GEOVRU: Repticatch

Lesson 4

"Good morning Miss Mödare." the NPC maid spouted at the base of the landing pad. "Would you like me to fix you anything?" I stormed down the walkway, which was lined with grape plants on both sides; the maid quickly ran up to me and asked the question again.

"Reroute program, restart." I shouted, the maid froze in her tracks and walked back to the landing pad. I must have said the same command to at least ten other maids and butlers as I went through my mansion.

The entire first floor was covered in a pattern of black and white tiles with golden tinted grout between them. The walls were painted white as well, the entire structure supported by both decorative and real quartz pillars. There were tall green ferns that were on both sides of every window and door. In the space between every pair of doors was a table with a pot of flowers and a massive painting. The light from Enek's two suns shone through the windows in warming beams that almost made the yellow highlights on my coat and scarf glow. I left the front door to jump onto a hover-bike that was waiting for me there. As I crossed the bridge that closed off my private piece of land, I looked over to another plot of land that floated in Enek's gaseous atmosphere. In the center of course, was our capitol building, where the watchman stayed, along with his guard and council. It was also where the government met to discuss meetings. That's where I was going.

"Miss Mödare! You can't go in there!" the guards shouted attempting to pull me back out into the hallway, but by that time I had already slammed the doors open and stopped whatever argument that had erupted within the room. I stepped across the second story balcony on the right side of the room and slammed my fists down on the banister railing as I looked down on the bureaucrats that were discussing something until my entrance got their attention.

"You jubelidiot! What do youthink you're doing?!" "Mödare! What in the world are you doing here?! This is aprivate meeting!""I've heard a few rumors going around that you were goingto go against your treaty with the Fortisians! As the ambassador of the tworaces, I have to know, what are you planning?"The room was dead silent for around five straight seconds,the watchman took a step forward andnervously fixed the cuffs on his sleeves. His hair, like everyone else's in theroom was a bright yellow. His robes were long, with the hem nearly on thefloor, decorated with golden circlets and dyed white to the point where italmost blinded me. His eyes were a deep brown, almost to the point where it waselegant, but the man behind those digital eyes was far from elegant. Hisusername was Kriakorous, and I had never seen him fight before, but I hadalmost no doubt there was a dagger underneath those robes."Mödare, as the ambassador of the alliance, and one of thestrongest warriors in the game... you are highly respected among the studentbody, especially our race, but... you don't know anything about politics.""I know we need the Fortisians to beat the Groftinites.That alone is enough to keep the alliance.""Tell me this Mödare. What are we going to do after we defeat the Groftonites?""Keep the treaty of course!""The Fortisians will easily be able to overpower us once wetake out the Groftonites, making them the single most powerful race in thegame. There will be almost nothing we can do to stop them."I clenched my fists, closed my eyes for an instant andglared right back at the leader of my race. "Du är så korkad!""Not everyone here speaksSwedish Mödare."I had hardly even noticed anymore that I had let my nativetongue slip out when I was mad. It was embarrassing that I had to repeat myselfwhenever it happened, but now wasn't the time to get flustered."You're so stupid!" I screamed, translating myself. "Can'tyou even take into consideration that the Fortisians might share the power? Krystal is a kind person! Don't you think thatmaybe they have a plan to put this war to an end?!"The room was silent again, what I had said wascontroversial; this game was all about the struggle between the races to becomethe strongest. But the rumors had been spreading around lately that the gamecould actually be finished by uniting all the races under one massive alliance,and create a universal economy. Some people wanted that peace, while others didnot. I didn't really care for the most part, I just wanted to be the bestplayer, but it would be nice to not have to worry about war every hour of theday. "Guards!" the man in yellow cloaks screamed. "See MissMödare out."A second later, two spears crossed in front of me. I almostlaughed. "How many times have I taken out your entire guard in the arena? Notto mention they can't even hurt me within the city."Kriakorous swiped his hand down and pulled open the muchlarger panel that was reserved for the watchmen. I could already guess what hewas doing, he was toggling the player vs player settings for me and the guards,and my guess was proven correct when a red text appeared under my health gauge,with a shield that said 'PvP enabled.' Itdisappeared after a few seconds. I quickly took the spears and broke them overthe banister. "I'll see myself out." I pushed the guard out of my way andslammed the door behind me. I stormed down the hallway and around the corneruntil I was outside again, behind a bush, where I screamed as loud as I could,just to release my anger. I hit the small tree that was next to me, as hard asI could, even taking the sword off my back and swinging at it a few times, butdoing no damage to it because it was an object of the city, and thereforeindestructible. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" I screamed. "What are they thinking?!"I held onto the trunk of the tree and shook it furiously. I would gladly takedown the entire building if the system would allow me. When I had finallygotten all of my anger out, I sighed for a second, then opened my menu and senta message to Krystal."The rumors are true, Kriakorous is planning to cancel the contractwith the Fortisians, but we don't need the Enians anyway. I can handle Caedes'entire fleet solo."A few seconds passed."That was fast, thanks Mödare. And no, with the Enians out of the plan,we're goin to have to rely on the Sakeons. If they agree, we can still launchthe plan, but we would be back a bit as far as fundin goes... You might want toget to farmin."I clenched my fists. She doubted my skill. It was true, Iknew it was. I could easily take on Caedes' entire ship if I could just getinside, which would be a cinch if I had my Milrek. But no one knew about myskills on that thing, only on foot. If the Sakeons were going to decline ourproposal, which was very likely, we would need at least 500,000,000 diasé (the in-game currency)to make up for the loss. If the entire race of Fortisians worked as much aspossible for an entire week, they would dish out at least 90,000,000. However,if I were to sell some of my in-game possessions, we could easily reach that quota.I ran all the way home, through the marketplace, through the industrialdistrict, and through the nobility quarters.My estate was located in the back of the massive plot ofland that was given to all the respected people of the race. The bridges thatconnected each of them worked like a tree, no individual plot connecteddirectly to another, but they were all sprouts off the same base. When Ireached my land, I stopped at the panel that stood about three and a half feetoff the ground. I opened it up and a panel emerged, labeling settings for myland, and opening a shop on the right side, in case I wanted to spend moremoney. But I ignored that section, I instead went to the options tab, locatedat the bottom of the list, and selected 'sell'. I then proceeded to highlighteverything on the list, and pressed 'enter'.Within seconds, the massive plantation that was once infront of me, vanished through a massive cloud of pixels, the land was stillmine, but there was nothing but an empty field of grass now. At the top rightof my HUD, a number appeared.(410050471) diaséadded.It was the perfect amount, just enough to meet the quota.All that was left now was the Fortisians, and a lot of patience on my part. Iopened up my message board after closing out the plot panel and sent a messageto Adrakenn."Come and pick me up? I've got a load of money to donate to thewar."I stood there for a minute, and then continued down thebridge that led to the large field of grass. About the time I reached the center of the field, thestarship came out from behind the clouds and landed in front of me. The hatchopened and I climbed up. "Thanks Drake." I said. Closing the hatch andfastening the belt over my chest. I looked up to the corner of my vision to seethe time was almost ten-o-clock. "I'm gonna get off once we get back to Proft."The ship accelerated and before long I was back on the icy platform. Drakejumped out of her ship, but didn't follow me. I turned around. "Oh... you're notAdrakenn!" I screamed. It was just a palace guard, with a sword strapped to hiswaist and a retractable ice shield on his back. But I could have sworn that itwas Adrakenn's ship, I turned to look, but the ship was dissolving and I nevergot a good look at it. But if Adrakenn didn't pick me up, then where was she? Iwalked inside the palace and asked Krystal, however she didn't seem to knoweither. She checked her log menu for all of her players, and it labeledAdrakenn as offline. Once Krystal informed me of this matter, I gave her allthe money I received for selling my possessions, then ran to her guest room andjumped onto the bed."Log-out!" I screamed.