章節 30: Second Death
White light flickered.
Cody found himself back at his Personal Space, hands shaking, shock and horror still tight over his throat.
"You have died." Orb supplied. "You will be unable to leave your Personal Space for the next four hours. Your second death incurs a penalty of a 100 credits, payable by the end of the month. Notifications will be sent to Elder T and your parents/Guardians. Settlement Security -5. Would you like a playback of your last few minutes? Professional advice can be sought from Academy instructors for the appropriate fees."
Cody gulped air, trying to calm down, feeling his heart pounding incessantly. "Orb… what's the Security and Threat Levels of the Village now?"
"Current Security Level for Initial Village SE-T3 is 30. Threat Level is 23. Crisis Mode is currently on."
Cody breathed deeply, trying his best to steady his pulse. 30 to 23 meant they still had a little breathing room…
"Update: Current Security Level has dropped to 27."
"What?" Cody stared, and then realized what it meant. A reduction of 3 points meant… someone else had died. Most likely one of the others in the Scrapyard.
"Update: Current Security Level has dropped to 24." Another person had died!
Oh, scrap. The Threat Level was at 23. If even one more person died…!
Cody gulped. There had been four of them at the Scrapyard and three of them had already died.
"Run! Riki, Melinda, Laila, whoever it is that's still alive… RUN!" Cody yelped.
And then, Orb said, "Update: Current Security Level…"
Cody tensed, fearing the worst.
"…has risen to 26."
Wait. Risen? Does that mean…? "Someone completed a Crisis Mode mission and raised our Security Level."
"Update: Current Security Level has dropped to 23. Warning! Current Threat Level and Security Levels are equal! Warning! Current Threat Level and Security Levels are equal! Raise Security or Reduce Threat Level before the Village is Attacked!"
Cody grimaced. Apparently, all four of them who went to the Scrapyard had been killed, throwing their Village back into the very edge of disaster.
"Nobody do anything risky!" Cody prayed to the locked entrance of his Personal Space. "Nobody leave the village!"
In the meantime, he himself was locked in for four hours. The first time he died, it had only been three. There was nothing he could do to help the village until it ended.
With a sigh, Cody looked around his Personal Space. The only thing he had in here was a bunch of growing bean sprouts.
"I should really fix this place up." Cody figured. There were lots of things he could do with his Personal Space, including grow plants, build a house, start a workshop… if he had the money and the space, he might even build a castle.
Of course, getting the money would be the hard part. On top of that, Cody seemed to have a lot more important things to spend credits on, like classes and armor.
But what if, someday, he set up a smelter to process ores. He could sell refined bars to Specs to make her stuff. Or he could plant shelves of aeroponics, fill this whole space with nutrient-rich mist. Aunt Midori had a Cloud Garden, growing aeroponic herbs; she was very proud about it. Vera said the medicinal herbs there were very valuable, and he shouldn't play nearby just in case he damaged them.
Actually, he could build a smelter below, a residence on top (with a kitchen!) and then a Cloud Garden on the roof…
It would certainly give him better things to do in his Personal Space than wait and regret over recent deaths.
In the meantime… "Orb? I need some information about how to reinforce structures, how to set up alarm systems, and how to maintain weapons."
***
So it turned out that each of those topics had mountains of information to go through. After ten minutes, there was one thing Cody was sure of; it all depended on the kind of structure, the kind of system, and the kind of weapons he wanted to maintain.
Cody ended up spending most of those four hours in Cyril's Virtual Training space, practicing the Mina Style with Psuche channeling.
Perhaps, someday, given time and training, he might become a great warrior able to fight off the likes of that Ogre in the Scrapyard, but he had little time and almost no training and the dangers he faced were all around him right here, right now.
It wasn't fair! But despite his inner protests, Cody felt a chill of realization. It wasn't fair… but it was realistic. Out in the Frontier, there were dangers and threats the likes of which nobody was prepared to face, and they would not wait around politely until you were ready to face them.
The Academy had clear intentions. First, it wanted to teach students how to learn on their own. Second, to teach them how to survive. Third, to teach them how to look at the bigger picture. Whatever else it might want, Cody was certain of at least these three things.
As for the dangers… you simply had to be alert and ready to survive in spite of being outmatched. To be able to handle yourself even if you suddenly get in trouble. That was all.
"But… but did I have to lose everything?" Cody protested. "My modified Practice Sword +1! My knee-guards and rubber work boots! My Ring of Light!"
All of it was gone, presumably left behind in the Scrapyard next to a raging Demolisher Ogre Mk II.
"I have to get them back." Cody decided. "It's been four hours. Maybe the Ogre has settled down a bit."
But… what about Village Security? What if they all died again, and then…
And then what? Cody wasn't sure what would happen if Threat Levels overshot Security again, but he felt sure it wasn't going to be good.
"Maybe we should wait until Crisis Mode is over." Cody grimaced. Would that work? If they all did safer missions and beefed up Security with reinforcing the village, maybe someday the Security would be so much higher than Threat levels that they could finally end Crisis Mode and the missions would go back to normal missions and they could advance without doing Supply Runs to dangerous places. Wouldn't it be nice to do something as safe as cooking an egg or brewing coffee to advance to more profitable missions?
But for that to be possible, they had to end the Crisis first. Would reinforcing the village really be enough? Cody didn't know, but right now, that was all he could do.
What was up with those zebra-monkeys anyway? Since when did their eyes turn green and glowy?
Without his gear, running out to the Scrapyard was simply asking to be killed along the way.
***
In the end, Cody ended up doing the weapons maintenance mission. A good deal of it seemed to be about cleaning parts. An NPC gave him stacks and stacks of firearm parts to clean, and he had to wipe them with an oilcloth, or in some cases, dip them into a bucket of chemicals, or at other times, replace them entirely.
There were melee weapons too. Spears, swords, daggers… most of them simply needed sharpening or polishing, though some needed power cells replaced, or parts replaced for special functions to work.
"You're done." The NPC told Cody after he'd finally completed 45 credits' worth of cleaning, polishing, sharpening, and replacing. "Thank you for your hard work!"
"Great! What's the Security Level now?" Cody asked Orb.
"Adding in your mission's success… 33." Orb answered.
"Threat Level?"
"23."
"Good." Cody breathed. That was enough to get through until tomorrow. Every day, the Threat Level would rise by 7. As long as nobody died or anything weird happened, they could come back tomorrow with 33 in Security against a Threat Level of 30.
With an hour and a half left of usage, Cody saved the remaining time in case Mom was awake, logged out and went to get dinner.
***
That night, Cody dreamed of him and Ghost Girl being chased by an Ogre Mk II.
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