One week and four days.

“We’re finally here.”

“They better have women, I’m bursting.”

“They better have food!”

No matter how much food they packed, it still ran out. No matter how much they restocked at the restops along the way, they still ran out.

It wasn’t that they needed this much food to make it through the day, It was instead that when they were bored, they ate.

Especially Sorp. He took it upon himself to run with the corses, practice his battle techniques and strain his B.F.M. stamina. This made him eat more than usual.

The effort didn’t embellish his muscles. What Perpetual Power foresaw. Was that unreasonable people would push the envelope on what is considered normal.

People like Sorp whose exercising never seemed to come to an end. And with the embellished regenerative properties of a virtual environment, this was exacerbated.

Regeneration acted in this way in Perpetuity due to a few reason but the main reason is that Perpetual Power’s research indicated that prolonged physical weakness is detrimental.

Detrimental to the retention of a player. They still require it as a countermeasure of reckless behaviour. A punishment for failure.

In a similar way they have to give people a sense of progression. They do this by changing their physical bodies in response to their attributes.

What they did is increase the adjacent muscles. This wasn’t a perfect solution. But it is true that the body isn’t smart when it enhances itself.

The process of ripping the muscles and repairing them again to gain muscle mass is a crude method. The nano-machines that regulate people's docile bodies do this as well.

But they can do this with incredible efficiency. They can increase physical prowess without swelling the muscles. And this is what they do.

As an extra merit, they make sure the bodies muscles are in equilibrium. This allows for more strength distribution. This is what Sorp is experiencing in plenty.

Majority of any benefits rendered from exercise within the virtual world of Perpetuity, is in the form of the body being balanced.

This sort of balance has more merits than just physical strength. It leads to a healthier body, and in the same vein, makes it easier to maintain in the long term. In turn it increases life expectancy and quality of life.

It might sound counter productive to Perpetual Power’s eugenics plans to increase people’s life spans. But assuming birth rate plummets, it is more than acceptable.

It was not just birth rate that plummets. People do not litter while in a virtual environment. Their food intake becomes simpler. Essential nutrients and no cooking required.

The benefits keep accumulating. The money the governmental powers will save on public services alone is astronomical.

Much of this still requires the lowest tier of society to have access to Perpetuity. Which they do not. The price of the devices are too expensive. This will not be the case forever. Or long for that matter.

It will take multiple years in Perpetuity’s time, perhaps tens, but in real life things should move faster as stability is found in the virtual world.

The stress of billions of people in the same instance is no laughing matter. Similar to a disc containing mountains of data in comparison to data written on paper.

Perpetual Power’s method to read and write monstrous amount of information allows even ten times the population of Earth to enter Perpetuity. In theory.

The word instance is mentions a few times. And the world of Perpetuity is such an instance. And within this instance there are subinstances.

In truth, this grand instance, the one that encapsulates the entire world, is actually trillions upon trillions of instances, working like a network. It gives the illusion of a single instance.

Only machines can actually see any difference. Humans might only see a change when they are transported to one of millions of subinstances.

Even this transition between one instance to a subinstance isn’t intrusive. The observant might notice it, if they are already looking for it. Otherwise it will be like a gentle gust of wind.

Sorp might not notice this transition. If he did notice something off, it’s more likely that he has no idea what has occurred.

“Can I see your medal?”

“Is this going to cost anything? Do we have to pay?”

The group couldn’t be called poor but they didn’t like spending money on things that weren’t consumables, clothes or something in that vein.

“The Second wave reinforcement camp provides people with multiple ways to pay your way through the courses.”

“So it does cost money? Spit it out. How much?”

The man in charge of registration can’t be called customer friendly but he didn’t go out of his way to be rude. He responded to any question asked.

“Sorp?”

“I can pay it.”

“I’ve also managed to collect quiet a sum, I’ll help.”

It was Sorp and Dart that ended up paying for all of them. Sorp has abundant funds and Dart is clever with his money.

Ret was split up with the group as soon as registrations were finished. He took with him all four corses. It can be considered an advantage to own one beast, let alone four.

The others were all introduced to various on camp facilities. What intrigues Sorp the most are the training facilities.

Dart had multiple questions about the study centers. To his his surprise they had general introductions to every profession. Meaning they should be able to pick up a profession.

One of the requirements the Second wave reinforcement camp has is to acquire some degree of success in a crafting profession.

These professions range from cooking, concocting medicine and poisons to many different weapons, armours and trinkets.

This being a virtual world, many fantastical things are possible. It is in these fields that the two worlds differ the most.

Some would think this might shake peoples immersion, but they would be forgetting that people already accept miraculous technology.

Not understanding how simple or advanced technology works is bordering on them being a magical products without any sense. In a similar way, people are ready to accept otherworldly occurrences in Perpetuity.

The rest of the guys took special attention to the entertainment venues. They let out a breath of relief when they saw that not only were there women around, their number wasn’t low.

On the second day, they finally ran into Daisy. They were all attending, what is called mandatory classes. Of course the repercussions to not attending is not actually punishable.

They are called mandatory due to psychological reason. It is to mean, if people attend these classes, they will succeed in achieving the test once they are eligible to take it.

Daisy was surprised with herself. She did miss these guys. The people watching her recording were keeping it her company but it wasn’t the same.

The issue was they didn’t let her record their appearance or voices. At least that’s what she still believes.

Their appearances is one thing, but the voices make so every conversation is one sided and awkward.

If she happened to ask them directly, rather than sending a request through the user interface, they would likely not mind.

Sorp never really cared much. It was Dart who opposed to it. Having no desire to ruin his Anonymity.

Kom being the most interested in social activities has instantly begun talking to Daisy.

“I guess you guys rode your corses here?”

“Yes. They were even faster after Ret trained them a bit.”

“Ret? Oh right, the one who is training animals.”

“Is there anything special about this camp?”

“The crafting. They also preach a lot of stuff to you now.”

“Preach? What do you mean?”

“Eh. About the importance of a crafting professions, B.F.M, team effort and for some reason building fortifications. ”

“What? Fortifications? For what?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t been here long. But I’ve been learning how to build houses, walls and barricades.”

“With a hammer and nail? Really?”

“Not with a hammer and nail, no. It’s through the user interface. They will unlock it for you later today, if you show up for the class. You do get a hammer though.”

“Strange.”

While Kom enjoyed chatting, Dart and Sorp were busying themselves with dull B.F.M. endurance exercise.

Endurance exercises are scheduled to be three times over the course of a day. This is from the single one in the Third reinforcement camp.

Aside from the traditional exhaustion exercise there is an addition to allow people to find their fatigue points.

This is done so people can stop when their fatigue is reaching a natural limit. And to teach them a technique.

A technique that Sorp has been trying to learn naturally. To understand how to use B.F.M. weapons and later abilities without exhausting themselves.

This is easier said than done. Even Sorp, as observant as he is, struggles with this particular technique.

It does not help that with constant changing endurance threshold, it is not as simple as counting the actions.

While each actions performed with a B.F.M. can be constant, there are elements that will vary, that are outside specific actions.

“We will not ask you to take a profession this day, and not this week. This entire week we will dedicate to learning what options are available.”

Similar like before. Each person is set at a station. Their actions are not directed other than given multiple subjects to peruse.

In addition to this there are further survival tactics taught. More in depth medical issues for example. To the extent of teaching emergency surgery.

It is perhaps only Dart that has already familiarized himself with all professions options available and can pick a profession at this moment.

There are twelve basic crafting professions. Every profession has two professions it is closely tied with.

These professions share similarities but at times branch out far enough to merit their own specialization.

They can also be seen as a single whole. It should not be uncommon in the future, to study three professions simultaneously due to their synergy.

This has a lot to do with the materials used. For example, Medicine concoctions, Poison arts and Potioneering all share similar materials.

While similar. Their end product is different enough to merit their own classification. Their materials can be identical. Their harvesting and processing may be similar as well.

In the vein of studying, this is like learning a language with the same origin. It is easier to pick up, but their differences are still clear and can be difficult to differentiate.

The name of the professions are self descriptive but there are those that can be ambiguous. For example, Clothier, Leatherer, and Weaver.

Clothier and Leatherer are obvious, but Weaver may be seen as redundant. Clothier and Leatherer revolve around B.F.M. armors.

Weaver however specializes in cloth or leather related weaponry. This possible through B.F.M. technology, where the material’s durability is of tantamount importance.

Then there are the unorthodox professions, Engraver, Augmenter and Synthesizer. These are can be considered supportive professions but still hold their own.

Engraver enhances a weapons. This can be adding augment slots or one off permanent enhances.

Augmenter is self descriptive, it focuses on creating and modifying Augments. It is not to be underestimated.

Last is Synthesizer. This particular profession can be considered lackluster in current times, but will shine later.

A Synthesizer attempts to change foreign Augments and B.F.M.’s into usable products. They can also learn important information from objects, valuable information to crafters.

Crafting professions

Medicine concoctions

Poison arts

Potioneering

Clothier

Leatherer

Weaver

Metalier

Armourer

Weaponeer

Woodier

Tinkerer

Modder

Engraver

Augmenter

Synthesizer