"rrAAAAAAAAAAAA! –AAAaaar…" The crawling humanoid robot screeched as it died, the aching scream slowing down until there was no sound left. The molten line that had been created through its body was still hot because of my lightsword, and actually managed to melt some of the ground underneath it. Sparks jumped out of the cut line, but I had to press forward to find that Vladlenivetch.

I quickly ransacked side rooms, making sure not to leave Leona for upwards of a couple minutes. She always seemed to get lonely when I was not around in VR, especially when there was tension or exclusivity on the line.

I glanced to the left side of my vision, seeing the map that I had compiled in crystal clear view. From what it read, we were on the wrong path to making it to the Vladlinevetch.

"Dammit…" I muttered, carrying Leona over my shoulder once more. I had been doing this for the past twenty minutes. Even as the hallways began to become emptier and emptier, I was losing hope, patience, and a will to keep going on this session…

But every time I thought that this was going to be my final moment hunting for this stupid item, Leona told me, "No, keep going… We'll find it, I promise…"

How much did she believe in me? How much was she willing to risk, just for some kid and his desire to have a hot new implant shoved into his back?

No, I wasn't some kid… My name is Thomas Trey Trenor, my alias is Zenith, and I'll find that Vladlenivetch and I'll do whatever it takes to get it in my hands!

A large square vent now sat in front of my vision. It was big enough to fit an average-sized man lying flat on his stomach and crawling through, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fit…

"Leona, wake up," I ordered, gently bumping my deactivated lightsword into her boot. She murmured, and squirmed around… I was surprised that she was comfortable in such a position, but since she wasn't getting up, I had no choice but to use force.

So I dropped her on the ground, in she promptly sat up and began yelling at me

"You asshole! Why did you drop me onto the ground when you knew I was about to fall asleep?! Out of all the people I trust to carry me around, you just DROP ME?! ARE YOU INSA-" She promptly stopped. Both of our heads shot to the vent as a sound began to emit from it. It sounded like a voice, but nothing like we'd ever heard before.

It first made a sharp exhale, then began to speak our names.

"Zenith… Leona… Come…"

"How did it..-?"

"Huh..?"

Both Leona and I were equally confused. We stared into the vent unsure of who or what had just spoken to us…

"Come… I am no enemy, and I give you what you come for…"

"Do you have the Vladlenivetch?" I questioned with a threatening intonation.

"I made the Vladlenivetch…"

Leona and I quickly glanced at each other in surprise. This person–likely an NPC created by the system solely for the purposes of lore. Leona sat up, opting to go first.

"Cover me, idiot!" Leona demanded, fitting her petite frame into the conveniently sized ventilation tunnel.

Over the next minute and a half, I stood to guard with my pistol and lightsword at the ready, holding them both with calm ease, even though my avatar's life most certainly depended on it.

"Okay, now you!" Leona called out through the vent, which I quickly shimmied myself in after removing my jacket and holstering my equipment on my waist. In just under a minute I was through the vent and felt a butt of a gun on the back of my neck force me out of the tunnel and into the floor.

"That's for dropping me!"

"Uuugh…" I moaned, picking myself up from the floor.

"There you two are… I could see you on the security cameras, but I had no idea you'd find me…" A Russian man began speaking, slowly rubbing his hands together as if he just applied some hand lotion.

As I blinked a few times to clear up my vision, I noticed a slender frame with glasses and flakey gray hair on top. The man had on a white lab coat and had fading pupils, likely going blind with age.

"You're…," I muttered, beginning to realize who this was from the vast amounts of lore I had read over the span of a month searching for the Vladlenivetch.

"Yes, I am Professor Vostoknia Vladlenivetch… I am dying from a brain hemorrhage… But, my device… It will have no owner after I'm dead…"

"Yeah… that's what we came for, the only problem is we've got upwards of a dozen people trying to find it, too," I educated the professor, who coughed with a nasty, watery undertone. He turned away in consideration of what his next action should be, being controlled by the system after all. After computing the response on a server far away, he turned back around with an answer.

"Then I will give it to you," he said simply, and walked towards a door to guide us to the augmentation we had come so far for.

We passed failed projects, hundreds of blinking lights, dead servers, and microscopic supercomputers that all culminated at a large collection of lights at the end of the opening hallway. The walls were pushed into distant rooms to make way for the massive conglomerate of electronics that surrounded a snowy glass chamber.

Inside, a thin black rod-like thing was seen behind frosted glass, and I could feel a sense of awe coming from it.

This was it: this was the Vladlenivetch.

"We… need to prepare you for the operation. Jacket, shirt, anything else on your chest, take it off."

I did as instructed, and opened my menu to quickly tap the jacket, shirt, and body armor on my torso out of existence. "Done," I said firmly.

"Arms up, feet shoulder wide, the system will control you for the duration… Oh, and turn your back to the glass."

Now I could feel pressure in my chest as I turned my back to the glass and held my body in the position he told me to make. What was he about to do, kill me? No, he said it needed a new owner… It had to-

"AAAGH!"

"Zenith!" Leona shouted out, concerned, but still covering the hallway.

"Just–! Aaaugh! Cover us!"

I felt a sharp numbness in the back of my neck. It couldn't have been pain, since the Pain Absorption provided by the Seed Package was mandatory, but it was so sudden that it felt like a needle being shoved into the back of my neck. Because it was.

"Should have warned you… I'm deploying a numbing agent to reduce pain, you shouldn't feel a thing…"

"God damn, make it quick, man!" I shouted, practically staring into the camera that Vlad was monitoring me with. I heard a sigh over the intercom, then a bland "Increasing operation speed to one-hundred-twenty-five percent."

Now I could feel something piercing my spine, and the torture of the quickened operation began.

Within just a few seconds, an icon appeared in my view that signified that my body was under the effects of the numbing agent. Shortly after, another icon appeared, containing the same general shape of the head of the professor who was conducting the surgery. Focusing on the icon revealed it was named, "Doctor's Wishes," and I assumed it was because Vlad was in control of the surgery. Either way, there was no looking back. This was permanent.

Permanent… What did that even mean in a digital avatar? A philosopher would probably say that it's permanent in the sense that another certain action is, with all possible repercussions to boot. A gamer like myself would say that it's permanent in the sense that "permanent marker," is a permanent writing tool, since it can be removed, but you have to delete your account and start from scratch.

Either way, I was going through with it, but I had to keep this as much of a secret as possible. I would use it only when needed…

"We're done…" Vlad said, dropping my body to the ground. I didn't bother with catching myself, as the brand new migraine that I was experiencing made all other senses irrelevant. I could barely hear Leona call out my name and rush over, despite still having a missing leg. I heard a loud "Fwush!" and felt Leona attempt to pick me up.

"C'mon big guy..! We're getting you outta here!" Leona whimpered under my weight. I told her to stop once she had me on my feet. She listened and took a step back, and I could feel her eyes become wide as she stared at me.

Drool was escaping my lips, my eyes felt like they were being stabbed one hundred times over, and my ears, they barely felt like they were there.

"I can feel it… the sensation is trying to kill me, trying to break apart the neurons it can't get to, but I can feel it…" I muttered, taking my hand and placing at my new spine, which was just a trench dug into my back where my original avatar's spine once sat, now shielded and replaced by the Vladlenivetch.

"It is yours now… I'll leave you to yourselves…" Vlad simply said before walking to another door, and shutting it behind himself. A few seconds later, a shot was heard, and I pulled my lightsword from my hip.

"We got one chance to get out of here… Vlad served his purpose, and now it's time to serve ours."

I took the first step, quickly getting used to the new order of my avatar's nerves.

Within minutes, we were outside of the Space Port. My jacket was back on, and I had quickly cleaned up before emerging in the neon lights once more. Outside, Dyne's group was standing with their guns pointed straight at us. Leona and I simply held our hands up in response, keeping our guns in their holsters.

"We didn't get it. Someone else got to it first, shot the doctor who was there, too."

"Malarky! You were the first ones to step out!" Dyne fired back, pulling the trigger just enough to edge the release of the firing pin.

"...First ones to step out of this exit alive, thank you very much. There's two more exits on the other side of the Port. We just happened to cut through a whole buncha people to get here."

Dyne's temples pulsed, but after long enough, he ordered his squad to stand down.

"Fine, come on past. We'll leave this joint once you're out of sight."

Leona and I put our hands down, and casually made our way over to the group, passing them. Or at least Leona did. I stopped and had a quick conversation with one of the members who had blue hair and a big rifle. After giving her a quick inspection to confirm it actually was the sniper girl Sinon, I asked her a basic question.

"You shoot that MADD?"

She nodded.

"Good shot," I simply replied, and was already walking away once she shouted a question back to me.

"How did you survive it?"

"Dunno, Luck Stat, I guess." I chuckled, grinning with mischief.

Little did they know the number of kills the Vladlenivetch had already assisted in.