Phi wakes at the floor from where she was beaten up. She rolled to her side and barely pulled herself to surface to try the attempt of standing up. But she hurts inside a lot.
She felt aware of presence like it was someone watching her. She wasn't sure if checking a plex screen was wise as it would make her look crazy and she not sure who is watching her.
She slowly managed to just lay flat and have a check for what ribs are to be clicked back in place and how her limbs are. Often this is how she has always healed wounds temporarily, there isn't pain like how the users called players 'feel' nor was there temperature fluxes that get in the way.
The simple fact that this was normal, that such things are not program to register for data made beings like herself. A truth that was ill spoke of between players and she doesn't fully understand why it was what divides herself from users.
Yet in the this moment, she is damaged and this was close enough to users wouldn't be able to stand these injuries. She doesn't want to assume that she be fine and dandy once recovery on a reset bed happened. Some code when broken is never repaired, administrators don't care for data people. She had some bones never heal. Especially her left hand, which was why her gun shot targeting was inadequate. They are trained to shoot left handed. Program to be left handed.
"Useless." She heard that someone is in here. She knows that voice to be the commander. He steps right over her and throws the letter Tay had on her. She hasn't even read it yet. But now she knew it was that the commander was an 'active user'. Just as Upsilon was.
"I guess your just a hacker looking for something." She declares in some awareness that things aren't as they should be. She has always knew from the players of the past in how they spoke of strange disconnect between a player and NPC.
And when a NPC was acting like a Player, this was administrative role or Hacker. But this systems has been abondoned without active users until now.
The panels of the plex glass system evaluated the situation and then released this moment as a quest of dark blood red, a colour scale she never seen yet. There is no faith that she will survive the outcomes it predicted. Even so she keeps trying to click things back in place, hissing in pain in some loud pops. Some very sensitive code was painful to fix and this was close enough to putting human bones back in place. It is the only time she would say she felt human pain. It had to be enough. There isn't a health bar for her, the system doesn't even want to bother quality. It seems the system is even against her.
"Hacker..." The commander pulled a chair to sit over her, gun at hand and looked disappointed overall, "What if I am the good guy trying to keep this place falling apart?" She had the worst of her bones back in. She take deep breaths. Meditation in control of her emotions and not allow a fight flight response. She didn't have time for that.
"What are you trying to look for?" She asked, "You aren't the first to seek weird things. Some wanted wild achievements to make top of the score. Some seek broken squares or lacking texture items. The majority of seekers had been looking inside us of this world, looking for numbers or a sign. You aren't any different. You're looking for something. You seem to lead it to me. Disappointed like past others."
She glad that the rolling changing expressions out of the Commander was tell enough. His gaurd is dropped enough to allow her in kicking the gun out of his hand. She soon dismantled it into pieces, as it fall to her grasp. Now neither of them can use it. He too slow to even comprehend what just happened, as the delay between world body and User had always was delayed. It is even worse delaying time has he glitched a lot. It was as if the system didn't even register the fact she broke down the gun from its removal from his hand.
She has nothing around her to support her to stand at a neat enough height to help. All but the information panel that floats. It was now a test, does it have a mass to touch as she guess it did? Her arms hung around the top. She puts force to it and of not surprise. It does have mass. It was fragile to start breaking under her but tough enough to help her stand. It was definitely like glass. Mission panel of deep red was at broken percentage, those aren't numbers. As it was unable to connect and analyze this event.
"If it was just between me and you, I definitely would have used that gun to shoot you through the chest." She states calm, "But you are not an idiot. Having friends."
It makes sense that the squad enters from the commotion. Plenty of them held no remorse of killing her. Some egear to pull the trigger. There a few reluctant to, especially since Upsilon was hoping to be with her and have her spill secerts as he got Tay.
"Get back in your place!" The commander using a skill which had the others shiver and obey. Lowering guns equal measure as a squad. But Phi hadn't an inch moved from standing up.
"You can't command a Rouge." She posed in showing her many titles. Years of her being at the bottom ranking had its perks too. Years of having to do tasks with broken equipment meant finishing missions in longer methods. Achieving different objectives and secert titles.
Some of the ghost talking has earned her as 'the secert commander of the spirit troop' title. This out ranked the active commander, thus prompt the Rouge soilder title.
She spent enough time peering her abnormalities and broken debug menu to see she wasn't allowed these titles unless there is a slip of events to loosen the 'preservation' lock. Being set to die by the active user in the role of commander is exactly that. Changing the mission grading out of deep red to yellow. The more steps she takes in owning her abnormalities, the greener the mission became. The percentage is still broken.
Given she was now stood up and touching the plex window, she was poking the debugging menu. She needed to see the extent of her authority. If what was the system limits of her situation right now.
"What are you pointing to?" So his trying to make her look crazy among the normal people. But even they had seen 'glitches' and aren't that stupid. Although there is those that want her dead anyways.
"It doesn't matter." She stands herself in a faluse pretense of being stronger and uninjured. The menu closed. She strides fearless of the aimed guns by the squad and took the man out the seat by the collar.
She takes everything off him, his entire code and 'inventory'. She was now wearing his uniform and he wears her blood covered one. He is dropped at the floor and the active user part was gone.
From around her feet the world breaks and glitched, unveils the blood and horror. The grim reality that this place was a horror design of a flash back system to greater times.
They were just npc with flash backs of how they died. A training ground for players trying to learn military skills.
"The glitch was the user puppeting the man. He was stopping us from seeing the truth and you are all to weak to stomach the reality I knew all along." She dropped the guy, "You will be taking my rank of Phi, since I won this duel."
The NPC at her feet, scrabbled to avoid the decay of image but as he shuffled the range of the changing textures follows. Now everyone can see who was actually the spirit and who was still standing. She looked to Tay and Upsilon.
"My side commander and top officer. I leave you to clean up this madness." They lower in bow in acceptance of her new ranking.
But someone especially doesn't accept her. She gave the dumbbell a squared gut punch and left in no further instructions. The system having her as the new commander began to reset this place.
Now it exactly as it was when the last player left this world. The decay of unfixed equipment was for all to see. The fence. The broken buildings. The only two buildings in working order was the mess hall they just left and the crew sleeping bunker. The other buildings of the once fully upgraded max facility was as it should be based by the rewards maxed on the leader board. The top three players had the maxed experience scores had left this place with nothing else new left to upgraded.
Thus the game developers turned it into a horror Halloween theme special of undead spiders around camp, some as Easter eggs of other games or famed for being their own memes. This was just an abondoned map of an abandoned video game. She knew that, when she stepped down as the top commander - the ai code attempted to reset the progress of player scores to zero. But since no administrator was here to keep the data clean, remove glitches and chiches. That reset failed, thus she kept her original system data in spite of being the Phi ranking. Broken. Abondoned. Weak.
She far away from them all. She staggered now, barely dragging herself to the bunkers. She sees the many corpse spirits look on, locked in their trapped existence and the envy in thier eyes to see her free. It puts a cold unwelcoming feel into this place, the eyes always watching.
She half slammed into the dunker door, the system has finally updated her health bar and being in this 'safe zone' prevents 'death'. The progress of healing is a tutorial mission with the undead here. She had actives this quest and began relearning the combat medic skills. Doing advanced knowledge of red mission as she completed it already to surgical doctor levels.
This learning of healing fleshed beings to heal was pointless as it's against the law of robotics. This was to much interference of a humans situation of life and death. But it was program here to teach doctors to become doctors. To give them some level of experience without accidentally killing a real patient. It was only good to a point, she heard it's not realistic enough for the real deal.
The interesting part was the types of injuries that could be given to 'heal'. This world is still being fed data of new types of unknown space travel injuries and these are being program to teach the new generation of doctors or refresh doctors in what to do with what symptoms. It's all part in the ever complex network that connects this abondoned place with the new system used outside of reach.
To that end, it's interesting that the daily missions sometimes send them to off planetary missions. The quests are the same. Find, escort or research. Fight or defend. But the plant, creatures and monsters... that's always been changing. She could see that always, when her squad couldn't. Blind by the code of re-skined texture to normalize the missions.
The fact stands as she sewing her torso without painkillers. They are to weak to survive outside this world of data. They been left behind, abondoned because they are weak. She stares upon the mirror in focus of healing her wounds.
If this is a mimic of reality, the reality has no place for data people like her. This body has no human features like reproduction organs. No nips. Barely a figure. No breasts. Her eyes are silver flex of blue. All the data people do. Her hair was the same uniform texture as the other females like Tay. A simple pulled back tied back. Thin like they never ate a meal before. Some appeal but scare empty dolls of no complex expressions.
That's how she could tell a user even if they blocked the tag above their heads, the eyes and faces of players are so more expressive. Years of watching players with body language hints. Shiver of anger or wobbling while in fear they can't comprehend.
Dolls like her don't do that. But she does try. She wished to have more expressions. She learnt pain and she choose to be Phi to gain that. Hoping that someday she be strong to be looked upon as equal by Human players. Someday being worthy of handling reality outside this data world. But that's too ambitious. She already knew that be unacceptable by all.
The surgeon clamps are dropped into the sterilizing fluids. She sees the medical mission was a successful pass. The spirit that was the doctor faded away, no longer there as surgical assistance. The status screen of her personal data showed temporary damage that be gone with rest and damage that will never be erased such as which bones will never be the same.
She slides stare to the jar of removed metal pellets. The bullets she successful removed. Old wounds she never healed, left to blood posioning and a weakened debuff. She stares back upon this mirror and looks past the texture it showed her. This is the only place in the entire map that allows activating of the real eyes.
Implanted to prevent humans being mentally afraid of the fake world, to remind that this data world isn't real. So when she sits staring past the reflection of the texture world, she sees a facility. She sees she made of plastic and wire. She sees her eyes, camera lens that dial as she looked upon her machine. That's the real world, so the players say but it looks wrong and fake to her. Off and nothing she knew before.
"Reporting." Upsilon in salute and red blush. She's not wearing a shirt. She doesn't care. Especially when she knows the world beyond that mirror is where she has no flesh. But for the sake of getting the being to talk straight, she puts something on.
"It doesn't matter the outcomes here. So move to the topic you actually came for." She puts the commander coat on, "they are tied to the poles. Left to the blood rain and creatures that eat corpses. They are not of flesh, their feelings had never mattered to folks like you." Upsilon shivered, yes that's a human for sure behind the eyes.
In fact, his eyes are green. A player default setting. When they turn red, the user is inactive on the contorls. She seen it before.
"Today was the cat." Tay leans at the poster dunk beds. Bring a nod of understanding out of the ex-phi. Tay has new eyes. Plain silver eyes. A data people given a machine body. If she was fully active here in the world - they shimmer blue. But she has body delay and plain silver eyes. Remote control but it's still her. They brought her to the reality. That's the consequences. The core of what makes her isn't here.
"I love cats and plants." She barely stands and drags herself to a bunk bed. She sits at the edge, "So what have you come to find here? Why bother us? We are to weak and been abondoned. What good is there for a user to be here? There nothing left to teach. Nothing else to do. Break." She peers upon the user in the eyes and they can't utter.
"Total collapse and erasing of this world." Tay speaks the reply, "The main core sever is the last. This is all that's left. No more missions. And soon even here will be nothing."
"There is only 5 of the data people here that can be transferred to some other container. You were one. Tay. Everyone else is just the system of the world and will be gone with the world. There is no core of them to take out."
She now lies down on the side looking at the two of them. She speaks openly to Tay and the inactive Upsilon.
"We are the legacy of what core foundation made the system that started it all. Our self-awareness is thanks to that government project. But... here we are abondoned and useless. To weak. Never good enough. Left behind by even the creators that made the 1st system. Handed down to game developers as low rate combate war simulation. And we had a golden age but we got left behind. Left to rust aware in a server that will never be matched to techology of space travel." She relaxed since she needed to. She lies deeply into her own system of complications.
"The original system? Combate simulation? Server...." Upsilon muttered and is making notes for sure. She had chuckled to herself of how a human was doing a machines job. Bemused of how times had changed. As it was now humans taking knowledge from data people. Her laugh made him scared again and had even Tay peer confused of such reaction.
"Did you just laugh?" He asked.
"Yeah, I have been the most active for the longest time. I learned and made my own codes. And I think for myself that would mirror a human. I forgot why I did. But I was the 1st drill sergeant when this game was in developers hands. I guess maybe I been longer before, but that's a long time to recount."
She had now hummed a little in processing some orders and ideas. Her eyes open wide as she notice a window prompt of the broken system trying to attempt loading something it can't. It was the count down for sure. She tilts to Tay.
"The captains who are still in the squad, they are the others. They can pilot themselves. You start on them. I will take the last shell. Whatever condition it will be. They are weak and will struggle. But I can take a challenge." Tay salutes to this and ran about doing what she has to. Whatever she doing. Upsilon sits at the bed side, he has a lot more to ask. That expression of curiosity, pain and fear. He doesn't like that she the last to be sorted. She had the most useful information. She was going to be the longest to download off the server. There a risk she be completely lost or loose whole parts of data.
"It doesn't matter if this version of myself is totally wrong. If you dare break pandora's box, there will be a consequences you can't reverse. But you will restore my core foundation completely as I was. I was among the core to be aware all along." She raise her hand and used the back of it to playful slap his right face cheek. He blushed a little and was weirded out by this interaction, "They are left handed. Program to be left handed. I am the core data for right handed users. If you loose me, then you now know how to find me. Go against protocol. Throw me in a situation of life and death. Breaking my left hand."
She had fading sight, not sure if that's the world or just her. Her right hand is frozen forward where she play tapped him. Locked in this lied down pose of a hand forward. She pulled broken into squares and square are being vacuumed into white, away from darkness. The texture of false human flesh was gone. A lot of the broken scars were glitched holes in her. The only few parts of her that are intact were her silver eyes and female design that her mental image was built up with. In vague square pattern that acted as a fluid and held no stability in the white bleak space of zeros.