Chapter 8

The 3rd Cycle.

The reset meant I couldn’t start the new cycle in my command chair. So before I climbed off the regeneration chamber’s table, I opened up my interface and bought all my paths up to their max. That put my station tech at 13 and the others at 6. I blacked out and woke up to see the lid opening again.

I went over to the locker and started getting dressed, finally enjoying the 4K vision experience. My overalls had a chest plate on them now, but my particle pistol looked the same as it always did. It never actually changed in design, even when I had bought my personal tech path up to 40. My overalls, however, turned into an ironman style suit of armor at a higher level which was cool.

Tee opened the door for me, and I casually shot the level 1 station rat near the door in the back of the spine, making it a paraplegic. I left it there to go and heal and made my way to the control room, doing the same to the other station rats the crossed my path.

Shooting where I wanted was now so easy that it was painful to think about how bad I’d been. I was also a lot more confident about my ability to do station maintenance.

The blast doors opened as I approached, exposing a control room that was just as boring and drab as it had always been, but that was about to change. Dad was right. I needed to stop thinking of this as a game and instead think of it as a career. That meant I needed to personalize my workspace.

“Tee, it’s time to redecorate the control room and turn it into a command room.”

“It’s about time. What are we going with? I’m thinking tentacles and anime girl body pillows, so you feel at home.”

I laughed. “That’s not happening. I want a command chair designed after the one from the Enterprise, but make it comfortable, because the one on the show never looked comfortable. I also want the carpet, the view screen, those display screens on the walls, and I want the lights to still glow red when a fleet is approaching. I want the center of the room to be lower than the rest so that we can fill it with a massive 3D hologram of the station and the space around it. I want a ready room through the wall to my left, with Star Trek sleeping quarters and amenities attached.”

“I don’t think they ever showed what the toilets looked like. And sonic showers aren’t a thing.”

“Give me a regular bathroom that looks appropriate then.”

“I can do that. What else?”

“Give me a meeting room through the wall behind me on the opposite side to the blast doors. Is there any way for me to give you a body?”

“No, but you can give me a holographic projector. It’s kind of redundant, in my opinion. It just gives you something to look at and is for species that can’t handle talking to disembodied voices.”

“If you don’t want it, we will leave it out. I want the table replaced with a retractable footstool that can go into the floor, in case I want to put my feet up, and buttons of my armrest that can end calls, so I don’t have to tell you to do it. Also, can you have the holographic images improved? They’re kind of fuzzy when my physical tech gets past 10.”

“I can, but it will cost 5,000 credits to buy the blueprints for the tech.”

I frowned at that. I was on a budget. “How much is everything going to cost me currently?”

“10,000 credits and 15 RP. It will take about an hour to implement.”

I blinked. “That’s cheap?”

“This is cosmetic stuff that doesn’t have a huge impact on the station's function. The price is appropriate.”

“Pay it.”

“I need your permission in-game to purchase the level 2 R5-M upgrades.”

A list of level 2 R5 upgrades appeared in front of me. The total cost was 8,500,000 credits. The government guys weren’t that good at thinking outside the box. The only good designs they had managed to put together in time were for a decent mid-weight version of the R5s, and even those hadn’t been perfect. The Librarian and I managed to take what they gave us and redesign it into something that was actually good. If I’m being honest, it was more The Librarian than me. The way that man’s brain worked when optimizing something was a gift I couldn’t come close to.

The new design was called the R5-M. It was the most resource cost-effective long-range weapon design, period. It was extremely expensive credit wise and wouldn’t do anything more than strip the external weapons off a ship like a heavy cruiser or battleship, but it was perfect for what I wanted it to do.

I read through the list twice. “Buy it.”

I pulled up my upgrade list for the R5s. I unlocked all three different types of rounds and then bought all 10 levels for: Damage, Rate of Fire, Range, Accuracy, Power Efficiency, Explosive, Stealth, and Maneuvring Rounds. Along with the Double and Triple Barrel, taking away 45 station points from my personal pool, leaving me with 46.

I needed to invest enough so that I didn’t have to think about station defense at all for as long as possible.

The list of upgrades looked a lot shorter now and there was a new option.

R5 Upgrades

Description

Effect

Available

Cost

Internal Battery

+50E

0/10

5

Internal Reactor

+5E

0/10

100

Point Defense

N/A

0/10

10

Burst Fire

N/A

0/1

1000

“Tee, what does burst fire do and where did it come from?”

It hadn’t been there the last time I checked.

“You got it when you selected those blueprints that doubled the R5-Ms rate of fire. It allows for five shots from your R5-M in quick succession. I thought I mentioned that other upgrades would become available for some weapons as you level?”

“I thought you meant that they’d just appear on my list. You didn’t say that I’d needed to incorporate specific blueprints into the design.”

“Most of the time, you don’t. This is a hidden upgrade. They only appear when a design is optimized. You should buy The Librarian a beer.”

“Definitely.”

I pulled up the specs for my new R5-M railgun.

Name: R5-M Triple Barrel

Designation: Mid Weight Railgun

Damage: 180-540

Rate of fire: 1/15 sec (per barrel)

Range: 150 units

Accuracy: 150 units

Power Consumption: 60E

Ammo types:

Explosive: Max

Stealth: Max

Maneuvering: Max

The R5-Ms were nasty compared to what the Wargarg had to face, which meant I wouldn’t have to deal with external attacks for a long time. It also meant I wouldn‘t gain a significant influx of resources for a long time. I’d have to work with what I received each cycle, which wasn’t a lot. I’d also have to worry about their faction leveling because each time they leveled, their ring would move further away from the station. I could shoot them the moment they left the ring right now, but that would eventually change.

So I needed levels and I needed credits.

“I’m going to go and level the station rats,” I said, annoyed at having to do this again. “I don’t know why he didn’t just let them spawn at level 10. I mean, dying doesn’t lose me credits anymore, so what’s the point?”

“It uses up time,” Tee said. “Time can make a massive difference at later stages. Your Station could get to be the size of a moon. You will be making thousands of weapons a day. Doing what you are doing now is impossible at those stages, so giving you upgraded mobs even if it was just the rats would be a big advantage.”

“At least now the station is level 2 I get twice the resources and credits from them.”

“And because you are level 13, you will only have to die 8 times instead of 100. Do you want me to build the 10 R5-Ms?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ll finish this, and then we can do the expansion quest. This time we’ll try to do it properly.”

***

The knowledge about how to use a particle pistol and how to fight had added itself to my head the same way everything else had, which meant I had no clue how I knew these things. I just did. It felt like something I had always known, something that had been with me so long that I’d forgotten where it came from. I just knew how to do it. It was as natural as walking or breathing.

So dealing with the rats was frustrating. I was now so good at fighting I instinctively dodged without thinking about it. I had to actively force myself to stand still for them to hit me. Closing my eyes didn’t help. I could read the environment and dodge them using only sound and scent. Letting them hit me made me twitchy. Thankfully it didn’t take nearly as long to level them all as the first time.

Once that was over, Tee started the first expansion quest for me. The Kilocksins spawned again, and I went to meet them, ready to try to clear my quests for the special clearance reward.

I had my hands raised, showing I was unarmed as I walked around the corner into their corridor. All six eight-foot reptilians held their spears, with their muzzles pointed towards me as I made my way forward. Their massive eyes followed my steps in a way that told me they were well trained.

Tee had promised they would behave like their race, and that Kilocksin didn’t attack unarmed individuals unless provoked. Unarmed apparently included those with holstered weapons.

I was hoping he was right, because I was getting tired of seeing the inside of the regeneration chamber.

I watched the Kilocksins, searching for a clue that might help me clear this quest the way I should.

Three generals had already successfully cleared one of these quests with a special clearance method. They all agreed that the quests were designed to teach us about our enemy and that the rewards were more than worth the effort. They had each received a cultural education package for their special clearance rewards. It had turned them into an expert on their enemy’s culture overnight.

I wanted that.

So I was going to take as much time as I needed to get it. Tee thought I was probably supposed to fight these guys without weapons, stating that not all special clearance quests would work for all paths. I had so many spare path points that my physical path was currently 7, after leveling from killing the rats. That was higher than every other station master in my faction. Tee figured I had a good chance of succeeding.

After seeing how they moved, I agreed.

I could pull these guys apart easily.

I smiled as I walked up to the humanoid Komodo dragons. “Good evening gentleman, any of you interested in doing this old school?” I slowly drew my particle pistol, tossed it to the side, and raised my fists.

“The ape-man wants to fight,” the biggest one said. “This is good.”

He tossed his spear to another and then removed his shield bracer. Next, he lost his armored vest. He did the old head tilt clicking his neck and walked over.

My smile became genuine since he was being friendly. “Is there a ritual greeting we do before this sort of fight among your people?” I now had all sorts of knowledge about combat to draw on, and almost every race had a polite way of starting a fight.

“You show respect. This is also good. To signal you wish to fight a Kilocksin warrior, place your hand over your mouth and then move it toward your opponent, like this. It means the time for negotiating is over and you want violence. If your opponent agrees, they will do the same in return. We then stand at arm's length and lightly tap the back of our hands to our opponent’s hand. When we make contact, the fight begins, and the victor proves who had the strongest conviction.”

“So I do it like this?” I tried to imitate what he had done.

“No. You covered part of your nose. That is incorrect. It means you wish to fight me because I smell bad. It is an insult to your opponent. The force with which you cover your mouth is also an indicator of how deeply you feel that negotiations have finished.”

“Wow. How much can you communicate with this gesture?”

“You can tell someone you only wish to fight to impress a potential mate. You can tell a friend that this is a matter of honor and that your feelings for them have not changed. You can tell another that you have lost someone dear and need to work out your frustration. It is as broad as any language.”

If the quests were designed to teach us about our enemy, then this might be important. “Would you mind explaining this all, so I do it properly?”

The Kilocksin seemed happy as he nodded.

After twelve hours, I told him I needed to get some rest and then promised him I’d come back after I’d slept. This one gesture had more to it than a Japanese tea ceremony, and this was the first time I felt tired while in the game. I’d never lived long enough for a proper sleep cycle to kick in, and the system reset me every time I died, so until now, I didn’t need it.

I briefly considered shooting myself in the head, so I didn’t have to sleep, but that seemed like going down a dark path that didn’t lead to a happy game experience. And the first two sleepless cycles in-game had really got to me. My dreams had been weird ever since. I’d had this one where I was in a dance competition against vampire flamingos. The loser had to go on a date with Shrek, dressed as Fiona.

It was a weird date.

Not wanting to repeat that level of bizarreness, I made my way back to my command room. I smiled as soon as I walked through the blast doors.

The entire center of the room was taken up by a massive hologram of the station and the surrounding space, which only enhanced how stupid the ball-shaped station looked. It was just plain dumb. Nowhere near as cool as the Death Star.

The rest of the room was fantastic.

Tee had put up the design and specs for the R5-M on one of the wall screens, along with the layout for the dungeon, the mob I had at my disposal, the station systems, and the resources I had left. Everything I needed had its own screen. And there was a proper viewscreen. No more talking through holograms that were disproportionately sized. My command chair even looked the way I had imagined it.

I walked over and took a seat.

It was like my old gaming chair. The one they no longer produced but was way better than anything they had now. It fit me perfectly.

“You did good, Tee. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. I just connected what you were describing to the station's main computer and it did the work. It took me like two seconds.”

“Sure it did,” I said, knowing he was lying. “I’m going to have a shower and then get some sleep. Is there any way to turn off that sleep option and have it work naturally?”

“I’ve just disabled it for you. Have a good sleep.”

Nine glorious hours later, I made my way back to the Kilocksins and continued my lessons. It was not fun. It was barely interesting. And if this turned out to be a dead-end, I was going to have to punch a few rats to get rid of my frustration.

I smiled at Tumpa midway through the second day.

He had spent 18 hours teaching me just how to start a fight correctly. He was an AI-generated NPC, but he was also so lifelike I felt grateful, so I challenged him to a fight. It was a fight of thanks. Making the gesture correctly was complicated with four fingers. The Kilocksin only had two and a thumb.

The fight of thanks wasn’t really a fight. It was a slapping contest where you let your opponent slap you first. The fight could be called at any time, but it was considered polite to let the initiator hit you back. So usually, you got hit twice, and they were only hit once.

Usually.

Tumpa slapped me so hard I died.

I woke in my regeneration chamber, staring at a prompt.

Quest Completed

Expand Control I

Quest Rewards:

Defense Slots: 20

Path Points: 1

Tokens: 100

Secret Reward:

Kilocksin Liaison Tumpa

Kilocksin Cultural Education Package

“Oh, damn,” Tee said. “That’s a hell of a reward.”

“Yeah, it’s cool that I get to understand their culture,” I said, climbing off the table to go get dressed.

“Not that. I mean Tumpa. I think they gave you him so he can keep everything fresh and teach their culture to your immortal soldiers. It will make them better fighters against the Kilocksin. Yep, I just checked the options. You’ve got a new skill option for your immortal soldiers. Oh, that’s cool. He spawns in your station. He can help you do station maintenance and level.”

“What’s his level cap?”

“Yours.”

“Damn, that’s kind of great, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I mean not right now, because you need the experience, but someday.”

“Have you found out how much it’s going to cost me to build the station the way I want?”

“It says you need at least 1,000 structure slots, and it's going to take 50,000 RP.”

“The design is cosmetic?”

“Only because you can’t afford the additional upgrades yet,” Tee said. “It’s also massive and leads on to a whole bunch of future possibilities. They did an amazing job on this.”

That was true. The government contacted the guys who had designed Deep Space Nine, explaining what I needed. They’d been happy to participate since it was me who wanted the help, even working around the clock to get it done. But they’d quickly realized they were better at designing something that looked cool rather than functioned well and asked for the assistance of experts.

They’d been given naval ship architects.

Because of that and a few other reasons, my station wasn’t going to look like Deep Space Nine as much as I would have liked. My weapons looked too much like World War II battleship cannons to fit in with that art style. There were a lot more straight lines and sharp corners. Terraced sides where weapons could overlap. I’d still have the two rings and the arches, but instead of three arches, there were going to be five, and every inch of them would eventually be covered in weapons. Actually, every inch of the station’s rings was going to be covered in weapons.

The station design they finished creating looked like Deep Space Nine, and a battleship had a baby, and it took more after the battleship. It was intimidating, but it didn’t look futuristic.

“They did do a good job, Tee. Built the new R5’s and I’ll level the rats. Then I’ll take a crack at the second expansion quest and see if I can get it done before the end of the day.”

“You know the turrets can’t move once they're placed right.”

“I’ve got that option that says it can?”

“Yeah, but that costs resources.”

I groaned. “Why did you let me build the other ones then?”

“You said the station needed more defenses.”

“How much will it cost to move them?”

“Only 10% of their total cost.”

“That’s a quarter of my daily resources. No way I’m paying that. They can wait until I’m done building the station. Load up the second quest. Let’s do this.”

It turned out that despite my politeness and my enthusiasm, I couldn’t complete the Horde’s quest in a way that didn’t involve killing them. Every time I went to talk to them, they told me to get out of their territory, and when I tried to keep talking, they killed me. So by the time the third cycle finished, I still wasn’t done.