Mai ran until the shots receded in the distance, only stopping when she had to regain her breath.

A sign caught her eye as she was bending over, sucking in lungfuls of air.

Wiping sweat from her brow she made her way over to the sign. ‘Maintenance Access’. Popping open the access panel beneath the sign, Mai climbed into the gap behind. As a child she’d spent more time than she could remember exploring all of the maintenance passages between the walls. The whole city was riddled with them and she and her friends had found a small chamber they’d made their own.

Smiling at the good memory, she sidled along the passageway until she came to a ladder signposted as ‘Maintenance Five’. Looking up, she lost track of the number of small lights stretching away above her head.

Three more Culling announcements had been made as she climbed the ladder, all as a result of her mines. It had taken her through three levels before ending in an old control room. The computers were still active, so it must have been relegated to a secondary or back-up role.

“Might be some food,” she thought out loud as she looked at the work-stations and the clothing lockers. Activating her LARCENY skill she used it to determine the best way to open the locks.

“Brute force it is then,” she muttered. Walking over to the nearest locker, she jammed Smith’s Culling blade into the gap where the edge of the door met the side of the locker, pushed, and then levered the blade.

A loud bang filled the room as the locker door sprang open.

Mai froze in place, ears straining for any sound of alarm or people coming to check on what was happening. Whilst civilians couldn’t actually hamper her, she didn’t want someone broadcasting her location on the infonet either.

No one came. Taking a couple of breaths to slow her hammering heart, she set to work on opening all of the other lockers. Once they were open, she kicked in her SPOT HIDDEN skill and started to rummage.

Five minutes later she had not only searched all of the lockers, but every one of the work stations as well. It wasn’t the best haul.

“Three packs of dried noodles, a cocoa bar, a bucket of muscle protein and a lichen shake.”

Still, beggars couldn't be choosers and her BIO-MASS needed to be replenished. Opening the only exit from the room, she looked down into the corridor beyond.

It wasn’t long, and at the end was another two. Two others were set opposite each other halfway down. The one on the left had a latrines glyph, whereas the other said “canteen.”

More importantly, there wasn’t another culler waiting to kill her. She went back and gathered up her findings before making her way to the canteen.

I almost feel sorry for the people who work here, she thought as she looked around the canteen. It was utterly soul-less. Production quotas and team schedules hung in front of one wall. On another was a blank set of “Employee of the Week” and “Employee of the Month” placards.

In the exact centre was a table large enough to seat eight people, and some hard-looking chairs. Clearly the workers weren’t expected to spend any more time off than they absolutely had to.

But what got Mai really excited was the fact that there was an old-fashioned but well-stocked vending machine, and a small stove in the corner of the room.

Walking up to the vending machine, Mai selected her favourite choco-protein bar and pressed her hand onto the pay pad.

INSUFFICIENT FUNDS

Cursing, Mai grabbed the nearest chair and smashed the front of the machine. Pausing once more to see if the noise would attract anyone, she then proceeded to strip the machine bare, stuffing various bars and packets of fried goods into her pockets.

There was no way she would be able to eat all of this in one sitting, but it made no sense to leave supplies behind.

LARCENY +5%

Pockets bulging, she turned her attention to the stove. Not an enthusiastic cook at the best of times, she randomly twisted knobs until a light came on and the stove indicated it was ready to cook.

Pressing the SAUCEPAN & WATER selection she waited for the stove’s nanites to build the saucepan and then fill it with water. As soon as the saucepan was full she tore open her packs of noodles and dropped the contents in.

Whilst she waited for the food to cook, she called up her SASS

Levelling up in Culling had also seen all of her combat skills increase by a couple of percentage points. It was nothing to get excited about as none of them had approached a full ten per cent increase, so she wasn’t going to get a better chance at a critical hit. Still, increases weren’t something to be sniffed at, especially as there would be cullers with less skill than her.

Every five per cent of skill over an opponent’s level in the same skill added one per cent to her defence. And when it came down to life and death situations, one per cent would make all the difference.

A chime told her that the food was cooked. It was only when she started eating that she realised just how hungry she was. In no time at all she wolfed down the noodles and managed to pack away a handful of bars.

BIO-MASS 100%

Chomping on a cocoa-flavoured shroom bar, Mai created a couple of mines, placing them around her hiding place and then settled down to try and catch her breath. Her killing of the sniper fresh in her mind, she made sure she planted them so that they overlapped.

Whilst they hadn’t helped the sniper that much, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t help her.

It’s all down to the damned skills people had before they entered the Culling, or which they gained during the training.

It felt as though she’d been running ever since that day Andries died. A tightness in her chest, a constant need to sigh, or take a deeper breath.

The area she was in was as silent as the city ever got. She’d only ever experienced true silence as a child in these very types of maintenance areas. Now older, her brain was so used to the continual hum of the city that she only ever heard it if she listened for it and found just that right spot.

It was time she had a proper look at her menus and nanite options. Training had, in some ways, closed her mind to the options she had. She’d favourited the weapons she’d learned to use.

Granted they’d taught the cullers how to use various weapons, including such things as booby-traps and landmines, but because those lessons had focussed solely on specific ones, hers and the minds of the cullers had also been trained to only think of those specific weapons. She hadn’t once thought of the potential builds she could have at her fingertips.

Probably a good way of limiting people so that they die quicker she thought. It made sense. Train people to use certain portions and when those people are exposed to the extremes of the Culling they only use those they feel comfortable with. The ones they had trained on.

Mai hated being manipulated like that and was determined to learn what else she had up her sleeves if necessary. The more she knew, the better the chance she had of returning to Li and sticking up a finger to the Celestial Court.

Comfortable for the time being with the weapons at her disposal, she opened up her clothing menu. Not a logical first step some might think, but it made perfect sense that there might be clothing of use. Afterall, she’d used hazmat suits in the sewers, and they’d had SOAK, who knew what had been unlocked for cullers to use?

Filtering out fashion and comfort from the search parameters, she waited a second or two for the search results to appear on her retina.

STEALTH was an option that sprung out. Opening that sub-menu she chuckled as she looked at the options. If you could wear it, you could find it in a stealth format.

She added another filter removing skirts, dresses, t-shirts, and underwear. The results that followed were much better. Blink-clicking on a full-body cloak, she read the stats.

Stealth Cloak

Stealth cloak, two per cent BIO-MASS, an additional five per cent negative modifier to anyone using SPOT HIDDEN, similar if I use URBAN CAMOUFLAGE, STEALTH or HIDE. Added bonus that it’s warm and has a hood I can use to sleep in it.

Directly beneath the cloak was an all-in-one stealth jumpsuit. It offered an additional two per cent to that of the cloak and was cumulative, meaning that she would receive a twelve per cent bonus. It cost more to make at five per cent BIO-MASS but considering what it offered, she decided to make both.

Glad that forming clothes didn’t hurt, she opened up the armour section. It was far bigger than she thought it would be and most of the options were redded out. Most were locked because she didn’t have enough culls.

So the psychos get to have all the cool gear, the logic was twisted. Those cullers that tried to keep away from the action for as long as possible would find their weapons and armour options limited. Those who played the game the way the Celestial Court wanted to were rewarded. It’s the fucking social score all over again!

Looking at CELESTIAL COURT armour, she selected the view option out of curiosity. It was immediately clear why it was redded out. She would need at least one hundred and fifty per cent BIO-MASS in order to create it.

How the hells am I supposed to get that much BIO-MASS? Still, she practically salivated at the suit’s stats. Powered armour was some of the most intimidating weaponry a single person could use. It was beautifully awe-inspiring.

It had a SOAK of two hundred, meaning that it could take two hundred per cent damage on any given location before she started to take damage herself.

INTIMIDATION was its key negative buffer, affecting anyone the user fired at, as well as any enemy within twenty-five paces.

This suit is a beast! No wonder the Celestial Guard is so feared! Mai rubbed her hands with glee at the very idea of being able to create such a suit.

Knowing it was just a dream didn’t stop her from adding it to her quick-creation menu. If she ever had the chance she could be wearing it in under five seconds.

Another section which caught her eye was MECHA. Having seen the CELESTIAL COURT armour, she was keen to see what MECHA offered above and beyond the powered armour.

Mecha were piloted by only the best according to the Imperial Army recruitment posters. Members of the Imperial Army had to serve for a minimum of five years and have a spotless record before even being allowed to apply for a mecha slot.

She was surprised that mecha had been unlocked for the Culling. Maybe the Celestial Court was trying to up the stakes, make things more exciting for those watching the event? Was there some other reason for the change? She wondered to herself.

Not even the Emperor’s Guard was held in such awe and esteem. This was mostly down to the fact that mecha ranged in height from the “small” one-man suits at roughly the height of three-men, through to giant mecha ten times that. Rumour had it that the Emperor had his own mecha which was taller even than that and which he’d used to lead the charge against Heaven’s Gates in the Pacification of the war-planet called God’s Chosen.

A haven for one-God extremists, its pacification had seen over one billion of the Emperor’s soldiers lay down their lives. The inhabitants had suffered far greater, losing more than ninety per cent of their people during the war. Acceptable losses in the eyes of most loyal citizens.

The mecha she was looking at were far more restricted, the biggest being limited to a three-crew mecha roughly six men in height. The BIO-MASS required to create that, as well as the fact that she’d need facilities to do so forced a sigh from her lips. With a suit like that she would have been nigh-on unstoppable. At two hundred per cent BIO-MASS for the smallest she’d be dead before she knew it if she tried to create it. It wasn’t much bigger than the CELESTIAL COURT, would barely be considered a mecha, but it was still incredibly cool.

Another one for the quick picks, she smiled wryly at the thought. Still, it never hurt to be prepared.

Mines were something she had also blindly assumed were the only things worth looking at, so she wiped her search parameters and typed ANTI-PERSONNEL DEFENCES.

Ignoring the mines which were presented at the top of the menu as she’d favourited them, she chuckled evilly as she saw that there were a number of turret options.

All of them could be manually operated if required but they also worked off her own targeting system. If she marked someone as a target, the turret would engage them, freeing her up to fight others.

What sort of payloads have you got? she slowly scrolled through the customisation options.

Acid and flame-throwers were both ten per-cent BIO-MASS with roughly the same status effects. Minigun had the PINNED status effect in comparison to the PANIC the acid and flames caused.

The latter would cause people to leave cover and flee, the former would cause them to hunker down.

That’s damned evil genius. Pin them with the minigun, then hose them with the acid and flame. All told for these as a unit would be twenty per cent BIO-MASS. Sure hope I have the BIO-MASS to spare if the opportunity or need ever comes up.

Stuffing the last bar she could manage into her mouth, stomach full, Mai laid her head on the table, exhaustion washing over her. Just as she started to drift off to sleep she heard voices.