Cole came up into a wide reception area, there were quite a lot of people there too, and not just people. NPC's with basic AI algorithms could be seen loitering about, many of them gathered up like soldiers, or rather it would be better to say they were soldiers, or better yet the security force responsible for policing the station. Many of them had yellow quest bars besides their identity indicators. And with how much of them he could see, it was obvious there was a plethora of quests to be completed on this floor before people had to move on. Now while quests and their rewards were tempting, Cole was wholly focused on the first person bonus to be gained after the first person moved to next floor.
And right now it was a race, this floor was finite and would not last for long, so wasting time on quests seemed a bit redundant. But Cole could understand why the quests were so important. Many of these people had just died, with no chance to fight back or even having an idea that they could fight back. So all they wanted to do now was complete a few quests, gain some money to gear up, and if they're lucky they would get prisms as rewards and gain some basic skills to be able to survive properly and find a way off the first floor. Which meant this was just a lure for the casual players, of the five million that were lucky enough to win the raffle for this event, many of them were just causal players.
Apart for perhaps 5% who received and invitation, the remaining 95% had been randomly chosen. And that was saying something as they had a pool of hundreds of billions to choose from. Titan Rising Online was a game that was accessible to many planets and colonies, not just to the humans who were still on earth. Beside there was no way this would not be an event that spanned multiple galaxies and planets, the headquarters of the company responsible for making Titan Rising Online was on Jupiter. Nevertheless there was enough professional players in the game that sitting about idling around would most definitely cost Cole many chances. And those were chances he could not afford to lose.
But then again he would not be able to move forwards without information, and right now that was what he was in dire need of. He should be able to get some information from any system's terminal, and there should be enough of them hanging around the Cradle facility if not the city itself. These things were a staple in the real world so without a doubt they would be everywhere in Titan rising online, this event should not be any different. But with the crowd of people down there it would be hard to find one, he would probably have no choice but to go outside, and without knowing the situation there that would be tantamount to suicide, he only had 9 lives left, he could not afford to be reckless.
He was about to move forwards when he felt someone grab a hold of his shirt, he stumbled forwards, in response he whipped his gun out from where he had kept it on his waistline and pointed it directly at the face of a twelve year old girl. The annoyance paused and raised her hands into the air, her eyes widened to rather epic proportions in shock and perhaps fright… or was that amusement. Cole wasn't sure, and he really didn't care, he was surprised though. He had fallen into a sense of security that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, that was risky and it made the annoyance he felt for the little girl grown even more.
"What the fuck do you want kid!" Cole barked out, causing the girl to jump back somewhat startled, as she probably had to rethink some of her recent life choices with the way Cole was looking at her. But her startled look only lasted for a moment before she moved forwards jamming an index finger into Cole's chest, not at all caring that there was a gun pointed at her face.
"First of all freak I am not a kid! I'm 15! I'm only this small because of a birth defect bitch! Secondly get your damn gun out of my face you asshole! And thirdly I was following you because I wanted to ask if you wanted to buy some information fucker!"
Cole was silent, he just took a moment to look back at the girl, staring at her in shock and surprise as he looked at her, and not at all sure he was talking to a sane person. But then again what were the odds that he was looking for information and some bloody kid just had to know he was looking for it. He looked at her from head to toe. She was decked out in what most would call a typical steampunk gear. It was not surprising, there were special cosmetic items that could be purchased for your avatar in the game. She had blazing red hair and green eyes, a smattering of freckles on her face a rather small nose with a lot of baby fat on her face and funny enough well defined cheekbones.
Honestly she didn't look the fifteen that she said she was, and even at that. What in the hell was a fifteen year old doing in a game this violent. Sure every time something or someone died their bodies will become pixelated after a few seconds, but all of the gory details were still experienced, and the pain modifier was at a whopping 75%. This was no game for teenage girls who had nothing to worry about than boybands and boyfriends. So in the end perhaps his earlier theory was correct, she had hacked her way in, yet how could she be so stupid to give her age out.
"Before you say anything let me make it clear to you that the age bracket had been reduced to fifteen from the moment the event came on. TRO is coming to an end so the company is trying to milk it for whatever it's worth. So no fuck face, I didn't hack my way into Titan Rising Online's last Event server."
Cole scrunched his face up in annoyance but let it go quickly. He didn't have much time to spend here, and if she said she was legal, then she was legal and he did not have to give a shit. But still she said she had information, and he more than anyone knew how resourceful kids could be when they wanted to… his own childhood had been proof of that.
"I doubt there's any information you have that can be of worth to me. You're just some noob looking to make a quick buck aren't you?" Cole asked or rather stated as he turned around to move away, baiting the young girl, and of course, savvy as he thought she was, she fell for it.
"Excuse you! I have tons of information! For example did you know that one of the quests down there has a reward that could give you shares in Sierra Corp? and that one over there… see that wide brim hat dude, yeah that one with the creepy smile, his quests would get you a special scaling ship both in game and in the real world, specifically, it would get you a Mona Lisa. So... what do you think about that! I have tons of information for sell, and these two are just simple freebies."
Cole looked at her in silence for a while as he shifted his gaze back to the two quest giving NPC's she had just pointed. There was a ton of players in front of them, obviously eager to receive the quest and get a chance to gain shares in the Sierra corp stocks and even own a Mona Lisa both in game and in real life…. That was crazy, and Cole even though he didn't want to admit was tempted, in fact it wasn't just temptation….he had already given in. so in the end it wasn't the kid that was caught in a web, it was him.
"What's your name kid?" Cole asked, cringing a bit at the triumphant smile that spread over the face of the girl at knowing she had finally piqued his interest.
"My name is Tiana…. Tiana Bob! Interstellar and Interdimensional Merchant extraordinaire…..what can I help you with today….. Chosen one!"
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