Outside, Emmett took in the lemon sent of Breaker District’s affluent parts. The architecture, and even the smell, took inspiration from the pre-departure city of Sorrento in Italy. Lemon trees lined the sidewalk, keeping out the smells from the City Core.

The stone walls around Emmett made him frown as he recalled his final mission in the eastern side of town, where the Italian esthetic got replaced by a foul smelling knockoff. West Breaker District carried the most opulence, so the resemblance to Italy had few faults. People even made their way around in compact ground vehicles.

With fresh air in his lungs, Emmett stopped at a corner café and took time to go over his equipment and stats with a fresh cappuccino in hand. The hot drink’s aroma killed the lingering stench of the growth-pod as he looked over his inventory list. He had an above average pistol for a starting player, basically the competition version of your run-of-the-mill Glock. The rear panel of his pack contained soft armor. Reinforced fabrics made up his clothes and they seemed purpose-built for concealing weapons. Not a bad start.

All of his Skill ranks sat at zero with the reset, but he did have five Cert Points to distribute. What career path could he take besides bounty hunting? Previously, Having the Link Wrangler Class made him no friends and many enemies, but that Class made the most profit by far. Especially as lone wolves. Few other missions paid as well as high-level bounties without investing years, and at that point you're looking at political classes. Emmett had no desire to manipulate pathetic NPC's.

He decided to play it safe and spend his Cert Points on a Link Wrangler build. Worst-case scenario he just had to pay to get them reset if he ended up not using those unlocks. His display showed him a series of messages as he made selections:

>>>>>

Every 10,000 EXP earns you a Cert Point, this includes both Skill and Class EXP. Free Agents require a diverse Skill range due to lack of Class EXP. Class rank ups always give two Cert Points. Every new player starts out with five. Skill Decay from Plinth evaluation will subtract from your Cert Points once below the last 10,000 EXP threshold. The rider will lose the last point they invested in if no points are in reserve. You must read any guides or manuals associated with the certification in order to receive it.

Equipment Cert purchases:

[Mil-Spec Pistols]: You may now rank up using common service pistols in 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 Auto.

[Mil-Spec Rifles]: You may now rank up using low-impulse military grade rifles in common calibers of 5.56mm NATO and 5.45x39mm.

[Basic Light Armor]: You may now rank up using light armor made of simple soft and hard materials.

[Basic Link Scanner]: You may now rank up using simple scanning linkware.

[Light Ground Vehicles]: You may now rank up while operating light ground vehicles under 4,000 kilograms. Please watch the safety video and complete a supervised course to complete your certification.

>>>>>

Emmett skim-read the care manuals to receive the certs. The driving course had to be dealt with later. He opted for Light Ground Vehicles instead of the Basic Link-Scrambler so he could use his combat car as quickly as possible. But without the Link-Scrambler, he most likely couldn't get discrete missions.

Muffled gunfire came from the building across the street. Emmett walked towards the business plaza. Shattered glass from stray rounds greeted him as he stepped into the lobby. Rows of flowers surrounded by waist-high stone walls encircled the spacious center of the room. Stone pillars rose up to the glass ceiling. A perfect set up for a gunfight.

A battered fireteam smashed through a door on Emmett's left. They stumbled to the walled plants and settled down, examining one of their wounded comrades. The biggest of them, a man with tattoos coming down in circuit patterns on either side of his Mohawk, clutched his limp cybernetic arm.

"There’s no power running to the muscles," said a man hunched over the big dude’s busted arm. He wore a set of wraparound ballistic lenses. Probably a combat visor with enhanced sensory data.

Their man on point waived at Emmett. "Hey newb! Get the fuck out of here. We’re losing this fight."

What was the most newb thing Emmett could do in this situation? He ran up beside the point man.

"I can help," said Emmett, drawing his pistol.

The point man stared at Emmett. "You gotta be fucking–"

Broken glass and dust sifted as the ground shook. Emmett and the point man glanced over the stone wall to see a one-ton battle suit in the center of the lobby. It held a 7.62 caliber machine gun on one shoulder, and a 50 caliber rifle on the other. Its feet knocked around crumbled tile as it turned in a circle. Seven or eight ropes dropped down from the shattered ceiling. A heavily armored fireteam descended, shooting at Emmett and his company the whole way down.