“ Welcome, I am Four. Since there are four of you.”

David blinked and found he was no longer in his power armor on the street keeping a lookout but instead was in a vast expanse of white in all directions. The only thing of note, besides there being John, Rick, and Jake behind him was the table with a figure of white and four chairs across from it. Four gestured toward the chairs and they each took one. Rick and John to David’s sides and Jake beside John.

“ So, first off, you are not dead. You and everyone else you know are in a suspended state while your universe is rewritten. And before you begin, we know your stuff is there. Complain all you want, but a lot is lost when you defrag the universe. Especially temporary things like wealth. But do not despair. The hard work you and those before you are recorded. To use an example you can understand. We are rebalancing much like your country went through about ten years ago. So whatever physical wealth or digital is going to be converted to credits in the next stage of the update.”

David raised his hand slightly and the being nods his head.

“ What is the next stage?”

The being seemed to smile a moment but then shook his head.

“ A little too early for that. Let's go back to your assets. Later, after our talk, you will be given a special menu to purchase things. The bulk of which will be generic. It should be easy to figure out on your own. However, in a special tab is a category called ‘personal effects’. As you might guess this will allow you to bring over items of significance. I highly suggest you look thoroughly through it.

Now I will go into a little about soulbound items. These items will remain even after the reset. But be warned, it is up to you to keep them in working order. And once destroyed, they are gone forever.”

David thought of his M-134 for a moment.

“ Now I shall move on to the personnel of your organization. As it is small and unknown, it truly means nothing at the moment. Meaning can change and grow deeper with time. Priorities change. Yada yada. Well, what I am aiming at is that you can recruit any non-bound person to your order after the explanation is over.”

Rick immediately stood sounding hopeful, “ So you can bring me, my wife... I mean ex-wife?”

Four looked at Rick, not too pleased as he cleared his throat.

“ After my explanation is done, yes, but not before then. And I do not take kindly to rudeness. I have already had to terminate far too many for rudeness.”

David gave Rick a look and grabbed his arm.

“ Sit Rick and apologize to the nice man... god... person. Please excuse my friend. The update has been very stressful and he was not in the best state before it began.”

Rick sat down and bowed his head. “ Sorry.”

Four merely nods and notices David raising his hand again.

“ Yes?”

David noticed the mild irritation in the white figure's voice.

“ You mentioned free agents. Would the volunteers who were with us be considered as freelance for volunteer work?”

This caused Four to pause and think upon his answer.

“ Yes, and no. If they were still formally with the military, or to lesser degree emergency services such as your police or firefighters. Even your doctors would be considered part of the faction. As they were duty-bound to the faction to action during your crisis. However, those such as the Charles Roughnecks would be considered their own independent organization only aligned to the faction due to the situation, not by choice. Such as you were.”

David nods and Four continues on.

“ Now I will explain a little bit about the future. After the second initialization begins, you and your group will be grouped with your most allied faction, which is still the USA National Guard. You and they will be put into a region to scavenge for a month, as well as any others with alignment to the faction. Take note this will be a dulled-down version of the updated universe. This will be your last opportunity to earn what will be called ‘lost technology’. Which could be as mundane as a toaster oven or the blueprint to making a printing press. Do take note, if the faction had the blueprints and copyrights of the invention. They can make such technology.

After the third initialization step begins you will once again return to a place like this where you can spend your credits you earned scavenging and make final purchases before your journey into a new world. Do take note you will not be able to use the shop again till you have access to a base nexus after the update is finished.”

That caused both David and John to raise an eyebrow.

“ This ends the general description explanation. If you have questions of any kind, please politely ask me and if I am able I will answer them to the best of my ability.”

Jake did not hesitate and raised his hand, which got a nod from Four.

“ Can you bring back the dead?”

Four chuckled and shook his head.

“ You have no idea how many times that is asked. The simple answer is maybe. And to cut your next question off. Your daughter can be brought back. But it is beyond your means. You shall see what I mean when you look in the shop.”

Jake seemed to grow angry but took a deep breath and calmed down.

John had the next question.

“ Are we in some kind of sim? Are we just figures for someone's amusement?”

Four laughed again.

“ Two of the top three. I shall answer it the best my experience has shown me how. You make life out how you see it. Just watch out for the other guy who might disagree.”

John thought about that and gave a weak laugh.

“ Fair enough.”

David raised his hand again.

“ When you said lost technology. You are not just talking about technology as we know it as. Are you talking about magic too?”

“ Oh, one of the rare bright freethinkers. There are countless civilizations out there. About one to two thousand of your worlds years ago, your universe had a major system crash, during what you would call the dark ages. One of the key systems became corrupted at that time. Magic. So we've been working on fixing that error.”

David thought for a moment and figured his next question might be better off him finding out himself. But if his hunch is right, then the most important thing he will need in the near future is credits.