“ John,... anybody,... can you tell me what the hell is going on?”

David was in the middle of a dark stage. The only lights on were from the overheads on his helmet. Frozen in a pose of shooting over the crowd with the minigun. It was awesome and the CGI guys were earning their money till everything seemed to freeze. Suddenly words appeared on his screen. Not only that, but blue screens seemed to appear over everyone in the audience.

‘Resist to system hack failed.’ (98%) [Gained ability {hack resistance 1}] Integrating into the universe system update. [Roll 2% chance] [Roll 99{success}] Higher technology has become {soulbound} Higher technology is being assimilated into update. Higher technology: Warden power suit (records show patent as ownership) t3 armor (upgraded from t2 base for class change.) Full suit heavy armor. Higher technology: M134 minigun (records show patent as a lease. Patent of the variant lease as ownership.) t3 siege weapon Higher technology: Stargazer revolver (records show patent as ownership, Legendary.) secondary ranged weapon. Medium technology: Ka-Bar custom 25’ (records show as the variant lease.) secondary melee weapon.

Compiling history for skills and stat bonuses.

Military family (father)- +1 physical skill point

Public speaker (mother)- +1 charisma

G.E.D.- +1 mental skill point

Business degree- Automatic secondary non combat class {merchant}

Patent designer- +1 mental stat

Physically fit- +1 physical skill point

...

And it went on and on. Each thing listed becomes smaller and smaller in detail and reward. And sometimes acting as a negative. Such as being divorced twice in six months gave him a -1 charisma to women.

It must have been a good five minutes before his own list of things ended and he was shown his status sheet

David Warrick Level: 1 (-90%) 7/200 (3.5%) Class: None Secondary combat: TBD Secondary noncombat: Merchant HP- 180/180 MP- 180/180 Suit MP- 254/500 Minigun MP- 186/200 Strength (P): 9 (19) Instinct (M): 7 Vitality (P): 8 (18) Intelligence (M): 8 Dexterity (P): 7 (5) Wisdom (M): 6 Perception (P/M): 4/4 (5/5) Other: 8* Skills (active) 2 points free Abilities (passive) 2 points free {Hack resistance lvl 1} [Persona compilation complete] [Step one of integration complete] [Step two begins in 24:00:00.00]

David had no idea how long had actually passed but as soon as the overhead lights came back on his grip on his weapons triggers had turned lax and the barrels came to a hard stop. Something you should not allow to happen as hard stopping the barrel quickly could sheer some of the parts. Having his own problems solved, he saw the audience almost in a panic.

“ Speakers on... Attention audience members. Due to the unknown nature of the incident that has just occurred, I advise you to become orderly as security finds out the situation. In the meantime why don’t we bring out the main star of the show and bring out the commentary panel. Speakers off...”

After a moment a couple of people in the back by the doors went outside to see what was going on as more than half of those seated were messing with their screens. On his radio, he was getting a not too polite talking to by the director from before with his improvisation. David did not care as he stepped aside as Kyle in the cheap plastic Master Chief costume and several of the secondary cast of marines acted as an escort to a few of the game developers. The moment he left the stage the surround sound speakers came on and started blazing ‘Finish the Fight’ remastered for the new game, Halo Beginnings.

David did not look back as he b-lined it to Rick and John. Who had a weird look on their faces.

“ Isolation Mode off.”

“ Blue screens too?”

They both nod as David curses.

“ I was hoping some dipshit just hacked the holoprojectors, but the details of that history list.”

Rick shook his head.

“ Nope, not going there. This is too much for me today. I want to get the hell out of here. Whatever is going on I do not want to be in a building with ten thousand people and in a city with over a million. We have played way too many games to not know the shoe is about to drop. So let's get you out of that suit and let's get gone.”

John tapped his computer a few times and brought up youtube’s main page. Already videos were appearing of the blue screens.

“ We ain’t making it out in a truck if we wait too long. If we want to have any hope of getting out we got to either leave the gear or leave David in the suit.”

David just shrugged. But neither could notice through the suit.

“ Do a quick top off. We get to the truck in the underground lot. Get as much fuel as we can as we load up. Then get gone.

John looks at the two as David hooks the charging cable back into David’s back.

“ David, Rick, have you got your classes yet?”

Rick locks in the charger and he looks back at John as he starts gathering his tools.

“ I was forced into a noncombat secondary as an engineer.”

“ Same, but for artificer.”

David chuckled.

“ Merchant here.”

John types a few more things on his laptop before closing it and unplugging the cables from it and starting packing up as well.

“ I programmed our GPS on the truck to give us a land base route out of here. No bridges, no highways.”

Rick smiled as David gave a thumbs-up as a tab appeared on his hud. Thinking about selecting it actually brought up the city map and seeing the route selected. He immediately closed it after the cables came off his back. Turning around, David starts pushing the trolly with the suit charging system.

“Let's get the fuck out of here.”