Chapter 4

I knew I had already passed the point of no return. Walking around in the OASIS would become a kill or be killed drama. My informant still hadn't contacted me, at least I think he hasn't tried to. I abstained from logging in and kept to the resources I was provided. One of the forums I lurked in, which required a password just to access before I could even make an account to post, was filled with brokers putting up job postings and mercenaries bidding on said jobs. Every job posting had a page of information, still managing to be vague, and the mercs bidded on how fast they could get it done and how much compensation they would require to complete the job. I searched that forum as far back as a month and couldn't find anything mentioning me or my routine. I even checked the failure board. There were vidcap recordings of every botched job, most of which ended with the merc getting merc'd by the mark, in numerous pages. The ones that posted bids on this board called themselves the clean up crew. Once someone tried to kill you in the OASIS, you made yourself scarce, change the way you look, break up your routine, sometimes pay to change your name, but these guys liked the challenge.

I finally found my failed mission video on a more amateur board. It didn't require a password to access and I didn't feel the need to make a username and password for this trash heap. I kept searching and looking at the post pertaining to my attack and the attackers. From what I read, there's a small dark guild that said I broke their code during a 'cops vs. terrorists' match. I dishonored them and brought them shame by muting their asthmatic yelling and laughing during a ranked match. I remembered it now, I made us lose on purpose to get out of the lobby with them. They made a spectacle during the job posting, stringing vulgarity after vulgarity into run on sentences. My summary concluded that I should be taken out for free, but they would pay if the merc brought them along to watch. So, I concluded that I killed the person they hired and two members of their lame guild. I copy and pasted the transcripts, downloaded the vidcap of me winning three on one, screen capped the information of the people involved and started compiling my hit list.

These loudmouthed losers had their own website for their guild, listing every single member. I gathered all 26 names and scratched off, satisfactorily with the red brush tool, the two idiots I had dealt with previously. According to this guild's mission statement and rules, dying in a PvP zone was a bannable offence. I decided I wanted to dissolve this guild. I thought, maybe my informant was exaggerating about how dangerous logging back into the OASIS would be. He could know something I don't, but these clowns in particular, look self governed, poorly self governed. I definitely had feelings of cockiness running through my head as I tidied up my hit list. I was dying to use the Haptic Quick Draw so I pointed it to type and move windows around in my interface, it was really cool.

Just as I managed to get to a point where I could do cosmetic work to my list I got a direct message in one of the forums I still had open:

ZO: I Have someone who wants to meet you.

He logged off before I could respond, then before I knew it, I had another message in a different window.

ZO: Join the room.

A few more messages popped up before I could close the previous ones, they all strung together into one thought, one single message. ZO wanted me to log back in, join a chat room via link. Then he wanted me to read the instructions left on the table. He also wanted me to have a pleasant day and to not get carried away. I thought that last bit excited my interest the most. I didn't have to be told twice to log back in, I had a problem.

As soon as the world materialized I jumped into the chatroom from the link in the invitation that sat open on my display. I didn't pay much attention to the surroundings as I loaded into the room, it looked like a generic beach house, view included. I just started moving towards the table with the instructions on them as soon as I could. I couldn't put the simulated piece of paper into my inventory, so I screenshot the message in my hand and left the room. I wouldn't count it as a conventional message, just a connect the dots drawing completed incorrectly. The lines drawn on the would be stegosaurus connected three numeric dots using obvious arrows, I pulled up my cap of the image and headed for the closest transporter. 23, 12, 20 were connected in an order of X, Y, Z coordinates, allowing me to find an exact location in three dimensional space, aka the OASIS and/or the OASIS sectors. When I filed into the transporter I found it inconvenient that the location I desired didn't have the option of direct teleportation. I still managed to find one very close and I very quickly jumped to it.

The sector that managed to be closest to where I wanted to go contained a bunch of planets themed and named after some tabletop RPG games. According to my map, I needed to fly through space to nothing. It could be nothing, there wasn't a planet at the coordinates I had. I got into my generic spacecraft, It looked like one of the Galaga ships, it was pretty standard issue. Sub Light speed and cheap. I rocketed towards my destination as fast as I could. As I approached, a large spacecraft became visible in the distance. It was the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from the Star Trek Next Generation and it happened to be sitting exactly where I wanted to be. I did a complete pass around the bridge and swung under the saucer to the hangar.

Once I parked my ship and hopped out, Zo was waiting patiently for me. "I didn't expect to see you so soon, but I'm not completely surprised." He said, pointing his scotch glass at me.

"Well, I have been waiting to hear from you so I could log back in." I said, walking towards him.

"Understandable." He nodded to me. We met and he started walking, me following beside him.

"So why did you want me to come out here?" I asked.

"I don't want to spoil anything, all things will come in their short time."

"Okay, I guess I'll just follow you."

"Indeed." he said discarding his glass as we passed through a door to the interior of the ship. "I assume you found all the information about who attacked you."

"You wouldn't have been able to contact me otherwise, right?"

"Not necessarily true. You did make it easier." He replied. He opened the doors at the end of the corridor exposing the platform to the turbolift. We stepped in. He turned to me and smiled, he gave me the kind of subtle smile a sociopath gets when you indulge them in their dilutions. I became a little scared and he was starting to creep me out. "Computer." He said not breaking eye contact. "Transporter room."

"Transporter room?" I thought aloud. The Turbolift didn't hesitate and took off, abruptly stopping at our destination a few seconds later. The doors opened.

"After you." He insisted with a slight bow.

"You're being weird." I observed aloud, take steps forward, looking back at Zo. He followed me out of the lift and directed me through another door that opened with the classic sound effect.

"Here he is!" An unknown male voice said from through the door.

"Finally!" Another voice added, this one was female.

My first instinct lead me to believe this was a trap and I drew my side arm with my new Haptic attachment and aimed at the voices.

"Put that away, don't embarrass yourself so soon." Zo said, putting his hand on my weapon and pushing it towards the ground.

"Sorry, you didn't tell me what was going on." I holstered my weapon.

"I didn't want to ruin any of the suspense." Zo explained.

"Thanks." I replied indignantly. I had a chance to survey the room in front of me, without an aiming reticle this time. I saw the bodies to the two voices. I also saw two more bodies, gagged and bound, obviously voiceless. The man who spoke first, had a Snake Plisskin look about him. The hair was right, he had the stubble, he had the eye patch, too. He had a worn leather jacket on, it wasn't a replica or anything like that, but it appeared to be more functional, with extra pockets. It covered his body armor, which reminded me of what Mandalorian warriors would wear. All in all, he looked like Snakes character if the movie was called Escape from Mandelore City. The lady in the room looked like Carrie-Anne Moss and her character from the Matrix. From the short black hair to the shiny black getup, her body language screamed 'touch me and that hand will never touch anything again'. Fitting. As for the two guys tied up, I tried not to look at them too much, I bent my neck to look past the two others standing in front of them and saw that they were on their knees centered on transporter pads. I saw that my new friends were sitting on the control station for the transporter and they didn't care what buttons they were hitting.

"Excuse my colleague. He was on the wrong side of a contract and is still feeling it's effects." Zo tried to make excuses for me. He gestured to the Kurt Russell wannabe and looked at me. "This is Snake, spelled 5-N-A-K-3." He looked at 5nak3 and gestured to me, then he looked back at me, "I'm just going to introduce you as X. And this is X." He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Hi." I muttered timidly. 5nak3 didn't respond.

"And this is the lovely lady is Trilogy." Zo bowed slightly to her.

"Nice to meet you all." I forced the nicety.

"Shut your fucking mouth" Trilogy replied. Her and 5nak3 stopped leaning on the control panel and walked around to the front of the raised portion of the transporter room. Zo instructed me with his hands to follow.

"Who are these guys?" I asked, aiming my question at Zo.

"I think the lady told you to shut your fucking mouth kid." 5nak3 spoke over me.

Zo pointed his hands and separated 5nak3 and Trilogy, "Enough." Then he grabbed me by both of my shoulders and walked me to the gap he created between them. "These are the people I really wanted you to meet." He whispered eerily in my ear.

"Okay, you still haven't dialed back the weird." I said louder than I intended. I got a closer look at the two schmucks they had tied up. One of them was wearing some serious PvP gear and expensive vanity items. He was squirming and making the most noise. The other guy was just dressed in a simple blue business suit. He was like a statue.

"I have some ulterior motives, I must confess. One of these men is the lowly guild leader of that tiny group of idiots, that one is for you. The other is the broker that underestimated you and overestimated his clients, that one's for me." He stepped on the the transporter pad and grabbed the guild leader by his hair. His squirming stopped and he started whining. "Pathetic."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious, kid? He wants you to kill them." 5nak3 interjected. The guild leader started freaking out even more and fell over on to his side.

"It isn't that simple, Snake." He added. "I want my new friend, X, to make a choice."

"A choice?" I made an uncertain noise.

"A choice." Trilogy reassured.

"A very important choice." Zo explained. "I know you have plans to kill every single one of the members of that pathetic young man's guild, as fun as it may seem to you, but I have more pressing issues for you to attend to."

"What are my choices, exactly?" I inquired.

Zo came back over and stood behind me. His avatar was just a little taller I just then noticed. "You can make quick work of this plebeian, leave the rest of his guild for another day and come work for me. Take the jobs I broker to you. Or you can go back to looking over your shoulder, waiting for someone with a childish grudge to snuff you out."

"Oh." I was a little stunned. The choice was pretty obvious to me, but I had more questions. "Will I get paid, or at least a cut?"

"Of course, of course." He replied. "You get to do as you please, within reason, and when I give you a contract, I ask that you make it your top priority."

"Seems easy enough." I said.

"It is! Hurry this up." Trilogy said, tapping two of her fingers against her wrist where a watch would be if she wore one.

"Yes, yes." Zo said speedily. "Delete this worm, X." He pointed to the guild leader, who was now squirming and sobbing on the floor.

"Why haven't they just logged out?" I asked, drawing my weapon.

"This is a PvP zone, you know the rules. They logout here, we get 60 seconds of pinata time." 5nak3 explained.

I sat the guild leader back up on to his knees, I pulled off his blindfold and gag. "Pleeeeeaase!" He cried out, I could hear him spitting over the mic. "No! No no no no! Don't do this."

"Why not?" I asked him as I stood up, keeping eye contact.

"I-I-I've had this avatar since I was just a-a little boy!" His sobbing interrupted his speech, I must be doing something that really upset him. I walked around him to his back. "NO!" He continued to cry out.

"Where did you find this guy, Zo? He's sick." 5nak3 said, looking at me.

"He's not actually killing anyone." Trilogy added.

"He isn't, but he is going to be ruining someone's life." Zo explained.

I placed the barrel of my gun to the back of his head and made sure to manually cock it slowly, the most satisfying way to cock a virtual gun. With a "Vaya con Dios." I pulled my trigger and crit all over the back of his head. Whenever an avatar is restrained or incapacitated, you are guaranteed to crit. Some areas of the avatars become instant kill zones in these positions as well. The back of the head is one of them. The guild leader's body fell limp to the floor and started to dissipate.

"Quite fabulous!" Zo exclaimed. "Now it's time for your first contract."

"Already?" I asked. Everyone in the room who wasn't bound or dead looked at me and then looked at the man who was still bound. "Oh."

"Don't bother wasting your time taking his blindfold or gag off. He's a clone." 5nak3 pleaded, then he held up his hand, telling me to stop. "Some people have hacked rigs that let them create multiple avatars. This was the only one we were willing to grab for Zo at the time."

Zo prompted, "You must dispatch him, then the eight others like him. I'll provided you with everything you need to know once we finish up here."

I pointed my gun at the center mass of the bound clone and fired three rapid shots into his back. "There." I said. "Now we are done here."

"Quite." Zo said.

"Thank you for the work and stopping by for a visit, Zo. It's so good to see you still recruiting and being a lunatic menace." Trilogy said shaking Zo's hand.

"Always a pleasure" 5nak3 shook Zo's hand as well.

"You're all too kind." Zo responded graciously.

"And X" Trilogy said sweetly.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Get the fuck off my ship!" Trilogy yelled.

"Right now! Get out of here!" 5nak3 added to the yelling.

I ran out of the transporter room to the Turbolift, I could hear Trilogy and 5nak3 still yelling and Zo trying not to laugh. Once I made it back to my ship and backed out of the hangar, I took the long way back where I started. I had plenty of fuel just to fly back, and it would take a little bit of time. Time I needed to sort out what had just happened.

Not much time had passed before I chat link dossier from Zo, I put my ship on autopilot and opened the link. The file downloaded and displayed multiple windows full of information. From right to left, the windows displayed a few screen caps of the eight clones he tasked me to find, all identical looking, a list of recent activities included last known location, and a block of text. I started looking at their faces and the backdrops to all of the screen caps, I noticed something unnerving, actually I noticed a few things that undid all of the work I put into putting myself back at ease. They traveled in a pack. They traveled in a pack and used synchronized movements and coordinated attacks. I also didn't find any comfort in their names. All of them were numeric, six numbers in sequence all starting with the number five. 501500, 501501, 501502, 501504, 501505, 501506, 501507, 501508. I guess I killed lucky number 501503. I moved on to the eyestraining brick wall of words.

The TL;DR of my situation, a rough summary from the textbook I forced myself to finish, became increasingly severe. A multi-million dollar company has employees running around a simulation to generate revenue, reputation, items, anything that could equate to real world value. They also have four other divisions: name numbers beginning with 1 are the elite PvP superstars, they have everything handed to them and are used to control territories inside the OASIS. 2's are the research and development players, they are the architects of player generated worlds and have also been witnessed to exploit the game code. Mr. 3's are the simulations blackmarket enthusiasts, they buy up, undercut and attempt to control the in game auctions and economy. 4's are the undecided recruits, they have been seen doing every other job at a very basic level. Which leaves the employees with the names starting with 5, they exploit the hardware and software of the game, normally run in packs of 10 or more all being controlled by one player, to batch powerlevel avatars and pass them on to the rest of the company. All of this information was compiled by multiple people dealing with innumerable cases of run ins with the company paid players, but the disclaimer at the beginning and at the end explained that this information is not from an insider and just the observations that have been made, collected and compared.

I remember hearing about IOI before, also called by their full name Innovative Online Industries, they were just an internet service provider as far as I knew. Now I knew more, so I guess that wasn't entirely the truth. With the demand for high speed access internet growing exponentially, the company grew just as fast. They absorbed other large ISP companies and even started umbrella and shell corporations. Their vertical and horizontal expansion rivaled Walmart's. It was also explained in my dossier that their interest in the OASIS was non-existent until the ingame credit surpassed the USD in value. After that, almost all of their business dealings were done via computer simulation. I didn't know if I should be terrified or not, that guy on the other side of the screen is going to use all eight of his avatars in unison like a firing squad on me if I just run in, and he still might do that with any other approach I take. I barely survived a three on one encounter. I had to become more educated on my enemy. I had to come up with a plan.