Various buildings are for sale in the cities throughout CNO known as player homes. Only the owner and those granted permission by them are able to enter. Player homes provide multiple benefits, but are primarily used as a place to relax or have privacy. Players can log out from a player home without their avatar staying behind like it would out in the field.

-Cyber Nexus Online Manual: Player Homes

Two weeks had passed since I won the recent event and obtained the Ultra Core.

In that time, I had gotten more offers than I could count to buy the Ultra Core off me. For every player I turned down, ten more came at me with a higher offer. Part of me couldn't blame them. It was an extremely useful, one or a kind item (at least for the time being). Any player would jump at the chance to get their hands on it.

But dammit, couldn't people understand the simple sentence of "It's not for sale" after having it repeated for over a week?

If nothing else, the offers were finally starting to die down. After two weeks, most players had assumed I had already used it and gave up hope. I could only hope the rest of CNO's player base would think the same within the next week or so.

The truth was I hadn't used it yet. I was torn. There was no doubt if I used it to increase the maximum number of upgrades on my Hermes that it would give me a temporary big advantage over other players. Hell, I could even potentially take first place in the next Cyber Clash, provided no other ways to obtain an Ultra Core were implemented by then. But CNO was a VRMMO, and that meant it was constantly evolving in every aspect, including gear. If during the next update they introduced a new NBS that surpassed the Hermes model, using it then would be better in the long run. But Hermes had been a trusty NBS for me for months now, and it was going to take a pretty hard sell for me to replace it.

I walked through the streets of Serulis. By this time, my face had become rather well known around the city. Info brokers had made a small fortune no doubt selling every bit of info they had on me to the players eager for some good gossip. So I had gotten glances from several players as I passed by them, some struck in awe, others trying to act tough with what I could only imagine was their attempt at an intimidating glare.

Perhaps this was another reason Violet had let me have the Ultra Core, besides extorting sweets out of me. If she had gotten it, the name Bloody Rose would be spreading like wildfire throughout the game. Given how much she hated that nickname, I could imagine her wanting to avoid that possibility.

Speaking of Violet, the two of us were scheduled to go hunting in the fields together in an hour. That gave me a bit of time to myself. But the question was what to do with it. Perhaps I could go check out some of the player-run shops and see if they had any interesting deals.

Just as I was about to decide on which shop to start with, a message notification popped up in front of me. I tapped it and a window opened up.

Yo, you free man? I got something sweet to show you. Swing by my garage if you can. -Shingo

I let out a sigh as I closed the window. Shingo was another in-game friend I had made in CNO. I had known him longer than Violet by about two months. He was a good guy, but his enthusiasm over showing off new customizations of NBS bordered on the obsessive at times. He would always find new ways to change or improve on his heavy artillery style of play. And every time he did, he messaged me, wanting to show it off or test it out.

Well, an hour probably wasn't going to be enough time to fully explore all the shops anyway. I might as well see what he wanted.

I walked through the streets down to the lower sector of Serulis. Player homes here were pretty affordable, even if they weren't all that fancy. Besides having your own personal hang-out spot, there was another benefit that a majority of player homes and guild buildings had. Garages.

I don't mean the type of garage where you park vehicles of course. They were essentially workshops players could use to craft weapons. Normally, most players used weapons they either bought in stores or found as drops. But if a player had a garage, they could craft their own weapons. Crafting weapons required two things, a recipe and materials. A recipe was the list of materials needed for crafting a specific weapon that could be obtained in a variety of ways from buying them to getting them as quest rewards. You couldn't craft a weapon without it, even if you had the necessary materials. On top of that, you could use extra materials to fine tune the weapon's parameters somewhat to meet your needs when crafting. Higher damage output, better range, etc. All you had to do was use a garage, access the recipe through your menu, use up the materials, and presto. For players like Shingo who liked to make a variety of weapons in his pursuit of the "ultimate NBS", it was a useful thing to have.

After walking through the lower sector, I came to Shingo's home. It was rather small, with a dark gray exterior and sliding electronic door. I knocked on the door, which allowed my voice to get through to the other side. "Shingo. It's me."

"Coming!" a voice soon called. I heard the sound of footsteps approaching and seconds later the electronic door slid open. Standing on the other side was Shingo. His avatar was a bit on the chubby side and had blonde hair. He was wearing a black shirt with a brown military-like jacket over it with various pockets on the front.

"Yo, Tae my man! You got here faster than I thought you would." Shingo greeted. "Were you that excited to see my latest creation?"

"Something like that." I said.

"Well don't just stand there then. Come on, I just finished equipping everything."

Shingo led me inside the house, the door closing behind us. Given its small size, it only consisted of two rooms besides the entranceway where we were standing. A door ahead led to a single bedroom, while the opening to the right led to the garage where I followed Shingo.

The garage was by far the biggest room in the house. It consisted of two worktables, as well as a hanger where players could see their fully equipped NBS as if they were standing in front of a mirror with it on.

"You're gonna freak out when you see this. It's definitely my best design yet." Shingo said. "You ready?"

"Sure, sure." I answered, taking a seat in one of the chairs in the room.

"Alright. Here goes." Shingo placed his left hand on the back palm of the black gauntlet he was wearing. "Engage!"

Just like that, Shingo's body became enveloped with a flash of light. Seconds later, it died down and showed his NBS along with the weapons and gadgets it had equipped.

Shingo's playstyle was very much on the straightforward side, going all out in power. His NBS was a Guardian class NBS called Metal Ogre, a tank among tanks. It had a black frame and covered his entire body, including his head. Despite its incredibly low speed, it had high strength to allow it to equip lots of heavy equipment. On his back was a backpack with two large canons hanging over his shoulders, a gadget known as an Artillery Bomber. But to add onto that, another pair of cannons were attached to his waist, with a handle sticking up from each that I could only assume were for aiming and firing. I was confident in my memory of all the gadgets in the game and had never seen one like that, so I could only assume it was a weapon.

"How do you like it?! Say hello to my Metal Ogre Mk032!" Shingo said. As the name implied, it was his thirty-second customization of his Metal Ogre, at least as far as ones he was satisfied with went. I couldn't see his face because of the helmet mask, but knowing Shingo I had to assume he was grinning with pride under it.

"It certainly screams you." I noted. "Are those cannons at your waist a new weapon you created?"

"Pretty sick, right?! I got the recipe for these baddies just last week! They're called Twin Plasma Cannons! I had to make a couple versions to get a feel for them and see what needed upgrading for the real thing, but it was totally worth it! The collective firepower between them and my Artillery Bomber gadget is insane! Ugh, if only I had these for the Ultra Core event!"

"I really don't think it would have helped you much." I told him. With all that weight, you never would have made it to the end before everyone."

"Psh, who needs speed when I have enough power to blast away the HP of any sucker that comes across my path! There wouldn't have even been ten players left in the event by the time I got to the top floor."

"And yet you got taken out in the preliminary round before the big event even happened."

"Don't remind me of that…" Shingo groaned as he held his head low in shame. "Still can't believe that bastard got such a lucky shot against me." He feverently tried to shake the thoughts out of his head, and unequipped his NBS. "Anyway, I did manage to see you kicking some serious ass in the event! Congrats again on winning."

"Thanks. It sure wasn't easy."

"Well you certainly seemed to have another beautiful lady besides Lady Luck looking out for you." Shingo added with a smirk. "Come on, be honest with me. How far have you gotten with Bloody Rose?"

"This again?" I asked with a sigh. Ever since discovering that Violet was on my friends list after I told him one day, he seemed to have this unshakable belief that the two of us had the hots for each other. The story of the two of us taking down a raid boss together certainly added to his suspicions. "Look I told you already, it's not like that. We're just friends. We party up here and there to tackle things too tough for us to solo. That's it."

"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you? A hot babe like her and you never tried to make a move?"

"Just because a girl's cute doesn't mean I have to hit on her."

"So you admit she's cute."

I rolled my eyes. "Will you give it a rest?"

"Well then, can you at least introduce me to her so I can ask her out?"

"Trust me, you are not her type."

"Sounding awfully protective there~" When he saw my annoyed glare that followed, Shingo gave up. "Fine, fine, I'll drop it for now." he said. "So are you meeting up with her anytime soon?"

"In a little under an hour actually. We're gonna go hunting out near Welsh."

"Well if something happens between you two, you better give me all the juicy details later." Shingo said. Suddenly his expression took a more serious turn. "By the way, I'd suggest being careful while you're out there. I've heard some disturbing rumors recently."

"What kind of disturbing rumors?" I asked.

"Apparently there's been a lot of PKing incidents out in the fields recently. Lots of parties have gotten ambushed and taken out, and from what I've heard it's all being done by the same party."

"Any idea on who it is? A guild perhaps?"

"Some of the rumors did mention a guild symbol. Doesn't sound like it's a well known one though. Most of the victims got taken out in the blink of an eye." Shingo explained. "It's probably some small-time group trying to make a name for themselves. But you should still be careful. They may target you cause you have the Ultra Core and all."

"Fair point. At least there's no chance of them stealing it from me." I said.

As with many MMOs, CNO included a death penalty feature. Upon dying, players would lose some of the bits they had on them, as well as a chance to drop a few items at random. Thankfully, Cores were excluded from the list of potential drop items as they were so valuable. And just like the regular Cores, the Ultra Core fell under the same category.

But that didn't mean they wouldn't come after me for my reputation alone.

"I know you can handle yourself, but these guys have gotten to a few parties already. Watch yourself." Shingo said.

"Thanks for the warning." I looked at the top right corner of my vision. It was nearing the meetup time with Violet. "I gotta get going. See you around."

As I headed for the door, Shingo called out to me. "Seriously, introduce me to Bloody Rose sometime. I bet I could charm her if I got the chance."

"Fine, but don't blame me when she kills you ten times over."

With those parting words, I exited the house and began making my way to the usual meetup spot with Violet. Shingo could tell himself I was trying to keep Violet to myself all he wanted. But in reality, I wasn't protecting her from him. I was protecting him from her.

A/N: Hello again, readers. Hope you all liked Shingo and the first chapter of the Sparrow's Trap arc. This one is going to be much longer than the previous arc, as that one was more of an introductory arc. There's plenty of twists and surprises to come so look forward to it everybody.