I walk towards the Alexandra Food Centre but only realized how hungry I was after arriving. I only had a quick breakfast and had missed lunch altogether. The good thing about this is that I no longer had to contend with the lunch crowd as currently there was no queue at any of the stalls. It didn’t take me long to decide what I want. I went to the most popular Hainanese chicken rice stall and order a plate.

As per Singapore hawker culture, the cook was quick and I had a plate of chicken rice in front of me within minutes. At first glance, Hainanese chicken rice don’t look like much. Some boiled white chicken perched on a bed of white rice that seems to be coated in oil but one bite of the dish and I could tell why this stall is popular. The rice from this stall is flavorful and the boiled chicken have soft and delicate flesh. The chicken isn’t fatty at all and instead had the lean soft taste the dish should have. After the plate of chicken rice, I still felt hungry so I decided to order a roll of popiah. What can I say; I’m a big boy.

Popiah is a Chinese-style spring roll that has several ingredients wrap in soft, thin paper-like ‘skin’ that is made from wheat flour. What ingredients to put within the popiah is decided largely by the cook and after placing the skin on chopping board, this stall owner placed a lettuce leaf, some shredded omelett, a prawn, grated carrots, some fired flour and finely grated steamed jicama on it. He then roll up the skin and cut it into five pieces. The fired flour gave the popiah the crunchiness while the tasty and juicy steamed jicama did the rest. It was delicious!

Nothing lift the spirit like good food and I went back to the workshop with a spring in my step. I knew that the stimulation had finish but I didn’t go straight back into Dive. Instead I look around the workshop and check on my safety drone. They are as outdated as Howard said they were so I check on the net for the latest available, and affordable, safety drones on the market. I ordered two drones that could provide both fire-fighting and simple first aid. That set me back about thirty thousand credits but I knew they would be worthwhile investments in the long run.

I was less sure about the security turrets. There are a lot of models available and they came in different categories like laser, ballistics and even some more exotic models like flame throwers. Having no background in security, I decided to let Howard manage the matter. I sent him a message on my budget and told him to select some models suitable for the workshop. Just in case, I added that the flame thrower models are not going to be allowed.

Once that was done, I got back into Dive. The results of the stimulations were much better this time. Based on the data, my variant is now able to dash in and out of combat without suffering extensive damage. Looking over the stimulations, I found that the results of using the propeller first were much better than the jump. In theory, the operator should use the propeller as the entry and if he is surrounded by the enemies, he can use the jump to exit the range of combat. The propeller also has an addition unexpected benefit.

The propeller allows my variant to gather a lot of forward momentum and if it land a punch while under the power of the propeller, it was an instant kill. No more slow moving slog under enemy fire! The move wasn’t perfect as it depend a lot on timing but perfection is a distant dream for a Grade 0 Battlesuit. I was happy enough with the results, so I decided to give my variant a try and enter the ‘Lands of the Whistler’.

It has been some time since I enter the game but once I received the Clockwork Technology skill, I knew I would using the game again so I had renewed my subscription beforehand. Compare to my current bank balance, a six month subscription to the game is almost nothing.

As the ‘Welcome to Lands of the Whistler!’ words sprung up before me, I look around and see that I was still in The Fairbanks. I was in fact near the city center which made things easier for me. I walk towards the town center and once I arrived, entered my name into a player versus player instance. If history is any indication, it will be awhile before the Arena pop, so I decided to walk around to enjoy the atmosphere. I still have no intention of opening up a shop in-game but I do enjoy the variety of products on offer in the various shops in the game. I paid special interest to the shops selling Battlesuits and notice that with my new skill, I am now able to tell from a glance how good or bad they are. It is an interesting skill that basically gives me general knowledge of the technology that would usually require years of study to obtain. Since obtaining the skill, I can’t help but wonder if the System would be able to give me more knowledge about modern technology in the future. I was still wondering about the matter when the instance popped. I accepted the instance and everything went black.

When the screen lighted back up, I had materialized in my variant and found that the battle was already ongoing. A player must have resigned from the Arena and I was his replacement. One look at the battle told me why. The other team have a flying Battlesuit and the operator is flying around like a helicopter and taking potshots at my team. All the Battlesuits are still in battle but none of my teammates are in a flying Battlesuit and it seems there is nothing the team could do about the flying enemy. The coward must have resigned rather take a loss in the match. Luckily for the rest of my team, winning and losing is secondary is me.