Vertigo

Chapter 6 ~ Fizzy Glaxxy

Logging in, I was greeted by the usual prompt screen asking which world I wanted to log into, however the options had been updated.

Choose location:
The Hub
Vertigo: Soul Deck / Last log out point
Yevelia
New World

When you logged into TruShift you had access to every world connected to The Hub. Each time I'd chosen New World I had been overwhelmed at the sheer volume, everything from old arcade games made into virtual hang outs to fully fledged space battles, and hyper realistic fantasy lands. Thankfully the system had pretty robust search options so you could easily narrow down what you were looking for.

The Hub was the main city connecting every world together. If you just wanted to browse through the worlds in something more like a shopping mall than a list of words than The Hub was the perfect place to go. They also had all the other trappings of society, from avatar customization, to mounts, and battle arenas ready to engage in. I knew friends who hardly ever left The Hub, preferring the glam and extravagance of every world meeting.

The last two were Yevelia, and Vertigo.

TruShift gave you options to customize the list, of course. You could delete worlds, or sort them into directories for easy access. In my time exploring The Hub before Jupiter joined me I added and deleted many names from my list, mainly dance clubs and food worlds. Places without challenge that easily lost my interest.

I'd been spending a lot of time in Yevelia and Vertigo recently, so that wasn't unusual. But I found it interesting that Vertigo gave me two choices; the Soul Deck where I could connect with other players, or my last exit point. I had expected Vertigo to be like other worlds and allow me to go back to their designated log in point, usual the same spot a player exited, or a nearby safe zone. It appeared that the bar was acting as a mini hub for the game. It was likely other worlds had a similar feature, but this was the first time I had come across it. That probably meant it was rare.

I moved to select my last log out point, but hesitated. I still had questions, and Vallet might be able to answer them. If I went to the Soul Deck I could try to get some information. It might mean losing my quick spawn at the last location I exited, but that location seemed to be very close to a bear. A bear that had been all to happy to eat me. If I went back through the portal I had a better chance of changing my path, finding different creatures, and avoiding the bear until I was confident I could beat it.

Vallet had already proven to be a font of information, and if I came to her with the right questions she might even answer them. I was certain there would be a few things the guild wanted to keep to themselves, it only made sense when you were trying to control a worlds economy. But Bannershroud was only tenth in strength on the server, which meant they could be looking for an edge to move up the rankings. Bringing in new blood, or finding something overlooked by others, would give them a good chance of doing that.

Information would help me, too, whether I chose to join the guilds or not. Death by a bear seemed like poor alternative.

Decided, I mentally clicked on Soul Deck. The darkness of the waiting room shifted around me. A moment later and the interior of Soul Deck faded into view. It looked just as it had before, with several people gathered around the mini ring at one end cheering on a battle, tables filled with people dickering over card trades, and one Vallet sitting at the bar drinking something swirling with purple sparkles.

She was wearing a hiking outfit today with ankle boots, skin tight black jeans, and a hip holster with guns and knives. A hat sat on the counter next to her. It looked like she could have been going into a forgotten temple, not a virtual forest.