his tongue before saying: "Let''s go meet the others." "Ha! Got you!" "YOU MANIPULATIVE PIECE OF SHIT!" "Don''t worry, I knew you didn''t mean it, you are just like really bad at conversation." "Tell me ONE reason I shouldn''t throw you out of this station right now!" Sven was so dumbstruck that he couldn''t say anything as Sue started leading them to the room where they agreed to meet and discuss Aiden''s new AI. A few minutes later they arrived at the main hall of the station which was a large open area which was adorned to look like a mansion. "... I know you love me." "I think you have a very funny way of saying fucking hate!" As they entered Aiden didn''t realize for a moment that they were in front of about 50+ players, since everyone was interested in an advanced AI which was very rare in the game. They all stopped talking as the three entered, although it was as if Sven was invisible with the two other in the center of attention. Aiden was waiting for Sue''s response but after seeing she didn''t respond but looked at him with a sly smile, he looked around and the slightest of blushes passed his face. Sue''s smile turned genuine at that which she didn''t let Aiden notice. Being embarrassed he turned to Sven, who has been standing there quietly. After a moment''s pause he got the signal. "Hey guys! This is Aiden''s upgraded AI! Her name is Sue." This brief introduction was enough to turn the whole room into mess of noise in a few seconds. "What? But she is clearly a player!" "Yeah, isn''t she just a new member?" "She is so cute!" "Damn it I need an advanced AI as well!" "Did Aiden finally get a girlfriend?" "Wow are you really an AI? I''m Nira by the way!" Nira was the first to approach them being Aiden''s teammate. "Of course! Nice to meet you." She said in a very cheerful tone. "Aren''t you adorable? Can I pet you?" For a moment she looked taken aback and blushed. "Okay, but please be gentle¡­" "Oh my heart is melting!" As she was being petted she turned towards Aiden who was glaring at her with a smirk. He answered with a ''Why the fuck are you looking at me, I don''t give a fuck'' look. This just made Sue grin instead of just a smirk so Aiden turned away while grumbling. After that many others came to get a piece of Sue. After a little while though Sue put on an embarrassed and overwhelmed look so Nira quickly cut in as she got in front of Sue. "Come on guys, you are scaring her!" "Hey, that''s not fair, you were with her the whole time!" "It''s not not about me, you swarmed poor Sue." Sue used a very manipulative and extraordinarily cute way of saying "Thank you big sis." "Oh no, I think I''m going to die! You can always count on big sis!" She suddenly hugged Sue who looked very abashed. Almost everyone Awed at that, though some managed to do it internally. But this was not all, she has yet to use her ultimate weapon. "I don''t want you to die sis." Her scared tone, tears and absolutely genuine expression of sadness basically just finished off everyone in the room. It was silent for a bit before Sue was given the biggest hug of probably the galaxy ever and she was trying to signal that she couldn''t breathe. "Oh I''m sorry Sue, I didn''t mean it!" Aiden was covering his face and when he finally felt it to be safe, he gave the galaxy''s biggest ever glare filled with hatred to Sue. "How could you speak with poor Sue like that, you should apologize right now." Aiden was contemplating flipping them off, but decided to turn away while grumbling. Sue had a mischievous glint in her eye and continued the ploy before someone stopped the ordeal. "Excuse me, we should give our new friend some space." Lilith came forward, though she did still have a little blush which quickly disappeared. Aiden turned from glaring at Sue, to glare at Lilith. She ignored the glare as Nira and the others reluctantly and a bit embarrassed backed up. "I am Lilith, the leader of this guild and I heard that you are one of our member''s upgraded AI." "I was his AI but now I''m more like his friend who is an AI." Lilith raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, it''s nice to meet you Sue, I hope your stay with us will be enjoyable." "Thank you Miss Lilith! It''s nice to meet you as well." She had to admit being called miss seriously for once felt fresh . "I hope it''s not rude to ask, but how are you so¡­ realistic I think is the right word." Actually not everyone was convinced she was an AI, but there wasn''t really another way for her to be on their homebase, since at least Lilith would have to know if someone foreign was on their space station for security reasons. "I heard that all advanced AIs act like real people." "No way!" "Yes way, there are already some videos about a few of them and they all have different personalities." "Was the theory about the devs working with the government true?" "Stop with that conspiracy nonsense, you know that this technology is being improved day by day." "But just look at a video of them, or look at Sue, they are like actually real." Sue smiled through all this and finally said. "The developers are working together with an outside group, but unfortunately this is all I can tell you." "Whoa!" "That''s awesome, explains how they can read your surface thoughts." Sven was also grinning with his recorder in hand which he got back from a sighing Sally. This was some juicy footage. "I heard that advanced AIs were made in the image of their owner." Some people laughed at that after looking at Aiden and Sue for a second. "Nah, that''s bull. One of the players who got the upgrade shared the things you have to agree to before it starts, and apparently they are made based on your memories." Everyone once again looked at the two skeptically. "What does that even mean?" "Someone said that their AI was their dream type." Now everyone looked at Sue who was smiling sweetly and then at Aiden¡­ And they started whispering. Lilith looked uncomfortable. "Is that true? If you don''t mind me asking." Sue blinked once innocently and then turned her head towards Aiden while keeping the same smile. The whispering intensified. "Obviously that''s not fucking true!" Aiden denied while he was looking at Sue with scornful eyes. Lilith sighed and the others continued "theorizing". "I''m just joking!" Relief washed over Aiden for a moment¡­ "I''m not exactly the ideal form." That made everyone pause. After a few moments Murphy spoke up: "Let me guess, catgirl?" Sue silently tilted her head a bit while still wearing the same cheerful smile.