Mark sat on a bench facing Tina's Sweets. He waited for a while, and two teens walked up to the door of the place. One was loud, dressed in a yellow shirt with black jeans, and he was around 5'7" with brown hair. The other one was around 5'3", had a thick blue hooded jacket with light blue jeans that looked baggy, large sunglasses, and a black skull cap covering the head of the teen. Mark held the impulse to go hug them both.
" Hey Steve and Alex, I'm here," Mark screamed at them.
Steve turned but only saw a strange guy sitting on a bench. "Marksman, stop playing. Where are you?"
Mark laughs, lifting his hand, the young man waved. "It's me, Steve, I'm right in front of you."
Steve's jaw dropped, and he was left without words. Alex, as usual, made no sound. Because of the sunglasses, it was hard to see Alex's expression, but the teen was motionless.
"Are you OK?" asked Mark.
" What the hell, dude? What happened to you? Last I saw you, you were you, now you are this?"Said Steve in disbelief.
"It's a long story, Steve, let's go get some shakes." Mark stands from the bench and walks to the sweets shop. Looking at his friends, " Are you coming?" They entered the shop together and sat on a booth near the door.
The waitress, a woman in her mid-twenties, approaches the table, looking at the teens and the young man."Well, looks like two of the three musketeers are here, where is the skinny fella?" Both teens pointed to the person sitting across from them, but said nothing.
The woman takes a look at Mark, "Aren't you a Cup Cake," and chuckles. What can I serve you?"
Mark decides to order for them, "Give us 2 chocolate milk shakes and one strawberry, also, one bear-claw, one cinna-bun, and a cinnamon pretzel chopped in pieces, please." Taking note of the order, the waitress leaves to get the food.
"OK, before you ask a lot of questions, I can not tell you how, ...I myself don't know, let's just say that an acquaintance helped me get this way," Mark tells the teenagers, looking at them still in confusion.
"Say something, you are creeping me out," Mark comments.
Steve is the first to talk. "Look, Marksman, you needed to give us a warning or something. I'm still in disbelief, it's like you made a 360-degree turn from the way you looked before." Steve gestures with his hands while talking.
Mark corrects his friend, "It's a 180-degree turn; a 360-degree turn will leave you in the same place." The three of them laughed.
The food they ordered arrived, Mark and Steve got the chocolate Milkshakes, and Alex drank the strawberry one. Steve grabbed the cinna-bun, Mark the bear claw, and Alex pulled the chopped pretzel.
" I'm going to start a creators account in A.M.S. If any of you want in, let me know," Mark tells his friend while chomping down on the bearclaw.
Alex affirms with a head movement while drinking the strawberry Milkshake and eating the pieces of pretzel slowly.
" Wait, where did you get the money?" Steve asked, with a bitten cinna-bun in his hands.
Mark smiles at them and makes a gesture for them to get closer. "I won the Berant City lottery," he said in a low voice.
Steve gives Mark a serious look. "Mark, when you are done with your Genie, can I have it?"
Mark laughs. "I will never be done with this Genie." They all laughed again.
"So what do we do after this?" Steve wandered about the young man's plans.
"Well, I'm going to do some shopping, and after that, we will hit The Pit.
Alex took an envelope out of the jacket's pocket and slid it on the table towards Mark.
"Thank you, Alex, you are very kind." Mark opens the envelope and looks at the birthday card inside. After reading the content, he puts the envelope in the pocket of his jacket.
After eating their sweets and drinking their milkshakes, Mark pays the bill. The young man and the teens leave the sweet shop. They spend a few hours shopping around for clothes. Mark even buys a VR headset to use in his house, and then, they go to The Pit. A virtual arcade.
As they enter the virtual arcade, they are met with the sight of the VR pods. The black devices had an oval design that split in the middle. Inside was a long mat that was used to lie down. Once inside, the pod closes, and the V.R. experience begins.
There were dozens of pods, arranged in a semicircle. The entrance was on an elevated platform overlooking the VR pods. Each row of machines formed a larger semicircle that was in a slightly elevated position from the ones before. They formed a literal pit.
"It's close to four in the afternoon, let's get into A.M.S. For a few hours, ...let's say ...until 8?" asked Mark. Alex said yes in the usual manner,
"What about you, Steve?" The young man points at his loud friend.
"Well, I have to be home by 9, so 8 is good for me. After all, time flows differently in the V.R. games." Steve answered, satisfied with the timing.
Mark walks up to the clerk sitting at the counter at the entrance. "Give me 3 pods, ...we are a group."
The clerk looks at Mark, "For how long?"
"4 Hours," Mark replies.
As the man charges Mark for the pods, he takes a look at the employee in the pods room. With a loud cry, he shouts. "22, 23, and 24," he points at the teenagers in the entrance, and they walk down to where the pods are.
Mark places his jacket on the hover box and gives it to the employee on the floor. The man takes the box and gives Mark a yellow key. The hover box is then taken to a locker for safe storage.
As Mark enters the pod, he lies on the padded surface. The upper part of the pod closes down, Mark closes his Eyes and falls asleep.
Mark finds himself in a white room, looking around. He sees a figure dressed in a flashy jumpsuit made of light, with long red hair pointed upwards. The Game ID on top read Awesome Man 3924.
On the other side, there is a slender figure in a blue spacesuit. The figure's head is covered by a helmet matching the suit's color with 2 cat ears on top. The Game ID read Silent A.
Marks Game ID was The Marked Guardian.
The man in the bright jumpsuit gets close to Mark. "Marksman, I always crack up when I see your avatar."
Mark takes a look at himself. A shirtless muscle man with scars all over and a cigar in his mouth. He laughs awkwardly. " Yeah, I'm changing this."
With a sweeping gesture from left to right, Mark summons an interface panel with a VR Inventory. "I got this skin a while back, but I never got to use it before. It's called The Cat Butler." Mark said while looking at the inventory. He tapped his selection, and a bright light enveloped him.
When the light faded, Mark's avatar had changed; he was now dressed in a tuxedo, had a more elegant figure, and a top hat. A cat's tail was poking from the back of the tuxedo, and its face was covered by a cat mask. The hair on the avatar was yellow with reddish stripes.
"That's a Fancy avatar, Marksman. You sure you want to go with that?" Steve commented.
"Shall I change it?" Mark asked.
His arm was suddenly grabbed by a blue-gloved hand. Looking to his left side, he saw Alex's avatar shaking the cat-eared helmet from side to side.
Mark took his top hat off and bowed his head, showing a pair of yellow tabby cat ears that were hidden by the hat. Alex, surprised by this takes a step back. A gasping sound came out.
"Well, it appears we are a cat theme party," Said Steve while browsing through his own V.R. inventory. He then taped his selection.
With a flash, his avatar changed. Steve was now dressed in a tiger costume, which was a bit loose and sagged around his hips. His real face and strands of his brown hair were showing. He had a tiger nose painted onto his face. Mark and Alex both laughed at the funny sight.
"Let's do this, Marksman, create the account," Steve said while gesturing a claw slash with his hand.
Sweeping his right hand from right to left, Mark opens a games menu, and from the selection, he taps on the A.M.S. logo. Three black lines appear at the far end of the white room. As the lines get closer, they turn on an axis and reveal 3 big bold letters, A, M, and S. A large blue square lifts from the floor, and the square rises behind the letters.
They suddenly hear the loud sound of a gunshot, followed by a small explosion that can be seen on the top left side of the blue square. The square slides into the shape of a rhombus, revealing a Mech silhouette behind.
Below the big letters, Smaller words appear: Advance Mech Simulator. Underneath that, a menu is projected. Log in, New Account, and Options. Mark Selects New Account. He is taken to another menu with a different selection. Pilot Career, Creators Account, and Mech Annalist. Staying true to his plans, Mark taps on the creator's account, and a third menu appears.
Steve, getting frustrated, complains, "Dam, there's always so many menus in this game!
Mark replies, "Don't worry, Steve, it's almost over.
The new menu read as follows. Design Studio, Repair shop, and Mech Factory. An empty check mark beside all the choices. Mark tapped on all, marking all three selections.
A green prompt projects to the side, " Your selection has a cost of 50,000 L-credits."
Mark inputs his information and payment method.
When the payment went through, Steve looked at Mark. "Dam man, how much did you get with the lottery?"
Mark smiles again, "I'm not telling, it will only cause you pain."
Another prompt appears in front of them: "Please provide a name for your Workshop." Mark thinks for a moment, after a minute, He inputs the name. "Grease Monkey Workshop."
"Nice! Grease Monkey Workshop I like the name," exclaimed Steve. Alex nodded in the usual manner.
The room changed, the completely white room gave way to gun-gray metallic walls and a green floor made of polished concrete. The dimensions of the room started to grow, and new shapes were being generated.
After a few moments, they found themselves in a hangar. There were 6 empty maintenance docks, 3 on each side; these were maintenance docks for mechs. The docks were large enough to fit up to heavy Mechs.
Mechanical arms and steel scaffolds lie dormant on each dock, waiting for a machine to work on. At the other side of the hangar, there was a lone door. On either side of the entrance to the hangar, there were stairs leading to a second floor.
They went up the stairs and into the next Floor. Once there, they found a corridor. The corridor splits second level in half. The long corridor had one door to the right, one door to the left, and one door all the way to the end. Mark and the teens walk to the door on the right. As the young man gets in front of the door, it slides open. Revealing the equipment inside.
It was the control room for the fabrication equipment. There were the controls for a 3d printer and another machine called the assembler. Various terminals were present; they controlled all the aspects of the factory floor. On the wall at the other side of the door, a large monitor projected an image of two lonely machines in the factory.
The 3D printer, a machine that was able to produce all the components of the mech. The giant machine was big and bulky, but it was not the largest. The assembler was bigger. This machine was actually a set of extendable scaffolds and mechanical arms that were responsible for assembling the mechs.
The two machines were connected to each other by a set of conveyor belts that would move the components from the 3D printer to the assembler. The first made the components, and the second machine assembled everything. This setup was known as a production line.
They decided to keep touring the facility. The door in front of that one housed the design Lab. There were a few terminals around, one for designing mechs, another for designing components, a third, which was the paint suite, and the last terminal was a simulation machine. There was a design library at the end of the room that would, in the future, house all the designs owned by Mark; it was currently empty. Also, the store catalog was present in this room.
Last but not least, the final door housed the actual factory floor. It was a large space. There were two machines hooked up to a production line, as shown in the control room. The room was mostly empty. More production lines could be added with in-game purchases later on. Mark and the others decide to return to the design lab.
"What now, Marksman?" Asks Steve, trying to make heads or tails of the situation.
"Well, I want to get acquainted with the design lab functions, and you, Alex?" Asked Mark about his silent friend.
Alex used a projected keyboard in the arm of the space suit to type a message. A text bubble appears on top of the blue helmet, " I want to paint the hangar. Can I?"
"Yes, you can, but make it good," Mark answered. He then looks at Steve. "Steve, why don't you help me, try to find an old but popular mech, something on the beginner level?"
"Leave it to me, dude, let's choose something that looks cool." The teen ran to the store catalog.