PftA (Revised): Chapters 18-22

Chapter 18 – Sharing the Decision

Though his mood had noticeably improved since our arrival, Justin still excused himself and hid in the room he shared with Melony several times during the first day. His eyes were always red when he returned, so there was little question what he was doing. It would likely take a long time for him to get over the betrayal, and I doubted it was something he would be able to make significant progress on while we were still there.

As night approached, Justin offered us his room, claiming he’d rather sleep on the couch. Given the lack of bedroom space, I didn’t mind sharing the bed with my mom, but I hated displacing him. Justin insisted he didn’t want to sleep in his room anyway since it had too many painful memories.

We understood and gratefully accepted his offer. Even if he wasn’t just being polite, I doubted my mom wanted to sleep on the couch.

A check of my phone showed Deni and Bell had sent several messages letting me know they had gotten a last-minute slot in a nearby rift and were scheduled to enter soon. The app I’d downloaded that allowed me access to my messages in-game made keeping in touch with the rest of my party much easier.

If only I had Lisa in the real world…That would make everything simpler.

“I’m going to head into the game now. My party has some stuff going on, and I want to tell them about the job offer now that we’ve pretty much decided I’ll be taking it,” I said.

“That’s a good idea,” Justin agreed. “You need to work something out with them if you plan to stay in a party. Otherwise, you can join one of the adventuring groups out of Atlas. We even have our own guild.”

When there were no objections from Mom, I got changed and claimed one side of the comfortable bed my brother had shared with his soon-to-be ex. A few moments later, I was in another world – at least, virtually.

“Duality, you made it!” Bell exclaimed as I walked out of our shared room. The group was arranged around the living space, checking through the gear they planned to use for the delve.

“Barely, it looks like,” I said, removing my armor from my spatial ring and equipping it. I’d also given the others spatial devices, though they didn’t hold as much space as mine. While I couldn’t manipulate Space to expand things in the game without a spell, I knew it would be within my abilities once I awakened my affinities in real life.

I looked through the items I’d prepared. I hadn’t replenished my stock of weak offensive talismans since I wasn’t expecting to delve so soon. However, what I had should be plenty to deal with most of what we might encounter, especially when considering my affinity-based spells.

As we left the apartment, I told them about the job offer. I explained the time requirements and what I thought it would mean for partying together. I also included that I could avoid attending traditional school so it would somewhat balance out once school started.

“Is there any way you can get me in as a beta tester?” Blaze asked, causing the others to nod along. I hadn’t even mentioned the financial compensation involved yet. I probably wouldn’t, even though the numbers were openly available to anyone who looked.

I’d found them during my research into beta testing, after all.

“I can ask, but they seem to be looking for specific things. The person who interviewed me was most interested in my affinities and skills,” I said, not wanting to get their hopes up too much. “I’ll let you know when it’s official. Maybe they can work something out – especially if you have advanced your specialized or combat skills.”

With that seed planted, we entered the nearby Transportation Station – usually shortened to just ‘Station’ – and found the local transportation platform that would take us closest to our destination. There were no seats on the platforms, nor were there walls or a roof. Instead, the platforms were enclosed with a mana barrier that activated whenever the platform was moving.

It took a bit of getting used to, but I’d grown to enjoy traveling on the fast-moving platforms whenever I was in a city that used them.

= = =

The delve went well until we encountered an area with a mana nullification effect that negated any external mana use. My spells and enchantments were largely useless, leaving only my melee skills viable. It was a quick reminder of why it was important to train non-magical combat skills. Well, a reminder for me. It was a wake-up call to the others.

The guard outside the rift had warned us that there were areas within the rift with anti-magic effects. The others had mostly ignored the warnings, not realizing how disastrous fields like that could be when your party relied heavily on magic for both offense and defense. Thankfully, we were able to backtrack and retreat from the rift.

Afterward, everyone but Blaze and Mesmer seemed much more interested in finding weapon trainers to assist with their skill growth. Mesmer declined, claiming he wasn’t a damage dealer and would rather focus on healing or support.

Blaze had insisted that the encounters were rare enough that it wasn’t worth his time to bother training to counter them. It was an opinion shared by a lot of people. Embarrassingly, I had been one of those people before my return.

Since Ger, Bell, and Deni had all quit training after leaving the Training Tower, they had quite a bit of room for improvement – something that was blatantly pointed out by the combat trainers they hired through the Adventurers’ Guild. I was not spared from criticism either, though my continued training was obvious enough that I wasn’t given too hard of a time when I told Yesla about the incident.

Still, I was tired and ready for a break by the time Lisa alerted me that I needed to go to sleep if I wanted to obtain a full eight hours of (experienced) rest before my session limit was reached. Eventually, the twelve-hour sessions would be expanded to twenty-four hours for those who were hardcore enough to buy the enhanced haptic suit. However, built-in waste disposal had never been something I was interested in.

I’d wake up and use the bathroom myself, thank you very much.

= = =

“Oh, I’m so glad you’ve decided already!” Justin’s excitable boss nearly yelled as she jumped up from behind her desk upon seeing us walking toward her open door. Was she really that excited for me to become a beta tester? That seemed a bit… odd. Maybe she was one of those people with naturally high energy or something.

“I see you brought your mom along with you, too. That’s good since we’ll need her signature to make everything official due to your age,” she said with a nod before turning her attention to the infant held in my mother’s arms. “And the wee little one. She’s getting so big!”

Justin’s boss expertly relieved Mom of the tiny human, cooing as she snuggled with my niece. It was apparent by Amie’s smile that she was familiar with the energetic woman.

“I missed you yesterday! I forgot you weren’t going to be there when I visited the nursery and was so disappointed you were gone!” she said in a pseudo-baby voice. Seeing someone I knew had to be as powerful as a fictional superhero acting like a baby-crazy… human was so weird.

Justin cleared his throat awkwardly, causing the tall brunette to blush as if she’d forgotten the rest of us were even there.

“Oh,” she coughed awkwardly. “Sorry about that. I just love babies….” After an uncomfortable pause, she said, “Right then, let’s take care of the paperwork, and I’ll get you all of the gear you’ll be issued before we transition to the virtual portion of the hiring process,” she said as she ushered us into her office, still holding Amie as if it were only natural.

Maybe it was. Rhona was (probably) human, after all. She was just more powerful than us mundane Earthborns… for now. I had no doubt we’d catch up in time.

Her comment about my new gear reminded me to check Justin’s wrist for a manatech cuff. The monitoring bracelet blended almost seamlessly with his skin and was only noticeable because I was specifically looking for it.

Rhona easily maneuvered Amie as she settled into the chair, nestling the smiling girl into her lap. After asking about our decisions and tapping a few times on her crystalline tablet, my soon-to-be boss turned the device so we could read the display.

“It is the same document that I sent to Mercer, except your information has largely been filled in, and I clarified what you can and cannot release publicly since you have an established game guide,” she said, anticipating my questions. “Please add any missing information and verify the data our AI was able to gather from public resources.”

I frowned. She sure was sharing an awful lot more than was necessary. She could have just left the data portions blank and had me fill everything in. Was there a point to being so blatant with her technology? I considered for a moment before dismissing the thought.

It was probably nothing, given the society she was used to. If anything, she might be trying to explain her failure in not having all of the requisite information filled in.

I read through the document again, noticing a few tiny changes, but nothing had fundamentally changed. After receiving a nod from my mom, I took the offered stylus and initialed beside a few sections, then signed my name on the signature block before handing the stylus to my mom so she could do the same in the space labeled ‘parental consent.’

“Right. Now that we’ve taken care of that, I’ll hand this cutie back to grandma,” she said as she reluctantly did so before collecting the tablet. After a quick scan of the signed documents, the tall brunette looked up with a bright smile.

“I’m glad you’ve decided to work with us full-time! I think you’ll like the virtual academy we’ve set up. It’s not quite like a traditional school, but also nothing like what I’ve seen of online schools. I’ll take care of all the required paperwork for your transfer, so don’t worry about that,” she said with a sly grin before placing the tablet back on her desk.

“Okay then. This next part will probably take a while, so it might be best for Emie to contact you when she’s done?” Rhona offered. “There are several physical and virtual tests that need to be completed before she can work from home, and every month she will need to travel to an Atlas office for assessment. Most of it we can do through the system, but to ensure everything is accurate, in-person testing is also occasionally required by your government.”

“What is the closest office to where we live in Missouri?” Mom asked.

Justin’s boss – my new boss – tapped on her tablet a few times. “It looks like there is an office in Kansas City, though another one should be opening in St. Louis in a couple of months.”

That was better than I expected. I thought there might be some correlation between the Atlas offices and where portals opened, but I knew St. Louis didn’t have a portal during the last timeline. At least, they hadn’t when I’d left two years after the reintegration happened. I’d had to go to Kansas City since it was the only portal for a few hundred miles.

Still, I nodded along. Kansas City wasn’t too terribly far away, though St. Louis would undoubtedly be closer. Both were significantly better than having to return to Florida every month. That would get expensive – and time-consuming.

The rest of my family left while I followed my new boss to another floor after receiving my new cuff bracelet. Rhona called it a Fitmon since it monitored fitness. I was pretty sure they were just stealing the naming scheme of the fitness bracelet that had been popular a decade earlier.

But whatever. It automatically shrunk to fit my small wrist, which was nice.

The testing that followed was unexpected, though I really should have figured out what was coming when I was also given clothes to change into. After being put through a battery of physical assessments, I was allowed to shower before changing into my new haptic suit and starting the virtual portion.

Thankfully, they provided a robe to wear over the skin-tight suit.

Once again, I was given the same battery of physical tests, only this time, I was within a training area in the game. I suspected it was somewhere in the Junction, but I couldn’t be sure without exiting the facility. My avatar had been fully reset for the tests, but Rhona assured me it was a temporary effect that only happened during official assessments.

Following the virtual physical assessments, I had to take several knowledge and intelligence-style tests, which weren’t too bad. It took a while to go through everything, but I suspected that was why I’d completed them virtually since we were almost certainly taking advantage of time dilation.

“Okay, that’s it for testing,” Rhona said when the last document was submitted. “Now for the fun part – your first glimpse behind the proverbial curtain.”

Chapter 19 – First Glimpse

I followed my boss – who incidentally looked exactly like she did outside of the game – clothing and all – as she guided me out of the large, mostly plain building that blended into its surroundings when I turned to look back at it. Shrugging at the obvious camouflage effect, I continued following Rhona.

“This is Beta Promenade,” she said, motioning toward a nice-looking hotel-style building next door. “It is essentially an in-game access point for your VPS since this section of the game does not allow random arrivals. Generally, we prefer players to log out from their VPS, but our preliminary testing has shown that limiting departure locations is more trouble than it’s worth.”

She led me inside, where it looked like a high-end hotel lobby and recreation area, though no visitors were loitering in the area. The colors were mostly white and shades of tan. Both were neutral colors within the Alliance, along with black – though black was also associated with the Arcane affinity. Arcane was so insanely rare that everyone treated it like a neutral color. For the few who had Arcane affinities – like Ros – they were able to go largely incognito.

Rhona headed over to the small counter where an NPC receptionist was waiting. “Hello. We’re here to register user ‘Duality’ under personnel code ‘Gamma1aHI.’”

The NPC clearly understood whatever code Rhona had used to describe me because he immediately nodded and began tapping on the screen in front of him.

“Send a bit of mana into the tablet, please,” the gentleman asked after just a few seconds. He motioned me toward one of the smaller tablets mounted on the counter. I followed his directions, and the tablet flashed before displaying ‘G-313’.

“Okay. We’re all done. Your room number is displayed on the tablet in front of you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime,” the clerk said pleasantly. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

I looked questioningly at my new boss, and she smiled brightly. “No. That’s all,” she replied to the clerk. She turned to me. “Come on. I’ll show you where your access point is. The room assignment only tells you which door is linked to your VPS. Everyone assigned to this building is a beta tester, but you are separated by group,” she began before explaining how group assignments worked for beta testers.

“Because you are a remote employee, you are assigned to Gamma group. But,” she emphasized the word playfully, “if you wantedto renew your contract at some point to participate in more in-person testing, I’d have no issue with transferring you to Alpha group. As you saw, it comes with a nice increase in pay and access to on-site housing in the physical world for single group members. However, the rooms are about equivalent to a hotel room,” she said with a touch of disappointment.

“Still,” Rhona continued, “it’s something to keep in mind for next year when you turn eighteen and can move out on your own. You’ll also have the option of moving into one of the student housing apartments we anticipate building for virtual students within the next year if you choose to attend one of our virtual universities after graduation.”

The athletic-looking brunette led me up three flights of stairs and down a wide corridor, passing several rooms displaying their alphanumeric designation.

“Here we are,” she chirped as we stopped in front of the door labeled ‘G-313’. Aside from the simple color palette, the hallway would not have looked out of place in any high-end hotel. “Feel free to look inside to verify it goes where it should. All you have to do to gain access is send a mana pulse into the door. Nobody else can follow you inside without your permission, and any who try will be blocked at the entryway until you grant them access through your interface.”

That reminded me… “I was wondering, are upgraded interfaces a secret or something?” I asked, turning to face my new boss.

“What do you mean?” she asked curiously.

“I expected Justin to know how to upgrade his interface since he is part of beta testing, but he had no idea what I was talking about,” I said with a slight tilt of my head.

Her expression shifted to one of understanding. “Oh, no. It’s not a secret, but few low-tiered people bother with it. I’m surprised you learned about it so quickly.”

I tried to look embarrassed at the comment, but I’m unsure how well I succeeded. Acting was never really my thing. “Ah, I might have spent some time going through all the different parts of the interface, looking at what was in each tab and all… I saw it at the bottom under settings. I figured something that cost ten thousand experience points had to be powerful.”

She nodded along as I spoke. “That was quite astute of you,” she said approvingly. “How do you like the upgrade? Is it everything your article made it out to be?”

“Yes,” I hesitated before shrugging. “I probably don’t use it as efficiently as I should. I feel like I’m barely skimming the surface of what it’s capable of,” I admitted. “I’d love some guidance if you have any.”

It was true. My party had gotten the upgrade initially because Ros had been raised as a noble and knew it was far superior to the base version. We used several improved functions, but I never felt I was fully utilizing the resource. Any assistance with making the most of the upgrade would be welcome.

I quickly looked inside the room, verifying that the door led to my unadorned VPS before closing the door and turning back to Rhona.

“Unfortunately, even as a beta tester, I can’t give you any assistance with that. The upgrade is…” she trailed off, seeming a bit uncomfortable. “It would be better for you to figure it out if you want to share it with people on your site. If I gave you anything related to the upgrade, it would fall under the NDA since it is not meant for everyone in the public. Rather, it is for those resourceful enough to find it and smart enough to see its worth.”

As I considered the administrator's words, we exited the building and back onto a nicely manicured roadway. There were no actual vehicles, though several NPCs and (presumably) beta testers used small, personal transportation devices as varied in style as the people using them. It was certainly a change from the main game, where sights like this were much less common.

The city was much smaller than the one I was familiar with, though I could see it was rapidly expanding. Everything looked clean and new, though only a few storefronts already housed businesses. Though I knew the answer to my question, I asked it anyway.

“What is this place?”

Rhona beamed. “This,” she paused dramatically as she swung her arms wide, “is the start of World Junction Earth. We’ll probably just call it World Junction, or maybe shorten it to The Junction, but regardless,” she waved a hand dismissively, “this is the beginning of the mega-city that will unite all of Earth.”

I looked at her skeptically. Was that the goal, or was she just repeating whatever rhetoric was planned for marketing? Maybe she didn’t know. There were World Junctions for other planets, after all. We wouldn’t have access to any of them until the portals opened, and even then, travel between the different Junctions was limited.

Seeing my look, her eyes widened. “Really! We plan to open this space up and let businesses and entertainment move in, creating a hub of creativity and productivity while also creating a draw for those who might otherwise never try the game.”

She motioned toward a courtyard nearby. “Look over there. We’ve even included several artificial rifts to allow residents and adventurers to level up their avatars and earn money and other resources. Even if they are never delved, these rifts will never spill their contents into the world – not that we expect there to be any issues keeping them full of adventurers.”

Seeing the markings along the exterior of the short wall, I realized I’d been inside many of the rifts she’d just pointed out during my previous life. Several rifts were arrayed in a circle around the outer edge of the courtyard, allowing those who wanted to delve a variety to choose from.

The courtyard we were looking at was one of the ones dedicated to Tier One rifts, with at least two rifts for each threshold available. The rifts in the courtyard also created a new instance just a minute after the last person entered, allowing many more people to delve while reducing lines dramatically. It was a game feature instead of something that could occur in reality, but that wasn’t really the point, I didn’t think.

“That’s awesome. Will I get to delve those as a Beta tester?”

“Of course!” she said excitedly. “The bigger question is, will you be a solo adventurer or seek out a team? We have both kinds of testers, so there is technically no wrong answer. It isn’t like you have to stick to just one style, either. Many people start with large groups and eventually end up in pairs or trios.”

“What do you recommend?” I asked, curious as to what advice the woman would give.

She considered the question briefly as we walked through the picturesque city. “Adventuring solo is risky. Few do it, and even fewer live very long doing it. Most of the testers who have had to reset their avatars are those who prefer to adventure alone. Delving in smaller parties allows you to advance faster but is inherently riskier.” She looked at me to gauge my reaction.

I wasn’t sure what she’d seen in my expression, but she continued, “I personally feel teams of three work the best since it keeps experience gains high without compounding roles too much. With strong enough adventurers, pairs can be perfectly functional, especially if they complement each other well. Conversely, some rifts and challenges will require more people to defeat. As a beta tester, you’ll be put into several situations where you must work as part of a team. Usually, we let testers pick their party composition, but that isn’t always the case. A lot of the testing will be done independently, like those you see who have already opened a business,” she said, pointing to one of the nearby storefronts.

After a few more minutes, we came across a series of buildings that looked like they belonged on a college campus. They were all much more similar in style than the surrounding buildings, which tended to have a more eclectic look.

“This is our virtual secondary school, eloquently named ‘Junction High.’” She rolled her eyes. “Clearly, I was not the decision maker for the naming scheme, but it’s accurate enough. You’ll get a notification to inform you when registration and orientation begin, and they will last for several real-world days before classes start.”

“Do you happen to know what date that will occur IRL?” I asked.

She nodded. “August 19. It’s a little early for most of the world, but since we’ll be working with time dilation and there might be some hiccups with scheduling, we wanted to create a buffer. Remember, people will be attending from all over the world. It shouldn’t cause too many issues with the game automatically translating everything into Common outside of language-learning classes.”

We wandered a bit more before she sighed. “Well, that’s about it for the tour. The next time you log in with your new equipment, you’ll arrive in your VPS like normal. If you want to come to the Junction, use the door. Going into the Atlas Universe will be the same process you’ve always used.”

I had one last question before leaving. “Can I bring things from Atlas Online here if I bring them through my VPS?” I knew how it worked when everything was released, but I wanted to ensure there were no strange limitations for beta testers.

“Of course,” she said as if it was apparent. “How else would we get enough raw material to fill the demands of the future population? The rifts can only provide so much, after all.”

Chapter 20 – Unfortunate News

After clarifying that items could only be brought into the Junction from publicly available expansions – an issue that would become relevant soon, she assured me – we logged out. I mentioned my party members’ interest in becoming beta testers as we packed up our headgear, but she gave little response aside from telling me to have them fill out the application online.

After ensuring I knew when to log in and where to meet my new overseer the following Monday, my new boss bid me goodbye and returned to her office. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for my mom to pick me up, and we returned to Justin’s apartment with several new packages in tow.

I was thrilled at all the new loot, though I wasn’t lucky enough to get a tablet like Justin. I did receive various clothing items and knickknacks displaying the Atlas Online logo – things I’d seen a few of around Justin’s apartment but never really considered. It looked like they’d given me way more than normal since there was too much to fit into the single duffle bag I was given. It was probably due to the excess XS women’s clothing items they had on hand.

It probably didn’t suit their target population of testers. Oh well, that left more stuff for me!

Aside from the new DIVE gear, I had lots of workout clothes and casual wear. I was concerned there might not be enough space in my small car to fit everything on the drive back to Missouri.

Meh, we’d make it all fit somehow.

“Well, what did you think?” Justin asked as I dropped the bag I was carrying beside the couch. I knew what he was asking about, so I glanced at our mom before raising a brow. “No details, just a generalization.”

I could imagine my brother was itching to talk to someone new about World Junction. Sure, Rhona had brought some things up that were not public knowledge when she was trying to sell me on becoming a beta tester, but there were allowances I’d noticed in the NDA that permitted such things. Also, she was the boss who presumably allowed others to share additional information. I doubted the NDA applied to her.

“It was neat, though a bit… underpopulated?” I replied. “I’m also curious about what exactly I’m expected to do to test such an environment.”

He waved my comment away. “You’ll see when you start on Monday.”

= = =

Justin received divorce paperwork on Thursday via courier. It was… a lot faster than I expected. I wanted to think that receiving the documents would firmly shove my brother from any lingering denial, but I knew that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

In the other timeline, recovering from the betrayal took him a long time. He had seemed mostly fine on the surface within a couple of weeks, but I knew my brother better than that. Melony’s regular social media posts had undoubtedly helped him to realize there was no going back, but I was sure he held out hope that she’d return, full of apologies and begging him to take her back.

It was probably why he never got involved with anyone else – that we knew of, at least. After he disappeared, Dad suspected he might have had something going on with Rhona because of her reaction, but that was a supposition at best.

Now that he had been served divorce papers, she’d probably start posting about her ‘new’ boyfriend soon. It was what she’d done the last time.

Seeing her moving on so soon would just make things worse for him.

I wanted to stay to help him get through it, but he insisted he was fine. Reluctantly, Mom and I left Florida and headed home on Saturday. I promised to come back if he needed me and reminded him that as a beta tester attending virtual high school, I had a lot more freedom to drop everything and come back if he needed me – or even just wanted me to come stay for a while.

Fitting all my new items into the car was a hassle, but we eventually managed it. Unfortunately, I could not recline my seat during the drive, making it an uncomfortable trip. While trying to avoid the discomfort during the drive by working on some enchantments in Atlas Online, I felt the movement of wind – or mana, it was hard to feel the difference in-game – and turned to find Bell materializing on her bed. She did not look pleased. My heart sank a bit.

“Hey, is everything all right?” I asked softly, drawing her attention to where I was seated at the desk.

“Yeah, it’s great,” she said flatly as she stood from where she was perched on the bed. “I got offered a job as a beta tester.”

I was surprised at how quickly she’d received an answer. The rest of the party had only applied a few days earlier, which meant Atlas responded quickly to each applicant. However, Bell certainly didn’t sound all that enthused about the offer.

“That’s great, isn’t it?” I asked in confusion as I stared at her nearly heartbroken expression. Then it hit me. “Oh, the others then?”

She shook her head. “Mesmer and Ger got offers, too. But Deni and Blaze were rejected,” she said before raising her voice. “It makes no sense!”

“It makes perfect sense,” Deni’s voice sounded from the hallway before she appeared in our doorway. “I’m just a Tailor with a weak Air affinity. Blaze has a strong but super common Fire affinity with no significant specialized skills. Duality said they were looking for interesting combinations. We didn’t make the cut. Maybe if I’d started learning Enchanting like you two…”

She said it casually and let the thought trail off like it was no big deal, but it was obvious that being rejected as a beta tester had bothered her. Further, what did that mean for the party? Curious, I asked.

Deni sighed. “Nothing. It doesn’t mean anything. We’re already mostly delving together at night. We’ll just shift all of the team play to nights. Blaze and I can do our own thing during the days.”

“No, I’m just going to decline,” Bell interrupted. “At least with the three of us, we’ll be functional as a small party.”

“That is stupid. It’s a good job. Don’t throw away something like that over a misguided sense of loyalty… or whatever,” Deni said. “We talked about this. Take the job. You can pay more of the rent if it makes you feel better,” she added with a cheesy smile, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

“What about the others?” I asked.

Bell rolled her eyes. “Our super shy, quiet guy already signed up and is doing his physical or whatever at the Raleigh office right now. Ger is…” she trailed off, looking toward Deni.

“I told him to take the offer, too. It’s not like we don’t see each other all the time. We won’t break up because I didn’t get hired, and you guys did,” Deni huffed before plopping onto Bell’s bed. “You should go catch up to them. The four of you can form a party for stuff when we aren’t all together. It’ll be better than anyone being left out completely. Blaze and I will work something out.”

“But it’ll mess up the party,” Bell insisted, shooting me an apologetic glance. I understood completely. None of this would have been an issue if not for me. “And classes! What about my classes? I’ll need to redo my whole schedule!”

“Why?” I interjected. “You only have to work forty hours a week. Aside from being told when to report for new tester training on Monday, I didn’t notice anything that said when those hours had to be worked.”

Rhona had mentioned eight hours a day at some point, but the contract only specified forty hours per week. The information I found online said the same thing. Unless someone specifically said those hours needed to be during the week or at specific times of the day, I would assume the only requirement was to meet the hour quota.

“Still, my schedule is all spread out next semester. It would probably be easier to schedule all my classes a few days a week, or maybe really early. Nobody likes early classes anyway,” she said, considering her options.

“Good, you can take care of that after you get hired. Go do the physical part so you’ll be in the same group with the others,” Deni said sternly, causing Bell to look at her with narrow eyes.

“Fine, Mother,” she said sarcastically before looking at me. “See you later tonight? I guess we have a lot to talk about.”

At my nod, Bell sat down on her bed and dematerialized. I looked at Deni guiltily. Their party wouldn’t have been broken up had I not come along. I couldn’t help but feel bad about the trouble I’d caused, even if it was a fantastic opportunity for the three who’d been offered tester positions.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Deni sighed. “It’s not that big of a deal. Blaze is a bit upset, but he’ll get over it.”

I sat there awkwardly, unsure of what to say. Interacting with people was hard sometimes, especially when emotions got involved.

“If you and Blaze are going to be partying as a duo while we do the beta thing, I should probably make a lot more healing and protection items,” I finally said, nodding. Having come up with some form of a solution, I immediately felt a bit better.

“That’s not a bad idea,” she agreed. “Blaze can cover casting while I do most of the melee. We should probably consider practicing with other weapons to cover any shortages unless we’re going to consider other party members.”

I nodded. “Blaze might like Archery since he seems to like keeping his distance, and I could work on some manatech to help him out there, too. It might be good for him to learn how to use an actual weapon instead of just setting everything on fire.”

“Or maybe I could practice Archery, so we both have a ranged attack,” Deni said. “I don’t always need to be right in the middle of things, after all.”

We spent the next couple of hours brainstorming options before Blaze finally joined us. Deni was right; he was upset at the rejection, but it seemed to spur him to want to get better – as if the rejection had been due to some lack on his part.

He joined the discussion, excited at the thought of gaining more EXP with a smaller party while still being largely protected through enchantments. While I didn’t want them to become overly reliant on such things, it was the best I could offer for essentially causing them to lose most of their party, including their Healer.

Chapter 21 – A New Cohort of Beta Testers

Instead of driving straight through to reach home, Mom and I stopped for the night part of the way there. We spent most of the remainder of the drive the next day discussing the game, including Mom’s affinities and the training she’d done. I’d given her my barely used DIVE system since I had no need for it with the new gear I was given. It was only a matter of time before she talked Dad into joining her.

Unsurprisingly – for me at least – Mom awoke affinities for Life and Nature. With her experience as a nurse, she’d make a great healer once magic became a real thing on Earth. Her Nature affinity would also provide her some offensive capabilities as well.

Not that Life Mages couldn’t use their magic offensively. They absolutely could. Life and Nature were very similar affinities in that way.

Though I’d gone for a few runs while visiting Justin, I felt like I’d skipped way too many workouts. I made up for the slack by heading to the gym on base and spending a couple of hours going through each of my major muscle groups. It was odd spending a Sunday afternoon at the gym instead of working, but my boss had politely informed me that there was no need for me to come back since I’d already found new employment.

I’d tried giving him a two-week notice before quitting, but he didn’t want it. I had mixed feelings about suddenly losing the job I’d become accustomed to, but since I was starting my new job the next morning, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. My old boss didn’t seem particularly upset with me, so at least there was that.

When my alarm went off informing me I needed to log in to meet with the overseer for my new job, I felt a rush of nausea. I reminded myself that everything would be fine. Even if I somehow drew more attention, it was incredibly unlikely they would ever consider time travel a possibility. It was simply too far-fetched, especially while mana was so scarce on Earth.

I quickly slipped on my suit and headgear before stretching onto my bed and triggering the login sequence. My bedroom disappeared, and the view of my lightly furnished VPS filled my vision. Not wanting to wait any longer, I shifted my outfit to a simple purple blouse and black pants.

I equipped my spatial devices and ensured nothing was missing before checking my appearance in the mirror. Because avatars didn’t reset with each login, it was important to at least glance over my appearance before heading into the Junction. Seeing nothing that immediately struck me as problematic, I exited my VPS through the newly installed door and entered the familiar white and tan hallway of the Beta Promenade.

Several others were making their way down the hall toward the stairwell, so I joined the flow and headed to the lobby. Catching sight of Bell’s silver hair, I approached my fellow party members, easily maneuvering around the other new employees.

“Duality!” she exclaimed when she saw me. “This is pretty crazy, huh?”

I smiled at my friend’s excitement. “It is certainly different. What did you think about the Junction?”

She looked confused. “Is that the name of this place?” she asked, and I nodded. “Oh, well, it looked pretty neat, but I’m not sure what they want us to do in a city. Are we supposed to build something or test something?”

Mesmer leaned closer to the two of us. “I heard we’ll be trying out some of the hidden features and trying to come up with new stuff.”

“Where did you hear that?” I asked, curious about the source of his information.

“I was one of the first people here. The other testers were talking about it,” he said awkwardly as he shifted in place. Being around so many people was probably unsettling for someone as shy as Mesmer. I felt a bit bad for him.

I looked around for our missing party member but didn’t see Ger’s white and blue hair anywhere. In a crowd as diverse as this one, it was possible the brilliance of colors and styles just hid him, though I doubted it given the small number of people present. There were only a couple dozen players here, at most. I was starting to worry Ger was going to be late. Or worse, not show up at all.

Before I could ask the others if they knew where he was, a booming voice sounded from the entryway. “Welcome to the Junction, beta testers! The local time is precisely 2 a.m.! It might surprise you that the time zone is different in World Junction Earth than wherever else you were playing, but to make things easier for everyone, the higher-ups decided to base World Junction Time (WJT) on Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. Midnight here will correspond to both midnight and noon UTC outside of the game, hopefully making it easier for everyone to keep up with any differences.

“I am Jaxson Emissary. I know you all probably have questions, but save them for now. Since it’s still a bit too early to have you explore the area, I’m going to take you all to our testing facility to take care of the initial challenges we have set up for you,” the speaker said. He was a normal-looking man with dark hair and eyes, with a muscular build visible under his loose black uniform. It looked almost like my dad’s combat uniform but without the camouflage pattern.

He exuded an intimidating aura I hadn’t felt within the game before. However, I knew several adventurers with similar auras during my time before. It was far more muted than it would have been in reality – probably a limitation of the game, but it was still notable.

“Whoa, that dude looks like he could kick our asses,” one of the testers nearby whispered to another player.

Our overseer grinned toothily upon hearing the comment – a feat beyond the average human ability, given the residual noise and distance. “That’s because I can kick all of your asses, probably at the same time, if you really want to test me.” Shaking his head lightly and dropping the menacing-looking grin, Jaxson motioned for us to follow him and made his way to the building next door.

Instead of leading us through the main entrance, he took us around the side to a nearly hidden set of doors. “Be sure to scan your Fitmon to gain access to any Atlas facility as a beta tester,” he said before miming the action of swiping his wrist against the small sensor next to the door. “Every person, every time.”

I looked at my wrist, not realizing the Fitmon was present in the game. I hadn’t noticed it in the game during the week I’d played before starting as a beta tester. Now that I was looking, I saw that it had nearly disappeared, though I could still make out the faint outline where it should be. I rubbed the area with my other hand, noticing nothing that would indicate the item’s presence besides the slight discoloration.

Weird.

I could hear others murmuring about the oddity, but none of them knew any more than I did. My friends were taking it in stride, seemingly unbothered by the fact that a piece of real-world tech had been incorporated into the game.

It took a few minutes to get through the line of testers waiting to scan into the building, but luckily, the delay allowed Ger to catch up to the group.

“Whew, glad I caught up with you,” Ger whispered as he fell into line behind us. “I was a little worried when I couldn’t find anyone.”

“Don’t be late next time,” Bell admonished. "We logged in at the same time, so I don’t know why you were late.”

Ger glanced away, not commenting on her implied question.

“Alright, now that we’re all here,” the man said as the last tester entered the firing range directly inside the building, “it’s time to have a little fun.”

= = =

“That was not fun,” Bell pouted as we took a break from firing the military-grade weapons a while later. “I don’t know why they have us shooting guns in a magical world. It makes no sense.”

“Sure it does,” one of the other testers commented snidely from his seat nearby. “I bet they're going to make a big deal about how to use all of these weapons and then show us that none of it matters when magic comes into play.”

One of the other testers scoffed. “That’s stupid. Everyone knows the military is involved with Atlas. I suspected this was all some secret government program to start with. I was probably right, and they are going to train us to be spies or something while pretending to make it part of ‘game testing.’”

“You’re stupid,” the first tester replied before continuing the back-and-forth bantering about what the testing was actually meant to accomplish. A few other players chimed in with their theories, but it was clear nobody really knew.

Based on my brother’s text this morning, I suspected he knew what the first day involved, even if the purpose was unclear.

We’d tested several types of weapons, all of which had been mundane at this point. However, several variants of manatech weapons were neatly stored in racks along the wall next to their ordinary counterparts.

“All right, that’s enough break. Now, I want you to try those weapons again,” the drill sergeant-looking man said with a knowing look. Given how he acted, I suspected it wouldn’t be as easy this time.

The first few players who attempted to shoot the weapons looked at each other in confusion when the guns failed to fire. It seemed game shenanigans were in effect.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” our overseer asked the testers lined up with their weapons. “Fire the weapons.”

“Um, Sir?” one of the females said meekly as she raised her hand. “The weapons aren’t working.”

“Oh, they’re not working now? Well, I guess you’ll have to figure out how to make them work. Do whatever you need to, but make them functional. You have two hours.” With that, the intimidating man turned and exited through a side door, leaving the new beta testers looking around in confusion.

“Thank goodness they left snacks,” Ger grumbled as he walked back over to the refreshment table that had been set up. It struck me as odd that the company would bother with virtual snacks during testing, but they were known to take care of their employees.

I considered the issue. Weapons that used to work had suddenly stopped, and we needed to figure out how to make them work again. It sounded much like what would happen after the mana density reached a certain point. Gunpowder and other explosive powders were some of the first things to stop working properly, by pre-reintegration standards, at least.

Mana changed how a lot of things worked, though.

Maybe this was to teach us how to work around that problem when the time came. If the issue was non-functioning gunpowder, that meant that the weapons themselves were functioning correctly, and it was the ammunition that no longer worked as designed. That didn’t mean it wouldn’t work if I could find a way to cause the combustion to happen anyway.

I grabbed several rounds of various size ammunition from the ammo table that had been set up near the weapons. Adding a combustion rune might create enough force to work, but would the loose powder clog up the barrel if the gunpowder was no longer exploding? Removing it altogether would be an obvious solution, though I might need something to fill the inside of the casing to build up pressure.

Unless I didn’t. I really should have paid more attention when my dad tried to teach me as a kid.

“Hey, you know Enchanting, right?” I looked up to find one of the new beta testers I’d seen shooting earlier standing in front of me. I glanced around and saw that Bell and Mesmer were talking to one of the guy’s friends, so I figured they’d said something about my skill.

“Yeah?” I answered uncertainly, wishing the guy would go away so I could get back to figuring out how to make a gun work without gunpowder in a post-reintegration world.

“Can you make a Fire rune or some kind of Fire or explosion enchantment on this bullet?” he asked, holding out a large round for one of the rifles. I examined it as I considered what the other player was requesting.

“Yes, but how will you activate the rune?” I asked. It wasn’t like he could just pump the whole thing full of mana or anything. I thought a small activating enchantment on the firing pin might work, allowing it to be fired the same way as before as long as the activating rune was kept powered, but the other guy might have a better idea.

After the reintegration, I’d seen enchanted guns at the military base, so I knew there was a way to make it work. There was probably more than just one.

The guy looked at me like I’d asked something incredibly stupid, making me pause to reconsider my question. Nope, it made sense.

“I’m going to put mana in it, obviously.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before focusing on Rambo – the tester's new nickname, I’d decided – and trying my question again. “But how are you going to add mana? Are you going to hold the bullet and channel mana into it, shooting it from your hand?” I paused, “Please don’t do that one. You’ll probably blow up your hand.” Returning to my questions, I continued, “Are you going to channel mana into the weapon? Exactly how are you going to activate the rune?”

Rambo looked confused. “I’m going to channel it into the trigger,” he said as if the answer was obvious.

I didn’t think it would work, but stranger things had happened. With a shrug, I pulled out my enchanting kit and added a tiny ‘Fire’ rune to the flat side of the round in the center of the circle. Many of the casings had small indents there, but the round he’d handed me was unmarked, making it the perfect place to add the rune.

“I added [Fire], not [Explosion] or [Combust] or any of the other variants. We can test those too, but I worry they might cause the weapon to fail,” I said as I handed Rambo the lightly enchanted round. I didn’t want to do too much to it, just in case. It was better to underdo it than to cause the guy’s face to get blown off.

“Those other ones sound better. Can you do them, too?”

I spent the next little while making weak enchantments beside Bell, who could also create the simple enchantments. While the others tried and failed to figure out how to activate the runes while the rounds were inside the weapon, I took several rounds apart and discarded the gunpowder. I'd decided it was inert and would do nothing but muck up the insides.

While Fire-based enchantments might work, it seemed more effective to skip trying to use Fire to build up enough force to propel the bullet and go straight to using Force. Nodding to myself at the insight, I engraved several reassembled rounds – minus gunpowder – with Force-based enchantments to test which would work the best.

Trying to enchant the bullet without the casing was an obvious no-go since having the smaller projectile loose inside the weapon sounded like a recipe for disaster. Besides, remounting the bullet within the casing allowed me to enchant the inside to create more pressure.

The enchantment involved more than adding a single rune, but I hoped it would work much better. I did try a few variants with single runes on the base as I’d done for the Fire-based enchantments, but something told me the new way would work better.

It also wouldn’t get damaged by the firing pin hitting the casing.

I grabbed a nearby weapon and quickly disassembled it. It was a bit awkward, but long-forgotten muscle memories kicked in, and I managed to extract the firing pin inside. Everything was clean in a way that a real weapon would never be. There was no oil or carbon; everything was pristine and ready to be engraved. I added a series of activating runes I’d used on several more advanced manatech devices I’d made in the other timeline.

Working on something so small and narrow was a pain, but it was doable. If I’d had more mana, or better yet – better mana concentration – I’d have been able to charge the powering enchantment enough to make it virtually self-charging afterward.

Even with the restrictions on our avatars being removed and our levels restored, I still had much less mana to work with than I wanted. Activation runes worked on neutral mana anyway, so I had a few people help me power them while Bell focused on charging the Force-based runes.

By the time our two-hour window had elapsed, I was reasonably confident my creation would work. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to test it before our Atlas overseer returned.

Chapter 22 – Odd Testing

The uniformed man returned precisely two hours after giving us our assignment. He went from one group to another, checking to see what they’d developed.

The sound of a weapon firing caused me to jump. We’d worn hearing protection earlier – even in this virtual environment – but I’d removed them when he’d entered. I regretted that choice now as my ears rang from the loud sound.

A warm wave of energy soothed the ache, and I gave Mesmer a grateful nod of thanks. Based on the looks of the testers around us, Mesmer had used an area of effect spell to target everyone close by.

“Good job!” the overseer said excitedly as he handed the weapon to another player. “How did you make it work?”

The tester being questioned puffed his chest proudly. “I used science – or, I guess, Alchemy. I’m a chemistry major in real life and focus on Alchemy in-game. It wasn’t very difficult to figure out how to modify the gunpowder formula to offset the effects of mana.”

“It wasn’t very difficult, you say?” the man asked wryly. “I think I know where you’ll be doing most of your testing,” he said with a smirk before heading over to another group that had formed.

“Ours doesn’t work,” the speaker for the group said sourly. “I thought a [Fire] enchantment would be enough to set off the round, even if the primer wasn’t active. I also had a few more rounds enchanted with [Combust] and [Detonate], but those just damaged the weapon.”

That was the group that had asked me to do their enchantments. At least they figured out how to activate the runes in the weapon. It was progress, I thought.

Of the three remaining groups – aside from Bell and me – one had developed a separate alchemic solution for the problem – a completely different explosive compound that took the place of the gunpowder but was so volatile that it would occasionally go off if jostled. It was still a functioning option, but it would need some work to make it safe.

Another group had created some kind of air gun that could fire round metal balls, though it didn’t have the same punch as a regular weapon. Where they’d managed to source the parts, I was unsure. But it worked and would probably be really effective paired with something like enchanted marbles. I couldn’t help but get excited as I watched it work.

“What do you have for me?” Jaxson asked as he turned his attention to my small group.

I showed him the weapon Bell and I had worked on and the Force enchanted rounds. “I need to incorporate some kind of charging mechanism since I don’t have enough mana to make it work for very long, but I put an activation rune on the firing pin so it would set off the Force enchantments when the trigger is pulled. It should work like a normal, pre—” I caught myself, stopping mid-sentence before I said the wrong thing. “Like a normal weapon, I mean. I haven’t finished testing everything yet. The amount of force might need to be adjusted, but it works.”

He smartly motioned for me to test the weapon myself. Being the guinea pig was never a fun job. Thankfully, it fired fine, though I could tell a vast difference between the various enchantments we’d added. Some were much more effective, while others barely produced enough force to knock the bullet out of the casing.

Seeing the weapon fire, the uniformed overseer nodded at us approvingly.

I’d had Ger make several crystal bullets, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do anything with them. It was something I planned to experiment with another time.

“Alright, good job, everyone,” the overseer said after talking to the last group and noting their failure. “The rest of your time today can be spent exploring the Junction. Keep a log of what you visit and your impressions throughout the day. If you have ideas, document them. I’ll submit your recommendations to the Junction designers after each meeting. We’ll meet in the lobby of the Beta Promenade at the same time tomorrow. That’s real-world tomorrow, not game tomorrow. We have different tests to start the day before you head out to explore, so don’t be late.” He glanced at Ger at the end, making it clear that he knew about my teammate’s tardiness.

Upon being released, the two dozen or so new beta testers streamed out of the building and disappeared into the rapidly growing city. The sun had risen while we worked with the weapons inside, but the city was still waking up.

By most accounts, the city appeared to be populated and prosperous. However, it was clear they expected many new residents to arrive anytime. There were restaurants, bistros, tea and coffee shops, and even odd specialty cafes that had cats or puppies – or, in one case, bunnies – freely roaming the public areas for patrons to play with while they enjoyed a drink.

I’d seen things like that before, but it still struck me as odd to find in this kind of setting. Not that Bell was going to let me skip such attractions.

“We have to go in this one! I’m allergic to cats IRL, and I always wanted one. Please?” she begged as she dragged me by the arm into a café with a sign displaying two kittens sharing tea.

I followed along and sipped on my hot chocolate as Bell played with friendly cats and kittens of various breeds. I was pretty sure not all breeds were available on Earth, but the Junction was a quasi-magical place, so who was I to say anything? The virtual cats were much friendlier than real cats, which was good since it would have been disappointing to go to a cat café and not get to pet any cats.

It was a good thing we could bring our money from the main game with us since we spent a little with each stop we made. Bell insisted it was in support of exploration, but I suspected she had an issue with shopping. That would explain why she hardly ever had any money in the game.

“Oh, let’s go ice skating!” she exclaimed, pulling me toward a nearby park with an obvious slab of smooth ice in the center. Green spaces were scattered around the mega-city, full of adult playgrounds, parks, climbing walls, and other random attractions.

There were even several sets of workout equipment randomly placed throughout the city – because who doesn’t like working out in public while people around them go about their day, am I right? Bell apparently felt that way since she’d squealed and ran to the first set we saw, insisting we needed to try everything out.

I glanced around the park, searching for Mesmer and Ger, only to remember they’d ditched us upon seeing the first cat café. Since they both knew Bell IRL, they probably understood her personality enough to know what was coming. I shook my head and followed her to the ice.

“Hey, do you want to check out the local rifts?” I asked when I noticed Bell finally got bored of skating in circles since she wasn’t good enough on the ice to do much else.

“Sure! Do you want to find the guys and see if they want to join us?” she asked.

I considered it for a moment but ultimately shook my head. “Nah, let them have their fun; we should be fine. I have some manatech that will help fill any gaps if needed. Trying a rift with just the two of us will be fun.”

“Okay,” she said agreeably. “Let’s get changed and head to the rift circle. I remember seeing one back that way.” Bell pointed off to one side near the direction we’d traveled. Thankfully, the game allowed for the automatic equipping of items. I was again grateful for the slight divergence from reality, even if it was a little immersion-breaking. It was better than begging for a room to get changed in.