Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-One - Time Off, Time Off

Saturday! Blessed day where all the office drones went home and tackled all of the shit they didn't have time to do during the week and where half of all factories were closed. The party day. The day off!

I decided that I needed a vacation, so the plan was simple; for the next week and a day or so, I'd stay home and do nothing.

More or less.

Even if I wanted time off, there were a few things that I had to lock in on, and I couldn't just not do them, mostly because I had to see how they'd work out.

So, the first thing I did was... head out to buy food. My fridge was empty, and I wanted a bit of time out in the city. My bike didn't have much room to carry goods, but I didn't care too much. I ended up leaving home at eleven-ish and only returned around nine in the evening.

Mostly I checked out a few things here and there. The city centre was a cool place to hang out in. There were a few tourist traps that I'd always avoided, mostly because they assumed that people had disposable income and not much sense.

I checked out this little interactive museum about Fortress ENE--and learned nothing while I was there--then headed out to the edge of town where that one E-rank portal I knew about was going to open. I poked my head in long enough to see what kind of monster it was filled with, even if I didn't intend to close it.

The portal was filled with this weird sort of bug monster that came up to about my knee. Nothing too impressive, honestly. I killed one by kicking it pretty hard with my old steel-toes.

Good to know, at least. The portal was definitely on the lower end of E-rank, so it would be a cakewalk, and it was out of the way, which was nice.

Anyway, after that, I hit the groceries and headed home where I tossed off my pants and determined that I wouldn't be wearing them for the rest of the week, as one did.

The rest of the day I spent playing some hyper-addictive slop games on my laptop until it was accidentally three AM.

I slept in the next morning, ate junk food warmed up in the microwave, and burned through my water allotment by zoning out in the shower.

The week passed like that, more or less, though two things really stood out.

The first was my deal with Orchid Lux.

I called them up after placing my order, confirmed it, then they gave me a time and place for my appointment. That Wednesday, at six in the afternoon. A time-slot right after work.

Obviously, I wasn't going to go myself. So... I did something a little stupid and expensive. I hired someone to go in my place. I pretended to be a competitor looking to see how Orchid Lux's service went, found someone that more or less fit my description online and who was looking for work, and paid them a cool thirty K to go get shiny new cyberware installed.

They went through with it, too. Maybe because I promised them a hundred grand and paid thirty up front?

They came back with new eyes, and new cyberware, and told me everything about the operation. It sounded cool, professional, and quick.

The poor jobless lady probably thought she'd won the jackpot.

I felt a little bad about using her like that, but it was the only way to be entirely sure.

I paid to have a third party check on her new cyberware, and it came back clean. Orchid Lux wasn't fucking around. Or if they were, it was hella subtle. Judging from what I saw and discovered online, though, they really were just that good.

The second thing that caught my attention, and the attention of a few people in Fortress ENE, happened on Thursday, sometime in the early morning.

It was on the far end of the city from where I lived, so I didn't pay it too much attention in the original timeline, but there was a cascading breach way out on the outskirts of the city that got a little out of hand.

This time, I was paying a lot more attention.

Three portals, all more or less close to each other. E, D and C ranked. One of them breached, then the other two, which were common recurring portals, breached as well.

There was something weird about that. When I looked into it some more, I discovered that there was some research into it, but it wasn't deep yet. Still, when one portal breached, there was a chance that others nearby might also breach, or at least act strangely.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The leading hypothesis was that the breach caused a large fluctuation in the ambient magical energy. That could destabilize other portals, especially if they were weaker.

A three-portal breach wasn't anything to ignore, but it was out in the suburbs of Fortress ENE, by the more industrial parts of the city. So the reaction time was... kind of ass overall. Eventually a team from Seraph of all people went out and tackled it, with the assistance of a team of normies from some other company who wanted to test out some new gear or something. It was settled by the end of the day, but not before causing a fair bit of damage.

Nothing like the capital-B Breach. This was smaller, more contained. Reactions were slow, but not so much so that things got out of hand, and casualties were low because it was out in a less populated area.

I watched a few shaky-cam vids of the fighting, took notes, and then found some people who had been there complaining online and asked them whatever questions I could.

This could be a big break.

The C-rank dungeon was beyond me, still, but the D-ranker?

It was an unstable, dangerous, D-rank portal in the middle of a breach. If someone, or a small group of someones, appeared and simply took care of it... well, that would mean something, right?

Already, there were a few people making posts and speculating about when me and Fran showed up in that food court. So far, people were assuming that we were some corpo team or something, but others were assuming a more generous take on the situation. It wasn't too much, not with how quickly news moved, but it was the start of a reputation and that was good enough for me.

When the real Breach happened, I wanted to be able to be listened to.

If I couldn't, then people might actually die, and... yeah, no, I didn't want that.

Having a rep as a vigilante would come in handy, especially if we had a knack for showing up where trouble would be before it appeared. We'd done it once in the public eye already, doing it a couple more times could be exactly what we needed.

And it might be a good way to show off another new member, maybe?

Hehe, I was having too much fun speculating on all of this.

When I finally Reloaded, I was quick to grab my notebook and note down what I needed to.

Saturday 5th

- Bright Barrow drone crashed in the middle of a park. (Still don't know about this one)

- E-rank portal opens up on the edge of town. Took four hours for someone to decide to close it. Could be a good spot to hit for practice. Just E-rank, but looked relatively easy? Soloing it could be worth the experience and magic energy.

Sunday 6th

- Nothing much.

Monday 7th

- Bright Barrow had a whole press conference about their drone. No one cared. Felt off? Maybe investigate more?

- Seraph and that one A-ranker, Bloody Violet, had a little insult match online.

Tuesday 8th

- More nothing

Wednesday 9th

- Appointment at Orchid Lux after work

Thursday 10th

- Starting at around 0800, a portal breaches about 3 miles west of the industrial park.

- Second breach of D-rank portal at 0930.

- Third breach of E-rank portal at 1045

- Seraph shows up at 1145 to push back monster tide. Some locals already fighting. Police already on the scene.

- Seraph pushes over to C-rank portal and closes it.

- Seraph takes out D-rank portal.

- A smaller team takes out E-rank portal.

- Mop up of monsters starts around 1300.

Friday 11th

- More of nothing.

I nodded to myself. A week off had been nice, but it was time to get back to it. I had plans, a lot of plans.

And they'd start with inviting Becky to join Fran and I on a little excursion... I checked the time. It was five-thirty PM, on Friday the fourth... Right, that would be tomorrow. So I really ought to call her now, then check in with Orchid Lux.

Damn, so much to do already.

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