"Hey Blink, It's you isn't it?." A feminine voice asked.
Blink turned, squinting his eyes to recognize the avatar whose voicing sounded so familiar. The figure's hood retracted, revealing an unknown face bordered by blonde hair.
Her eyes carried a mix of surprise and warmth, before a smile creased her face. "I thought that was you!. It's been ages Blink, how have you been?"
He frowned, looking a bit puzzled. the voice definitely sounded like someone he had heard before, but he didn't recognize the face at all.
"Do I know you?" he asked politely.
"Your lil' goddess in distress," she answered, using a quote he knew so well.
His look brightened immediatel, It was Athena_69 (Thena as he called). She had been his partner in God-Bound: The fall, a two-player fantasy epic he played whenever he had a spare moment.
In truth, she was the only reason he had stayed logged in for so long, their run-throughs together became ever so frequent they tagged it "Gamedates". That was, until she vanished without a word of explanation, leaving his friend list empty for over a year. And now, here she was.
"Thena? Wow, it's been a while. What are you doing here?"
Athena chuckled, her voice carrying the same alluring charm that always seemed to pull him in.
"Same as you, I guess, trying to figure out what this 'Unlimited Possibilities' is all about.
But you, you're not making it easy on yourself, are you?"
Blink raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "What you mean?"
She reached out, her fingers tapping a small, glowing name tag that floated just above his head.
"You left your username display on, that's how I knew twas you" she said. "But in a place like this, that's like lighting up a flare and sticking it up your arse".
She took a step closer. "Everyone can see exactly who you are, and in a game this big, you never know who's watching."
Blink felt the sting of embarrassment. In a rush of the moment, he'd completely overlooked such a rookie mistake.
"Right," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "I completely blanked on that, thanks for looking out."
Athena nodded.
"Here, let me show you," She said, turning her back to the moving crowd.
She revealed her left arm, a metallic bracelet strapped to her wrist. As she tapped a series of commands, she glanced at his bare arm and paused. completely confused.
"Wait... where's your bracelet?"
Blink looked down at his own wrist, then back at hers. The silence was awkward between them. In UP, the bracelet wasn't just an extra, it was their interface, the only way players accessed the Legacy Build System.
"I didn't get one," he admitted, his voice was barely audible.
Athena's eyes widened, her playful demeanor lost in all seriousness. She grabbed his arm, pulling him into the shadow of her cloak.
"You're telling me you're playing Unlimited Possibilities without your Legacy Bracelet?." She whispered with a sudden sense of urgency, scanning their surroundings to ensure no one was eavesdropping.
"Blink, that's impossible. How are you even logged in?"
"Errrrrr..." Blink's mouth hung open, but was hesitant to give an answer
"We need to leave, having you walk around with your name tag and no bracelet is too great a risk?
Athena's right hand moved with efficiency, tapping and swiping on her legacy bracelet. Global Marketplace Exit Initialized. A golden gate tore open in front of them, its edges bearing a resemblance to the one Blink had entered through.
"In. Quickly."
They stepped through the gate, a moment of calm, away from all the chaos on the light bridge.
[Private Zone Entered: The Under-Haven]
A notification popped up in Blinks' field of vision.
"I see," He mumbled, taking a look at his surroundings. This clearly wasn't a basic player housing unit. It was a top level underground lair. Several rows of holographic monitors displayed raw data streams, diverse racks of celestial and futuristic gadgets lined the walls.
"Yoo!" Blink exclaimed. "This is quite the setup Thena."
Athena gave no reply. She took a sit, crossing her arms. "I can give you a tour later. But first, How are you standing here?"
Blink took a sit, thinking within himself.
He couldn't tell her about Pre-Release Build, not yet. Total honesty was a unwise in a world were information was power, but then he needed her help. His expression sharpened.
"Thena," he said, his voice dropped low. "I know we were friends and partners for a long time. We accomplished a lot together. But what I'm about to tell you, I need to know if I can truly trust you with this."
Athena's expression matched his, holding his gaze with an equal intensity. "Sure. Anything."
"Okay Thena, I can access the system directly, I don't need the hardware", he said, keeping his voice casual. "It's like a mental link, I haven't fully understood it yet."
Athena's face hardened in confusion. "A mental link?." She repeated. "That's unheard of, The legacy Build can only be accessed by the bracelet. It's how we do basically everything. You're saying, you're bypassing it entirely?."
Blink nodded slowly. "Sure seems that way. I logged in, and everything just sort of, appeared. Stats, skills, it's all there." He gestured vaguely, trying to express the intangible feeling.
Athena leaned forward, her eyes narrowing in thought. "And you haven't experienced any bugs or glitches?"
"I haven't been here long, but so far, no." Blink finished, watching Athena intently. She remained silent for a long moment, her gaze fixed on some distant point beyond the monitors.
Finally, she spoke.
"A mental link huh?, bypassing the use of the bracelet, that's unprecedented. It defies everything we've known about the System."
"What race are you on?," she asked, snapping her fingers like she just got a clue. "It might be a race related trait."
"I don't think it is," Blink objected. "During my race selection, I observed something strange, for whatever reason, every other race option was locked, except human."
"Only Human?"Athena's face frowned, her confusion grew. "That's even more strange. The race selection should be open to everyone, regardless of how they access the system, it's a core feature."
She rose from her seat, moving towards her workstation. She tapped a few commands on her keyboard and connected it to her bracelet, pulling up a diagnostic screen.
"When did you arrive again?." She turned to ask.
"A few hours ago." Blink replied, moving closer to observe what she did.
"Okay, so I'm gonna run a quick diagnosis on the system logs over the last twelve hours."
Her fingers blurred over the keys, a flicker of inputted commands.
The screen changed immediately. A progress bar filled rapidly across the top of the display.
[Log Analysis Complete]
She leaned in, checking through the results. Her expression went from suspicion, to surprise. "The system logs show no errors, no restrictions. It's registering as fully functional." She paused.
"Unless, this was deliberate. A targeted restriction."
Blink had a feeling of certainty. His hunch, the one he had been afraid to voice even to himself had just been validated by Athena and even though she was unaware of the nature of his invitation, she arrived at the same conclusion.
"Anyways, let's get that name tag fixed." Athena continued, demonstrating the system controls, her fingers swiped through the menus. Blink observed intently, committing each gesture to memory with a focused nod.
"System Interface," he intoned, his voice carrying that peculiar resonance all commands seemed to possess in this world.
Following her instructions, he swept his hands through the translucent panels that materialized before him, it was quite different from hers, but the entire concept remained.
He navigated the menus until he found the nameplate settings. His fingers moved with growing confidence, selecting the visibility toggle.
From Athena's perspective, he was simply waving at empty air like some kind of mime. She bit back an amused smile,as the corners of her mouth twitched.
Vwoop!
Reality rippled. The floating nameplate had vanished into nothingness.
"Wow, that really is something else," Athena breathed, staring at the space where his identifier had been moments before.
"Yeah, still getting the hang of it," he admitted, flexing his fingers as if testing whether they were truly his own.
"I can only imagine." A different note crept into Athena's voice, tinged with something that might have been envy. "Anyway, we need to do something about that bare wrist of yours. I'll send you a cloak, you can equip it when you're outdoors. Helps avoid the... questions."
"Okay, thanks."
Ding!
A clear ping resonated through the air as a new window erupted from nowhere.
[System Notification: Athena_69 has gifted you a Wizard's Cloak]
[See item in inventory]
Blink reached out, his fingertip passing through the ethereal text. The notification expanded, revealing his inventory grid. There, occupying a single square, was the cloak, a simple black hooded garment that rotated slowly in three dimensions. After a moment's examination, he dismissed the interface with a gesture.
Fwsh.
"Thanks, Thena," he said. "But I have to ask, can you tell me what you know about UP? About this place?"
"Sure." Athena shifted to face him fully.
"Well, I've been here for three years now, and in that time... let's just say a lot has changed. UP is an open-world game on a whole different level right?, truly massive. But we used to have a System Questline that followed the game's lore. Major story events would get triggered in time, advancing the narrative forward."
She paused, her eyes growing distant.
"Then, during my second year here, everything just... froze."
"Froze?" Blink echoed, leaning forward.
"Yeah. The System went completely dark on the main questline, radio silence." Her fingers drummed on the table.
"Meanwhile, the rate of side skirmishes and random encounters increased dramatically. Two months of blank storyline, and things went south real fast. That's when I took a deep dive into studying the System itself, trying to understand it well enough to find a way out of here."
"Alone?" The question came out sharper than he'd intended.
"Of course not. You can't accomplish much solo in this world, it's too overwhelming, too vast." A slight smile crossed her face. "I've got two allies, really interesting people. We share information, pool resources, watch each other's backs..."
Her expression darkened slightly.
"But you should know, there are factions here now. Guilds, territories, entire organizations. Some people have been trapped here so long they've stopped trying to leave. They've basically made this digital prison their kingdom."
"So be careful out there, Blink. Very careful."
"Shoot, that's a lot to process," Blink muttered, leaning back in his seat with a heavy exhale. "But I guess I couldn't expect any less from a mystery of this magnitude."
Thunk.
He let his head fall back against the chair, staring at the ceiling of the safe house as he thought through everything.
"Right then, How about I give you that tour?" Athena said, a charming smirk returning to her lips as she stood.