As Axton reached the place where his old friend (and filthy rich individual) Thomas sat, he took great care to make sure that he did not show his concern for his old boss’ declaration. Without getting too deeply into the train-of-thought rant that had been sent, the message essentially was a kind of declaration of war. There was not a hint that anything would be done to him outside of the game, or at least that was not something spelled out directly, but Axton, after reading the rambling message, was now glad that his friend had the foresight to have his home under heavy surveillance.

Regardless, Axton now had a sinking feeling that his troubles in-game would only grow. Even though he had defeated the twisted mayor in the Beta, that NPC was a proxy of Mr. Blythe, and that meant that Axton’s former boss now had a reason, no matter how flimsy, to try and ruin Axton’s life. Then again, since when had Donovan Blythe ever needed a reason to mess with him?

Axton sat down on a big and heavily cushioned sofa in the shared Virtual Space, his seated body now directly opposite that of Thomas. Now, with both of them together, it was simply a matter of waiting for the game to launch. The two sat in silence for a few virtual minutes before Thomas broke the silence.

“So,” the multi-trillionaire asked. “has that asshole done anything yet?”

Axton couldn’t help but subconsciously flinch, which his very perceptive comrade picked up on with minimal effort.

“Fucking hell…” the rich man said as he rolled his head back. “You’d think my message to him would have gotten across.”

“You actually tried to talk to him?” Axton asked, incredulously. Axton expected some intervention on behalf of Thomas, but he now knew why the message Donovan had sent was essentially a mad, rambling rant. “You do know that you just made things harder on me by doing that, right?”

Thomas sighed and nodded. “Yeah, after that flinch of yours I realized that his courteous demeanor was just a façade. Make sure that you pick the same beginning location as me when the game launches, otherwise there may be a chance that you get jumped.”

Axton leaned back into the sofa, allowing the overly plush furniture to let him sink in.

“I don’t even know what the start locations will be, by the way. How will we coordinate?”

“Wait… did they not send you a list of available starting points?”

Axton shook his head.

Thomas let out a single dry laugh before leaning forward and slamming his fist down on the table that was between him and Axton. “So, the entire fucking company is that connected to him… Fuck!”

Axton watched as his friend calmed himself down, or at least made himself seem calm once again.

“Just a sec.” Axton’s friend said as he passed a piece of paper to him. “I’m going to start in Revelry Space. More specifically, I’m starting in System Carybaen, on Planet Porta Royale, Zone 5.”

Axton looked over the paper he had been handed and noticed that the individual locations listed on it partially glowed, almost like a link to a web address. He found the place Thomas had chosen and pressed his finger on the glowing text. The text then glowed even more intensely, and a message box appeared before Axton’s Avatar’s eyes. Axton read the brief excerpt about the system and planet his friend had chosen and then looked up from the notification with a look that was half concern and half mild confusion.

“Are you seriously going to a pirate-controlled system and to a lawless planet while expecting things to go well?”

His friend shook his head.

“That’s the very reason why I chose it. It’s all but lawless, completely chaotic, and I have a hunch that not many people will choose to go there for those very reasons. Plus, where better to hide from Blythe and the pawns at his disposal than in a place that rips people apart with minimal ease? Lastly, let’s not forget that, if your gamble paid off, you and I will have a very big head start.”

“IF the gamble paid off.” Axton said, emphasizing the key word that would either make or break his friend’s plan.

“Yeah, but you do know how to make a War Suit from scrap, too.” Thomas said as he relaxed on his own couch. “Plus, I have more than enough money to help us pay our way to victory, should all go to shit.”

Axton shook his head. “You know that I despise pay-to-win mechanics. I will only rely on you like that if there is quite literally no other option aside from simply dropping the game, and I hope to whatever and whoever is out there that it doesn’t come to that.”

“Same. Same.” Thomas said softly. “I also don’t particularly like that, even though I could easily use my vast, unimaginable fortune in that way. It just kinda takes the challenge out of it, doesn’t it?”

The two talked for a bit longer before another notification popped up, this time for both of them. The game was just a few Virtual minutes from launch, and people were being allowed to start their first steps into the game’s main menu and character editor screen. The two looked at each other, nodded, and both dove headfirst into the game.

…

Axton was now standing before a perfectly identical copy of his own body, which meant that he was now in the character editor screen. It was funny that he had not been able to alter his in-game avatar in the Beta, but he had chalked it up to the game not having fully implemented that feature yet. However, as he stood before himself and tried to fiddle with the sliders and options that he would be able to use to change his avatar’s form, he noticed something peculiar.

“God fucking damnit.”

All of the sliders and options did nothing to change the appearance of his avatar. In fact, any time he moved a slider or chose an option, the alteration would immediately undo itself and the slider or option would reset back to the way it was at prior to him touching it. He had even tried switching his avatar’s gender from masculine to feminine, but this too was immediately reverted before he even had a chance to see what a Rule 63 version of himself would look like.

As the timer ran down towards the final release, Axton threw in the towel and accepted the fact that he would be unable to alter his avatar’s appearance. He had hoped to use it as an extra layer of protection against Donovan and any people he hired to bother him in-game, but apparently, Donovan had better connections than even he had anticipated. For the code to be written so that a singular person couldn’t even change their appearance was more invasive than Axton was prepared for, and it caused him to seriously doubt whether Thomas’ plan would go off without a hitch or not.

Hesitantly, Axton entered the screen where he could select his starting zone. He chose the same place that Thomas had and then confirmed his choice. Seconds passed and Axton held his breath as the screen in front of his virtual eyes displayed the universal symbol for ‘Loading’. How much interference would Donovan have put in? Would he even be able to go to the place he had selected, or was he doomed to once again be thrust far away and into a very dangerous position?

The screen before him stopped loading and then began to glitch out for just a single second. It was long enough that Axton saw it and immediately felt pure terror, but not long enough that anything could be done about it. The glitch ended as soon as it began, and Axton felt himself dropping down, only to land on his feet. He was now inside the game, and the screen that popped up next caused a wave of relief to wash over him.

『Welcome to Heavy Metal Dawn! You are now in Revelry Space, Carybaen System, Planet Porta Royale, Zone 5. Please enjoy the game!』