Emmy slid out of her bed, her feet touching the cold wooden floor. Checking her alarm screen, she waited the expected thirty seconds before a single buzz was silence by an anticipating press. Grabbing the change of clothes she had prepared the previous night, she went about doing her morning routine. Getting out of the steaming shower, she made her way over to the built-in kitchen and made a mug of instant coffee. Taking a seat on the red leather sofa sitting in the middle of her studio flat, she turns on the LCD which was always set to mute with captions. Taking a sip from her cup, she watched as the many newscasters talk about Arium’s economy, clan disputes, trending characters, and many other topics for this trillion dollar game.

Pendragon Inc. started out as a small studio in suburban Texas, ran by a team of dedicated gamers, after the inception of VR gaming, the small band of programmers decided they wanted to dip their toes into the VR gaming pond. Norman Delvis, Pendragon’s lead programmer, and one of its founding members, design and implemented the world most powerful and highly self-sufficient game engine. Codename X-Calibur, the software has gone to power Airum, Pendragon’s first and only game. During the early trials of the game, many gamers found it to be highly addictive, to the point where some players quit their day jobs. After only a few months of testing, the revenue accumulated during the short period was so outrageous, Pendragon Inc. had to hire many new employees including accountants, analyst, and many, many lawyers. Pendragon eventually grew so large so fast, they acquired many new offices in numerous major cities.

After half a year of growth, Pendragon’s team of hardware designers developed the VR-pod, unlike the earlier head-mounted version, the VR-pod allow users to not only see and hear their environment, but to touch, smell, and taste everything within the game world. With the rapid advancement in electronics, VR technology became inexpensive, to the point where many players wanted the function to trade outside the game. This led to ARES, AR Enhancement Suite, a relatively low-cost integration board turning most devices into a cross-platform hub for trading and communication.

Arium policy on credits, which states, no monsters, be it level or rarity, will ever drop credits. Credit may only be obtained through the conversion of real-world currency, based on the current market rate, or through limited NPC quest.Pendragon did not limit users to a one-way conversion but allowed Players to convert credit back into currency, with a one percent fee.

With the ARES and Arium credit policy, this led to the establishment of many player companies in the game. These small businesses eventually became a large corporation with hundreds of thousands of workers. These companies found it a burden that a large portion of their earning was being squandered, converting credit into currency, to pay their employees due to legal and tax reasons. This eventually culminated in the lobbying to make credit either the main or secondary currency in almost every country. Now with the advent of a global economy, Arium’s credit is accepted just about anywhere you can use regular cash.

Emmy heard the squeak of a rusted door slowly slide open. She turned off the LCD, ran towards the entrance of her apartment and pushed her feet into her comfy jogging shoes. She waited about twenty seconds before opening the door. Stretching her neck she saw Trent leaning over towards his toes. Feigning ignorance, she walked out onto the fifth story walkway balcony glimpsing the Houston skyline and stretched her right leg over the railing.

“Good morning Emmy.”

“Hey,” Emmy yawned, switching over to her left leg.

“Did you just wake up?” Trent asked.

“Yeah, was planning to go for a jog.”

“Me too, want to go together?”

“Sure, sounds good,” Emmy replied.

“Give me a minute, I’m going to call Break to meet us at the park, this is a great time to decide what we want to do with the key.”

“We could always do that at the ca-.” Emmy was unable to reach Trent’s ears before he had his phone already dialed.

“Morning, we're going to the park for a jog, you want to meet up with us to discuss what we want to do with the key?”

The phone tittered with the audible noise of Break as Trent nodded along with the conversation.

“With Emmy, who else?

More noises could be heard coming from the phone as well as a hardy chuckle.

“No, why would it be a bother, you have a say in this too.”

“Get in the way of what?”

Emmy grabbed Trent’s hand holding the phone, pushing her lips towards the receiver she whispered “The park,” then abruptly ended the call. “He will be there, I’m sure six hundred thousand credits is a big enough motivator.”

Emmy pulled up to the park, Trent sat to her right munching on a breakfast burrito they had pick up at a local shop. Jogging along the path, they saw Break sitting on the picnic table swiping down on a board of news from his AR wristband.

“Morning, got you a burrito, and some coffee,” placing the bag of food and sealed cup on the table.

“You guys plan a run yesterday?” Break asked, unwrapping the tinfoil cover from the breakfast burrito.

“No, we just woke up at the same time.”

“Wait,” putting both his hands up, “you guys live together?”

Emmy slapped his hands down, giving him her trademark stare, “No, were neighbors.”

“Yeah, I’m in 507, and she is 508, what a coincidence we end up living next to each other after high school. I’m honestly surprised you were a gamer, I remember you were the school council president, did like three different sports, and a bunch of other non-gamer activity. I’m even more astonished you didn't go to college.”

“I just wanted to do something different,” Emmy said, peering down at her feet.

“Uh huh,” Break sigh, taking a bite of the burrito, “Bacon and egg, you know me too well.” Arching his head back down towards the bracer, he waved at the other two to take a seat. “Check this out,” pulling up a video released this morning by Pendragon Inc.

A man clad in a celestial robe, meteors bounding across the ethereal fabric, walked across a dark spacial background, each step causing the floor to ripple like a shallow pond. “Hello world, my name is Norman Delvis, lead programmer for Arium, and today I want to tell you about an expansion ten years in the making. This expansion, called Aether Winds, will not only have more items, and land to traverse and explore, but we have added larger towns, more NPC, new quest, and lots of new recipes, and uh.” Norman waved his hand in front of chest, a scroll appearing from a puff of smoke, unrolling downwards, the mage began to read. “Oh yeah, we're adding, bigger, badder, monsters,” Norman said, his voice echoing across the blank darkness. “We plan to have this out in six months time. You're probably asking, Norman, why are you telling us so early? Well good question, the team and I have recently scatter a few beta key around the map, we put one at the end of every celestial dungeon, a couple in the world tier bosses, a few in hidden rare chest, and just for kicks I decided it would be fun to scatter a handful into random monsters,” the man said walking above Arium’s landscape as white orbs shot down from the sky. “If you're lucky enough to find one of these orbs,” raising a glimmering jeweled ball that reflected the rays of the sun, “take your party to any of our three hundred offices located around the world for further instructions, I’m positive you will be blown away by what we have to offer.”

“Wow,” Trent said, his eyes glued to the screen.

“That’s not all, look at this,” Break motion, pulling up an in-game auction site.

“Going once, going twice, sold for five hundred thirty-four thousand,” a small goblin standing on a pedestal said, as he shot words out like bullets.

“That’s way lower than what the old man offered us,” Trent remarked.

“Well, it’s only the third one sold, if you guys want we can put ours up for auction and see if we can get more than six hundred.”

“Wait a minute Break, I still down for the idea of using it, and Emmy still has an opinion.” Trent and Break turned towards Emmy, their face anticipating her next words.

“I’m actually curious about the new update, and while six hundred thousand is a lot-.”

“It’s not ‘a lot’, it's a butt ton, I could buy so many data cubes with that amount.”

Emmy stood up, crossed her armed, leaned to one leg and gave him an inquisitive look. After ten seconds she leaned on her other leg, still eyeing him speculatively.

“What, do I have bacon stuck in my teeth?”

“No… I can’t tell if your just oblivious, or stupid, everything in the expansion is new data.”

Break sat there silently like an overloaded circuit, jolting up from the seat Break pace around the table. “Guys, do you know what this means?”

“What could this mean?” Emmy mockingly answered.

“We should use the key,” Break shouted.

“Alright, now that we're all in agreement, what's out next step?” Trent asked.

“We go visit HQ, and start our new adventure,” Break said, planting his right foot on the tabletop, one hand to his waist and the other point forwards.

“What about the other three spots, we should get three more people to join us. I still have Alexandria’s number, we could always use a healer if we're going into an unknown area.”

Break’s body froze at the statement, his eyes wandering back towards Emmy. Trent was oblivious to Emmy’s vexation, but Break saw the hellfire and brimstone radiated at the mention of that name. “Actually, I might have a solution. Instead of finding three people for the slot, why don’t we just auction them?”

“I don’t know, I want someone I can trust,” Trent remarked.

“I'm not saying we have to adventure with them, we could split ways, and on the upside, we have some extra money to gear ourselves. Going into a new area is cool and all, but It won't do us any good if we constantly keep dying to higher level monsters.”

“I second Break’s idea,” Emmy motioned. “Overall I think the idea is a bit dumb, but It would be prudent to acquire better gear, and If anything does happen, we'll still end up with a bit of unspent money.”

“If you think that’s the best idea Emmy, I'll agree, but how do we even start the process of selling our extra spots?”

“Leave it to me, I know an auction that deals in this type of stuff,” Break huffed, keeping pace with Emmy and Trent towards the far side of the parking lot. “Can I get a ride Emmy, I took the bus over.”

“Get in,” pulling out her sunglasses from the compartment above the rearview mirror.

“Do you know where Elder Dragon Emporium is?”

“The auction house across from the SnapCast Bar?” Emmy replied pulling up a map of the area.

“That’s the one.”

The three walked into a large office building adorned with polished marble floors and pristine white walls. It had hallways leading down every direction, each lined with an array of doors that led into their own private rooms. Break ushered for the two so sit at the many white circular tables in the main lobby. Walking up to to the young girl sitting behind a marble desk, he gave her a jolly smile. “Hey, Catherine,” reading her name off the plaque, “I like to sell an item today.”

“Sure, I just need you to fill out this form here,” handing him a stack of papers.

Break flip the pages finding the line indicating what type of item he was planning to sell. “The thing is, it’s not a real item per se, it’s more of a party slot.”

“Oh, we get that all the time, that just require different paperwork, what type of quest is it? If it’s a celestial dungeon, we already have a few pre-filled paperwork for that, or is it a unique quest.”

“Uhh, it’s more of a beta splot.”

“Oh,” the young lady let out, sliding her seat out from the desk, “one minute.” Catherine waddle to the back of the office, her tight pencil skirt and high heel making the trip a struggle, hasty rapping three times on the wooden office door, she peeked her head inside and traded a few words to what Break thought was the manager.

Pulling her wrinkled skit back down, she calmly made her way back to the desk. Three blonde female workers clad in a pristine office blazer, each with a logo on the left shoulder depicting a paladin adorned in gleaming white armor, his sword protruding out of the head of a dead elder dragon, walked out of a large elevator toward the three. “This way Mr.-”

“Break,” waving at Trent and Emmy to follow. Trent looked at the three women, feeling a bit underdressed in his jogging shorts and t-shirt. The elevator rapidly climb the six-story building so fast, Trent felt the weight of his body doubling before the elevator abruptly stopped. Trent placed a fisted hand over his mouth, the feeling of the mixed coffee and burrito wanting to jettison from his stomach.

“Right this way,” One of the female office workers said showing them down a hallway with one door at the end. Two of the ladies walked down the hallway, each grabbing a metal detector. “Before you can enter, we just have to do a quick security check for any weapons,” the third office worker said.

“I thought this was an auction house,” Trent mention.

“It is, just protocol for anyone meeting the boss,” one of the office workers replied.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Break said holding his hands out while one of the females patted him down.

Both ladies gave each other nods before walking back to the door. The tallest of the three knocked before stepping in, “Mr. Break and his two companies are here to see you.”

A stout man in a gray herringbone pattern suit stood up from his office chair and greeted the three visitors with a firm shake. “Welcome my friends, my name is Damien, Damien Irving, from what I heard downstairs, It seems you have an open slot.”

“Three,” Break noted.

“Even better,” that large man said clasping his hands together. Sitting back down on his firm leather chair, he rested his arms on his elaborately designed mahogany table. “I know you wanted to auction the spots, and I’m fine with that, fifteen percent commision would net me quite a big fish, but let me make you a better deal.” The man swiped down on his desk, a credit counter popping up as he began to move numbers around. How about I pay you a flat sum of two hundred thousand for all three spots, and I’ll throw in a set of rare armor and weapons, or a single elite, and that goes for each of you.

Trent stared down at the desk, not looking at the numbers, but the desk itself. Rubbing his hand against the cold varnish wood, he could not feel the presence of any metal plates that lined the AR tables.

“Ahh, I see your friend here as an eye for craftsmanship. I’m guessing you're trying to figure how the desk is connected to the Pendragon-Network, to cut it short, it’s not.”

“Then how are you able to connect to the network?” Trent asked, feeling the bottom of the wooden desk.

“That’s the magic of it all,” the man said, walking over towards Trent, laying is large arms across his back. With his other hand, he motions out a set of silver spiked armor that rose from the table. “Normally the extent that his armor could travel would be the perimeter of the table, but as you can see here,” pushing the armor around Trent,” it’s not limited to that. This room was custom designed to be AR compatible, while it's not the only one of its kind, I can assure you, they are not cheap or easy to come by. But we're going on a tangent here, let get back to topic. My offer is as stated, two hundred thousand, and a set of rare armor and weapon or a single elite item of your choosing.”

“Can we have a minute to talk it over?” Trent asked.

“Take your time and make an informed decision, if you need to step out, I’ll have my secretary escort you downstairs.”

“No need,” Emmy replied. “Just give us a moment.”

The three huddled together in the back of the room, each periodically glancing over to the lounging businessman. “I'm in,” Break said.

“That offer is more than fair, count me in too,” Trent added.

Trent and Break pulled their face towards Emmy, waiting for her to deny their claim with some sort of rebuttal. Emmy closed her eyes, shook her head at the two, “Count me in.”

Break strutted towards the large table, nodding his head at his two companions, he sat down facing Damien. Fisting his hand over his mouth, he audibly coughed, “My associates and I, have decided to take the deal.”

“That’s wonderful, but before we get to any paperwork, I need to see some proof.”

Emmy sat down next to Break, hands splayed out on the table, she logged into her account. Pulling open her inventory. She grabbed the gleaming orb that materialized in 3d space. She pushed the floating object towards Damien, allowing him to see the object properties.

“Marvelous, just marvelous. Catherine,” Damien yelled.

“Yes boss,” the voice of the reception said, ringing out from all around the room.

“Get me a lawyer and an auctioneer.”

“Yes boss.”

In less time than it would take a bowling ball to fall off the building’s rooftop, a man wearing an all-black suit with a bright red tie stepped into the room. Pulling out his AR pad, he pulled out a tabbed file contain rows of documents.

I need the usual NDA, I also need a contract regarding players agreements and a non-attack clause.

“You mean the friendly fire add-on?”

“Yes, yes, that’s one.”

Another man walked in the room, but this one sporting a more casual outfit that comprised of beige khaki shorts and a button-down hawaiian shirt.

“Good, you made it, I’ll have the details sent to you on the way down, please take my guess here for a fitting.”

“Yes sir.” the young man nodded, showing the three towards the elevator.

Trent felt his stomach heave again as the elevator rocketed downwards. The man walked out whistling at a document he had open on the quick trip to the second floor. “You guys are in luck, we just got a fresh shipment of gear from our vendor. You guys decided on what you're wanting to take?”

“I’m not sure?” Trent replied.

“Well let’s get you guys in an office, and you can peruse our fine selection.” Walking into a large office filled with a massive rectangular table that took up a large portion of the room, the man walked over to the head of the table and prompted the three to take a seat.

“Let's start with you big guy, rare or elite?”

“I already know what I want, show me all your elite shields.”

Pressing a few buttons, the man dragged a line of shield that floated in front of Break in a half circular pattern, each one with small digits attached at the bottom denoting its place stored in the inventory. Sliding his hand across the many targe, heaters, and buckler shields, Break scanned the many distinct items looking for anything that would catch his interest. Faster and faster, the shields rotated like an out of control carousel, as Break consumed the image of each one, and in the process eliminating many of the choices.

“Number seven hundred and twenty-eight.”

“Whoa kid, how the hell, did you just really go through all that?” The man exclaimed, pulling up the numbered shield.

Trent held back a slight giggle as he saw a floating partition of a tree trunk, a quarter of it covered in a bright green moss. “Dude, that's literally a piece of a tree, and not a fresh one by the looks of it.”

“Mock all you want, there's something special about her, and from my database, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“What's the name of it?” Trent asked, spinning the image of the wooden platter.

“One sec, pulling the spec sheet for it now,” the man sitting at the head of the table said, clicking away on the desk.

Name: Morass

Type: Shield

Rarity: Elite

Defense: +11

Skills: None

Passive: Rooted (Player who are rooted, have a 30% to avoid knockbacks)

At the sight of the spec sheet, Trent turn away putting his hand over his mouth and let out a slight giggle, “You sure you don't want something like this,” pulling up a large spiked shield, embossed with a mighty dragon, “I’m sure it’ll have a cooler sounding name like Bone Breaker.”

“No, I'm dead set on this one, besides look how wavy the moss looks.”

“What about you, young lady, rare or elite?”

“Uhmm, I think I'll go with armor.”

Walking over to Emmy the man laid out his palm opening a login screen in front of Emmy. “Login, I need to see what race and gender your using.” Emmy placed her hand over the desk, a version of her avatar emerging from the table. “Elf, I’m guessing you want leather armor?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, do you know what stats or traits you're looking for?”

“I want the one with the highest dexterity bonus.”

Clicking a few more buttons the man organized the list by stats, sorting the dexterity modifier from highest to low. “Alright, this one has a total bonus of nine, while also increasing defense by two,” the man started pushing the armor set over to Emmy’s Avatar.

Emmy rushed out of her seat, splaying her hand over her avatar before anyone could take a closer look. “Turn around, turn around now,” she yelled, still covering her avatar. Trent visible blush the tips of his ear glowing a tinge of red as he abided by Emmy’s command. Break hovered over Emmy, his tall figure giving him a full view of the skimpy leather bikini clad elf ranger.

“I didn't know they made armor the size of shoe strings,” Break remarked, giving the avatar a once over.

Emmy shot her hands out, aiming her fingers towards Break’s eyes, but was deflected by his large forearms and towering height. Seconds later the hulking man fell to the floor, his hands grasping over his legs in the fetal position. “Fuck, the same place,” Break wheezed.

“Change it back now,” Emmy sternly demanded, giving the auctioneer a hard scowl.

The man pushed a few buttons causing the avatar to revert back to its original state. “You know what, I’ll just take an elite bow.”

“Good choice,” the man nodded, looking at the half sobbing man on the floor.

Sening the half spinning wheel of bows towards Emmy, that man made a few snapping noises towards Trent, his face still covered by his hands. “While the elf is making her choice, let's get you settled.”

“I like a set of armor.”

“Alright, same deal, login and pull up your avatar,” the man drone, growing more impatient as the clock ticked closer to his lunch break.

Slapping his hands over the table, Trent brought up the render of his avatar. The man gazed at it, scratching his head, he walked towards avatar speculating what type of class Trent had been playing. “I see you have basic leather armor, but you're also using a longsword, perhaps a duelist, or even a beginner swordsman?”

“I'm actually a rogue,” Trent interjected, “I haven't found a pair of decent daggers, and that swords been the best thing I’ve found so far.”

“That’s a quick fix, first let's get you squared away with some armor. Are you looking for something that gives you a bit of stealth?”

“Actually, something like what Emmy describes would work, but in a less revealing fashion.”

Emmy turned her head away, the embarrassment smoldering along her cheeks at the thought of her scantily clad elf.

“Yeah, we have a less revealing set,” the man said, pulling up a nice set of snakeskin leather armor.

“Wow, that’s perfect,” rotating his avatar around, “Is there a set bonus?”

The man confirmed the armor, pulling up the spec sheet for Trent.

Name: Ebony Snake Leather (set)

Type: Armor (set)

Rarity: Rare (set)

Dexterity: +7 (set)

Defense: +2 (set)

Skills: None

Passive: First Strike (User gains +2 dexterity when out of combat, and unseen by enemies)

“This one for sure,” Trent smirked.

“Now, onto the weapons, I got plenty of daggers, and a couple comes with poison ailment if you're looking to keep it thematic with your snake armor.”

“I don’t want daggers, I’m growing to like the longsword, while it’s not the fastest weapon, it does have its advantages in battle.”

“I’m not here to judge, if you want a longsword, by all means, I’ll get you a longsword,” the man prompted, feeling the emptiness in his belly. “I got the perfect one for you, not the highest when it comes to damage, but its light, and can be easily wielded by rouges.”

Name: Spine Blade

Type: Weapon

Rarity: Rare

Attack: +4

Dexterity: +2

Skills: None

Passive: None

“I’ll take your word on it,” Trent said, looking at the blade.

“Nice choice, I’ve seen plenty of these in combat,” Break said, still grasping onto his leg. “Look, the middle of the blade is hollowed out to make it lighter and easier to handle with one hand.”

“I’ll take this one,” Emmy said from across the room.

The man walked over to Emmy’s selection, taking note of the number floating underneath. Pulling up the tab containing the item, the man dragged it over to the temporary storage he had set up for the three. He copied the list of item, making sure to match each number with the in-house identification code, and pressed the send button, delivering his boss an invoice of chosen items.

“Alright, you guys got what you wanted, I want to head to lunch, so let’s hurry it up and head back to the bosses room.”

Walking into Damien’s office, they saw the big man going over the extended amount of documents. “I got them settled boss,” the auctioneer said, swiftly leaving the room.

“Ahh, you're back already, Robert, please break down the contract to them.”

Pulling up a floating contract, the lawyer made a brief bullet point describing the gist of the agreement. “First off, we have a fairly standard NDA, no parties agreeing to this contract will dispose information to third party member not pertaining to this contract. Next, we have the friendly-fire clause, when the party spawns in the new region, no member from each designated party will be allowed to attack the other for the time frame of three days, at that time both parties will have disbanded and reformed their respective parties. Lastly, full payment of the agreed upon two hundred thousand will be withheld until both parties are in the new region.”

“Wait so we're not getting the money now?” Break asked.

“Guy, you can’t really expect me to hand over such a large sum of money before we're even in the game. I have my own interest to protect.”

“No, that’s very reasonable,” Emmy agreed. “When do you want to visit Pendragon HQ?”

“If your as eager as I am, how does tomorrow sound?”

Trent and Break faced Emmy, both giving her a nod of approval. “Tomorrow will be fine.”

“Fantastic, I’ll have my guys meet you at the lobby tomorrow then.”

“Wait, you're not going?” Trent said in a befuddled voice.

“Heavens no, I have a business to run, and besides look at me, I’m not in my prime anymore.” a beep rang across the room causing everyone besides Damien to be on alert. “Sorry to cut it short, but I have a meeting to attend, Robert, make sure all the paperwork is dealt with, and everyone gets a copy. Also, you three, don’t forget to grab your items at the front lobby after you finish signing the paperwork.”