Avarice: The Realm Chapter one: Freax

Freax

I leap across the gap between apartment buildings, flying over the alleyway, my shadow swimming across the concrete. My quarry is two buildings ahead.

I hold up my hand and activate my Freax. A metallic bow materializes in my fist.

My quarry turns and flips backwards in the air, two shotguns pointed at me. Both fire at the same time.

I deflect one slug with my bow and duck under the second one. The ping of the bullet hitting the building’s roof sounds behind me. I slide behind an air conditioning unit.

So, he means to fight.

My quarry rips open a door to the building’s stairwell and dives in. The door slams behind him.

I take a minute to catch myself and use my Freax to conjure several arrows. One of them contains an autonomous drone, to which I have a video feed.

I fire the drone arrow across two alleyways and, once it lands and deploys the drone, I direct it into the stairwell.

All is clear. My quarry seems to be on the run, after his shots missed. A short fight!

I jump across two alleyways and rush into the stairwell. My drone is still in front of me.

I lose feed to the drone. On instinct, I press against the wall. A blast of hot air shoots past me, singing my nose.

I dematerialize my bow and materialize a trench spike. My quarry is close. I can smell it.

The sound of footsteps going down stairs echoes in the stairwell. I creep towards the source of the sound.

A door to a landing opens. A man steps out—a civilian.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he says. “You’re not authorized!”

I conjure a small memory taser and knock him out. His body slips to the floor, guided by my hands. He won’t remember me being here, and will wake up in half an hour.

The sound of my quarry’s footsteps has faded. I slow my pace even more and continue down the stairs.

There is a slight tug at my feet. A sudden blast pops off next to my head.

I catch a dart in between my fingers—a booby trap. My quarry has a similar Freax to what I have, so this is to be expected. I toss the spike to the side and continue down the stairs.

I cone out into an open stairwell. Three layers down, my quarry is still running. I conjure my bow, arm an arrow, and shoot him in the side of his neck.

My quarry slips and falls to the ground. The tranquilizer in the arrowhead takes effect.

Target captured.

I slide down the stairs and come to where the man is laying.

He is a tough-looking fellow, with several scars and many tattoos. I’m not sure what he was wanted for, but I’m not the person who should know. All I do is catch people.

Bagged, tagged, and taken down. Another successful mission.

Two days later, I stand in front of my operator, inside the government’s secret FREAX-C program headquarters. I’ve had my usual break and now it’s time for my next mission.

My operator, Jones, paces back and forth in front of me.

“We’re going to send you into a game,” he says.

I blink. “A game, sir?” I say. “You mean, like a computer game? A VR game?”

“Neither,” says Jones. “This is a much more deadly game. It’s called The Realm. A black-market Freax-users-only game that teleports players to a realm in another dimension where they play by rules similar to VRMMORPGs. Death there is permanent. You play with your real physical body.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand,” I say. “Why would the US government want to play around with a bunch of stupid Freax-addled adrenaline junkies?”

Jones tilts his head. “I was about to get to that,” he says. “There is a reward for completing the game. Collect one hundred ‘gold’ cards, and you will receive a certain reward.” He pauses, tapping his fingers on his shoulders. “We, the government, do very much care about the reward ourselves. However, we are more concerned with terrorists or other enemies of the state getting their hands on the reward.” He turns around, facing the wall. “There are thousands of people in this game,” he says. “And there are dozens of those types of people. The government already has a large stake in the game, but we’ve decided that we need a specialist to deal with those … Loose cannons, so to speak, who threaten our national security.”

“Tell me more about this game,” I say. “I played video games as a child, but it’s been a long time since I was current with all that technology.”

Jones chuckles. “Yeah, I expected that,” he says. “You’re stone-faced most of the time, after all. I wouldn’t expect you to be interested in entertainment of any kind.” He sighs. “But we really need your help. The game can only be accessed by Freax users, and you’re the best spec-ops agent capable of that who is available right now.”

“Do other governments have an interest in this game?” I ask.

Jones shrugs. “Of course. The rewards are great. Japan, South Africa, and most of NATO are allied with us inside the game. Russia and China aren’t exactly at war with us inside the game, but they aren’t helping us either. India, on the other hand, is actively trying to stymie our advances. And then, of course, there’s all the non-superpower nations who scrabble by as best they can.” Jones turns to face me. “We won’t bother providing you with a translator. There’s a Freax enchantment over the game world that automatically translates between players.” He shrugs. “Though I do know you can speak at least seven languages.” He taps his foot. “Your assignment begins the day after tomorrow. We’ll let you into where we keep the consoles.”

I salute, and step away from the briefing room. As I walk through the hallway, I nod politely at several of my coworkers. Even though we’re bounty hunters and assassins, we still get all the benefits of being an office worker. Health, dental, 401k. All the good stuff.

I get into my sports car and drive towards home. The center is located in Millvale, Virginia, a tiny town of less than ten thousand people that is actually quite close to an international airport.

My house is not exactly a mansion, but it is bigger than your average domicile. Standing at two stories tall, it is inhabited by me and my two dogs, Richard and Glive. When I open the door, both dogs pounce on my.

“Hey, boys,” I say, as I rub their ears. “Glad to be home.” I crack open a couple of cans of dog food and put it in their bowls. They seem to like it—I always buy the most expensive stuff. I feel like it’s my obligation to make sure that my money makes someone happy.

I head to my cultivation room. It’s a large room the size of a martial arts dojo, with mirrors on the walls and lots of swords, bows, and weapons hanging on racks. I sit in the room’s center, cross-legged, and begin to cultivate. Freax is a temperamental power source. It takes a lot of willpower and concentration to keep it in shape. And, of course, I always aim to improve. I spend the rest of the day cultivating, as well as the day after.

When I arrive at the center to report for my next mission, I find that Jones is standing at the entrance, leaning against a wall.

“Andrew,” he says. “You’re early.”

I nod as I swipe my ID card at the entrance. I walk past him.

Jones peels from the wall and follows me.

“I’ll be sending you with another agent,” says Jones, as he follows me. “You won’t be with her for all your missions inside The Realm, but she does know a lot more about the place than you do. She’ll be training you in how to use The Realm’s mechanics.”

“So The Realm has mechanics,” I say.

Jones nods. “Yeah. You can use things called “cards” to perform all sorts of cool feats. It’s really quite game-like. Though I’ve never seen the place myself, as only people with Freax can enter.”

I continue to walk. “I see,” I say.

Jones points me to one of the meeting rooms that always seems to be empty. “In there,” he says.

I enter. A rather brusque girl with copper red hair is sitting in an office chair at the meeting table’s head. She turns when she sees me.

“So this is the famous Andrew Dayne,” she says, her arms crossed.

I frown. “You don’t exactly sound like you like me.”

“I don’t not like you,” she says, “But your record is too spotless for me to think you’re a good person. Someone as dedicated as you is probably a stuck-up job-only type.”

“Um, sure,” I say. I turn to Jones. “Should I sit down?”

Jones nods, winks, and leaves the room. I sit.

The woman folds her hands in front of her. “The name’s Garnet,” she says. “I’m a veteran of The Realm. There’s a whole lot in there that I need to give you a crash course in.” She turns around in her chair. “We’ll do most of it in-game. But I’m here now to tell you that the place is a hell-hole. Lots of casualties on all sides. There are some organizations that would go to very excessive lengths to achieve a win.”

“So,” I say, “What, exactly, does a win entail?”

Garnet sighs. “We’ll start from there. To win the game, one must collect one hundred and one golden cards.”

“That’s it?” I say. “It’s a collect-athon?

Garnet chuckles. “I’m surprised you know the name. But no. Sort of. The game is more akin to a trading card game.”

I shake my head. “I never played anything like that as a kid.”

Garnet sighs. “Well, I’ll tell you the basics. Each card has something that it does or represents. Gold cards represent very powerful things and objects. You can turn any card into its object or effect, but once you do, it’s gone. Thus, collecting one hundred gold cards is difficult, as you’ll always be tempted to use them.” She turns back around in her seat.

“Our job isn’t to find the cards,” she says. “It’s to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, criminals, and enemies of the state.” She looks me straight in the eye. “And I heard that you’re pretty good at dealing with enemies of the state.”

I shrug. “I suppose. Someone has to do the job.”

Garnet winks. “Well then. Should we enter?” She stands up.

I nod, following her into the hall and to an elevator, which we take to the fifth basement layer. The doors open to show a large, cavernous room equipped with row after row of FunCons, a popular gaming system from two decades ago.

“So this is what they run on?” I say, as I approach one of the consoles.

Garnet chuckles. “Yes, indeed. The last compatible console is, as you can see, the FunCon.”

I touch one of the consoles. It is rather dusty and a bit warm. Four original controller ports are modified with docks that allow more controllers to be attached, for a total of sixteen input spaces.

Garnet walks to one corner of the room. “This is our console,” she says. “All the other spaces are being used by other agents.”

I approach the console Garnet is standing beside. She plugs in a controller and sits down.

“Just press start!” she says, “And activate your Freax!”

Her body disappears in a flash of light.

Well, that was unexpected. I pick up a lose controller and plug it in. When I press start, the whole world lights up and my body disappears.