“You don’t know how to use a mesh rig?” Jennifer asked in disbelief. “Really?”

  “I can get all the information I need from either the city networks or through Nyx,” I grumbled. “Why would I want to use a total immersion system to find the information I wanted?”

  “The city information networks are biased, heavily filtered by the companies that control the infrastructure. The mesh is a far more open system, built on the back of samurai tech and much harder for corporations to regulate. The information on there isn’t filtered,” Jennifer explained.

  “It’s probably also not secured or verified,” I muttered. “Plus, the net is faster.”

  “I never thought I’d see the day where you sang the praises of a corporation,” Jennifer laughed.

  “I’m not praising them. I just don’t want to spend hours every day crawling around in a virtual environment to get my news for the day,” I said, waving the headset. “So… how do I use this?”

  “It’s easy,” Jennifer said, picking up her own headset. “You need to sync your augments with the headset; that’ll allow you to connect to the local mesh network. Then you put the headset on and activate the mesh integration system in your augs.”

  “And…” I prompted.

  “And that’s it,” Jennifer shrugged. “Your augs will do the rest, replicating the mesh inside your head. If you wanted to dig into the deeper mesh or wanted a more immersive experience, then you’d need full dive gear, but for a game the basic connection is enough.”

  “Sounds easy enough,” I said.

  Leaning back in the recliner, I slid the bulky headset over my head and sent a connection request to the device. The system took a moment to go through authentication before I felt the network open up for me.

  “Alright, here we go…” I muttered as I activated the mesh mode of my augments.

  I immediately felt a sense of vertigo, like someone had ripped the chair out from under me and allowed me to fall. Except I didn’t stop falling when I hit the floor. There was no floor anymore; I just kept falling into an infinite, featureless void.

  The sensation was unsettling, and I briefly thought something must have gone wrong. Was I supposed to be falling for so long? Before I could disconnect, the new virtual world slammed into place. It was just a wireframe gridwork at first, a rough construct that was just barely solid enough for me to put my feet upon and stand up properly.

  After a couple seconds the grid was covered with a rough set of textures. Various props seemed to pop into existence around me as the world slowly became clearer and more realistic.

  Jennifer finally appeared next to me when the world started to implement the tiny details. Cracks in the walls, sounds of traffic, smells of the garbage bins.

  “Hey, is everything okay over there?” I asked when she stumbled slightly.

  “I’m fine, just need a moment to properly synchronize with the simulation," she replied with a smile.

  “Yeah, about that… Why is it taking the system so long to load in? I thought this was supposed to be a state-of-the-art simulation,” I grumbled.

  “It IS state of the art,” Jennifer replied. “The area is procedurally generated, so it takes a minute or two for the servers to put everything together.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I looked at the girl, who was trembling slightly. “If the level is procedurally generated, why is this simulation so disliked?”

  “Most of the other areas have a lot of open areas, or places you can hole up in. The industrial simulation is a maze of narrow roads and alleys, which makes it easier for the Antithesis to flank you. The completion rate is much lower because of the difficulty,” Jennifer explained.

  “So all those wannabe samurai aren’t willing to take on a challenge?” I scoffed. “It’s a good thing that Protector AIs don’t take a person’s background into account when making their selections.”

  “Indeed,” a voice said from behind me, causing me to jump. I twisted around to find Nyx’s avatar standing there, along with Deadbeat.

  “How’d you get in here?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Evelyn, please. I have the ability to not only monitor every single network on your planet, but I could also scan it on a molecular level several trillion times a second, looking for changes. It’s not even that difficult. I didn’t have to hack into the simulation to participate. I was already here,” Nyx replied.

  “I really wish you’d use some of that omnipotent power to help me occasionally,” I growled. “We could have used that level of intel during the Global Incursion.”

  “That would be against the rules. I could absolutely protect humanity against everything that the Antithesis threw against you, but that wouldn’t actually help you in the long run. We’re here to help humanity defend and uplift themselves, not do it for you. If you want access to my intel, you’ll need to invest in the appropriate catalogs. You know that,” Nyx said.

  “Knowing it and not being annoyed by it are two different things,” I grumbled.

  The world had been fully rendered at this point. We were standing at the entrance to a cluttered alley in some sort of mammoth industrial area. I could see the smoke billowing out of smokestacks towering over the surrounding buildings, and I could smell the pollution in the air. It smelled like home.

  Even though the simulation was fairly realistic, it wasn’t perfect. Despite being on a street filled with parked cars and surrounded by dozens of warehouses, there were only two or three other people on the streets. Not only that, but these simulated people were walking around arm in arm, laughing like they were strolling through an upscale park instead of a grubby working-class area.

  “Well, we’re here,” I said, turning back to Jennifer and the others. “So how do we start this thing?”

  “We don’t,” Jennifer replied nervously. “It starts randomly, just a few minutes after everyone logs in. We’ll get an alert, just like in real life.”

  “And do we get any weapons to start?”

  Jennifer nodded, reached behind her back, and pulled out a revolver. “Everyone has a small caliber firearm. Nimbletainment didn’t think it would be fair to expect everyone to beat the first Antithesis the players meet to death with a pipe or shovel.”

  “So they lose points for realism in exchange for making the early simulation easier,” I muttered. “I guess that makes sense.”

  Jennifer looked at me funny. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you know how many samurai I know that were chosen after a desperate fight with an improvised weapon? It happens far more often than you think,” I said.

  “Like who? Anyone I may know?” Jennifer asked.

  “Yeah, Sharron.”

  “No shit! Humboldt killed her first Antithesis with an improvised weapon?” Jennifer exclaimed in excitement. I chose to ignore her swearing this time.

  “She got stuck in some tunnels with a stealth hive and had to kill the scouts with an old pickaxe she found down there,” I told her. “Please don’t ask her about it though. She doesn’t like to talk about it. And maybe don’t mention it to Eddie or Issi; they’re too young and excitable to not accidentally bring it up.”

  “My lips are sealed,” the girl promised.

  I glanced up at the sky, which was excessively smoggy but ultimately normal, and sighed. “Since the simulation hasn't been triggered yet, we should probably take advantage of the situation. Let’s take a walk and see if we can find a more defensible position. We don’t want to be caught out in the open if we can help it.”

  “You’re the expert,” Jennifer replied, nodding seriously.

  There wasn’t much to look at on the street: a handful of massive warehouses, separated by narrow streets and alleys, and a couple cars. There wasn’t any cover, not even a semi we could climb up on to gain a high-ground advantage.

  “We’re looking for somewhere we can either take cover or at least get out of reach of the early models,” I explained. “I have no idea what the simulation is like, but in the real world the most dangerous time for a new samurai is the first few minutes. Trying to survive the waves of smaller models until they have enough equipment to deal with them.”

  “So… maybe we should break into one of the warehouses and see if we can get to an upper level or catwalk?” Jennifer suggested. “Maybe find a fire escape so we can get to the roof?”

  “It might be a good idea, but we’ll probably have to deal with the fliers up there. Ones and Elevens. Not easy without a rapid-fire weapon,” I said.

  “Then what do you suggest?” Jennifer asked just as my augs went off. A familiar alert flashed across my vision.

  [Incursion Detected]

  [Stay Calm and Proceed to the nearest shelter.]

  “We start running,” I growled, glancing up at the sky as it ripped open. The massive red rifts were pulled wider by titanic tentacles that emerged from within, and dozens, hundreds of tiny black dots poured through. “We’re going to have to think on our feet.”

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