Chapter 3
It wasn’t that hot. Not truly. But the late afternoon sun was bright and Lynn was grateful for the tint of her AR glasses as she emerged from the building’s entrance in search of the first red dot. Following her overhead map, she soon found it: another imp, camped out between two vehicles parked next to the building. The only difference was this imp appeared to be crouched normally on the ground, not floating in midair.
The imp was facing the parking lot, so Lynn circled around the vehicles to come at it from behind. She focused on the monster’s image but then hesitated. Were TDMs programmed to react to human voices? Just in case, she whispered the target command to put a red halo around the imp. Finally, she took a good look around her, ostensibly checking for any nearby danger, though deep down she knew she was simply self-conscious about being watched. But the coast was clear.
She charged forward and attacked the imp.
Red flashed and her knife vibrated as she swiped and stabbed, not letting up until the imp turned and jumped at her. This time she expected it and tried to hop back to avoid its claws. But apparently she didn’t back up enough, because her own display still flashed with damage.
“Oh, you did not!” she snarled and lunged forward to stab the thing right in the face.
The imp exploded in a shower of sparks.
Triumph swept through her and she gave a derisive snort. Stupid imp. Then she remembered she was in public and looked around again, half expecting someone to ask her why she was slashing and cursing at empty air. But there was no one in sight. Lynn wondered again how Mr. Krator expected this game to succeed if everyone was so self-conscious about looking like an idiot while playing it, no matter how cool the ads for it looked. But maybe it was just her with her extreme aversion to being noticed that made it a problem…
Checking her health, she saw the imp’s slashes had taken her down to eighty percent. So much for imps being easy from behind. But soon it wouldn’t matter. She just needed to fight a few more and figure out their pattern. All opponents had them. It was simply a matter of observation. Once she knew the right timing, she could get her hits in from behind, jump back as the imp turned and lunged, then counter strike before it had a chance to attack again. Easy peasy.
She tapped the purple puddle of ichor to collect it and saw her power level tick upward as the resource was automatically applied to her reserves.
“Hey, Hugo. How long does loot stick around before despawning?”
“It can be variable based on the item’s rarity, but for basic resources the dematerialize window is five to ten minutes.”
“So, grab loot before you move on, in other words.”
“That would certainly be advisable, yes, Miss Lynn.”
“Got it,” she said and headed toward the next dot.
She’d been worried about switching her focus between her overhead map and everything else, but it turned out it was easy to monitor her position from the corner of one eye while keeping alert to her surroundings. And then there were the sounds. Her earbuds were set to let through the noises from her natural surroundings—the hum of summer insects, the whirring buzz of various delivery drones overhead and the distant whoosh of the air taxi lane above First Avenue. Amplified above all that, though, were the weird calls of the TD monsters, making them impossible to miss.
There were still a few vehicles between her and the next dot when she started hearing an ominous rattle like a rattlesnake.
Peachy. Just peachy.
To be safe, she made a wide circle around a particularly battered old pickup and easily found the TDM by following the sound. This one looked like a green and red centipede and it was huge—like six-feet-long huge. Ewww. It was obvious when she got within its detection range, because between one cautious step and the next, it whipped around and started crawling toward her, rattling louder than ever. Still down on health and not sure what she was dealing with, she took off running back toward the apartment.
When she stopped and checked her map, none of the red dots were moving. That was comforting but now she was winded, not to mention feeling itchy and overheated in her baggy hoodie and long pants. She rarely wore T-shirts or shorts, even in summer, and she never wore tank tops or anything form fitting. At least, not since the hell that had been middle school. Better to avoid the outside and not work up a sweat than risk attracting attention.
“Gaming is a whole lot easier when I’m relaxing in my body-mold chair with a controller,” she grumbled, half to herself as she sought out the shade by the apartment building and rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
“I could be wrong, of course, Miss Lynn, but I was under the impression that being ‘easy’ would defeat the purpose of this entire exercise. However, I am only a lowly service AI. What do I know?”
“Uh-huh. False modesty is just as bad as outright arrogance, you know.”
“Yet much more classy, at least according to my analysis of stream celebrities.”
Lynn snorted but couldn’t help grinning.
“You got me there. Still, if I needed to save the world from an alien invasion, I’d make a bunch of robots so I could go back to sitting in my chair.”
“No doubt an exceedingly brilliant idea, Miss Lynn. Shall I log that as your official beta recommendation to Mr. Krator?”
“Don’t you dare. Now hush, I’m reading.” Lynn concentrated on the monster stats that were still pulled up on her display, despite her swift retreat. The creature was a grinder worm. Armored, no surprise but slow—you call that slow? She tapped on the link to the Tactical Support section and read the attack suggestions. There was apparently a “kill spot” behind the head, which you could get at by dodging in from the side. Two or three stabs of the Nano Blade in the correct spot would do the trick.
She was still reading when she heard a strange rustling whisper behind her that sent chills crawling up her spine. Even as the noise registered, her display suddenly flashed a big orange “Proximity Warning” across her vision. Years of WarMonger-honed fighting instincts kicked in and without thinking she spun in place, striking backwards with her Nano Blade. She must have hit something, because her blade handle vibrated and an ethereal shape flashed red with damage done. The next moment, everything went still. She froze in place, listening hard as she worked through a moment of dizziness. Spinning was not her thing. When nothing else attacked, she shook her head and checked her status. There were no red dots nearby on her overhead and her health was at ninety percent, having regenerated some since she’d fought the imp. Whatever it was that had tried to jump her had left no sign behind, except a puddle of ichor and a floating purple orb.
“Hugo, what the heck was that and why didn’t you warn me?”
“That was a ghost, Miss Lynn. Delta Class-2. Attacks: Ambush strike. Defenses: None. Detection: Level 1. Stealth: +3. Unique behavior: Prefers to circle behind before attacking. Detected in the wild: 1/12/2040, 1229 GMT, AlphaTester4. And I did warn you, Miss Lynn, unless you are color blind and incapable of seeing the color orange?”
“That was basically the same moment it attacked me, though. Why didn’t you warn me sooner?”
“At your current level, your detection range for TDMs with stealth capabilities is extremely limited. As you gain experience and your battle system levels, that range will expand. In addition, you may equip globes to temporarily boost your detection range.”
That must be what the floating orb was. Lynn collected the ichor and globe as she considered Hugo’s words.
“Okay but what if I didn’t have such good reflexes? I could have been flailing around for ages. It might have killed me.”
“I am a service AI, Miss Lynn. My function is to instruct Hunters, answer questions and carry out voice commands. I can only function within the structure of my intended programming.”
“Sooo even though you’re a highly sophisticated AI, I can’t tell you now to autofill my health and plates and globes any time they need it so I can focus on killing stuff?” she asked as she considered his words.
“That is correct, Miss Lynn. There are certain settings built into the application itself, such as when and how things display as well as audio and visual warnings for various situations. These I can automatically adjust to your preference. Your health and equipment, however, is yours alone to control, either manually or with individual voice commands.”
“Humph. I guess that makes sense.” Still, she felt annoyed. This wasn’t like playing in virtual at all. The physical, real world aspect made the stakes feel immeasurably higher and it got her blood pumping like no game in virtual ever had. But then, if Hugo did everything for her, it wouldn’t be the sort of challenge that attracted her to gaming in the first place, now would it?
Maybe she was going about this wrong anyway. She was playing as Lynn, which was all well and good, but Lynn was overly cautious and hated being outside. Maybe it was time to channel her inner Larry Coughlin…
So, what would Larry Coughlin, feared international mercenary do?
“Screw you, ghost,” she said and smiled grimly. “I’m gonna make a necklace outta yer ears.”
Larry probably would have spat on the ground, too, but there was no need to take things quite that far. For now, she just needed to concentrate on her surroundings—constant vigilance and all that—and be ready to react to anything creeping up on her.
Just because she needed to stay alert, though, didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy a little background music while she got busy grinding through some levels…
She found the menu for accessing her LINC controls and took a moment to authorize her account on her LINC, then accessed her cloud stream. After a moment’s consideration, she selected a playlist based on Halestorm—one of her dad’s favorite bands from back in the day—then fiddled with the sound controls. She cranked the TD Hunter sound to the max then set her music volume to low, making sure to keep the earbud settings open to ambient sound as well so she could hear what was going on around her.
As the opening guitar and drums of “I Am the Fire” began, she checked to make sure she could still hear the faint clicks and grumbles of TDMs in every direction. Yup. This was what Larry would call a target rich environment. Her favorite kind.
“Nah, nah, naaah, nah, nah…”
Time to get her war face on…
Lynn had been playing solidly for over an hour as her kill counter slowly ticked upward. When she got a call from her mom that dinner was ready, she asked if she could eat later, pretty please? She could almost hear the fond exasperation in her mother’s “I suppose” response and she promised herself she wouldn’t make skipping meals with her mother a regular thing. She was just really into this game and knew from the way her body felt that if she went inside and sat down, she wouldn’t get back up again. A while later her mother messaged that she had to leave early for work to get some errands done and reminded Lynn to do the dishes, be home by sunset, stay in the complex and “be careful.” That was about the time Lynn hit Level 2. She hoped to reach at least one more level before calling it a night.
As she continued to make her way through the complex, killing TDMs as she went, Lynn looked for any patterns she could find—behaviors, numbers, distributions, all of it. The most common TDM, the imp, was supposed to be a “gather” type and so Lynn paid special attention to wherever electromagnetic activity might be. Places like each building’s mesh node, the oversized package delivery dock and around light poles and air conditioning units.
The other basic types of TDMs, the “defense” and “patrol” types, were less predictable. They tended to be near the gather types, but not always, and sometimes she’d stumble across one way out by itself with no discernible reason for its position that she could see. She never spotted ghosts before they saw her, though she did figure out that interacting with any other TDM had a good chance of attracting them to her. It was as if the creatures were communicating with each other but only within a certain range.
She was killing a grinder worm over in the quad by the complex’s office when she noticed she’d attracted her first spectator. She’d been trying as hard as she could to avoid people seeing her jumping around like a flea, spinning suddenly for no apparent reason and generally acting like a crazy person. The few people out and about were either busy on their way somewhere or were immersed in their own AR universe. But an older gentleman with tight curls of snowy hair and a beard that stood out starkly against his dark skin had paused to lean on his cane and watch her dodge to and fro. Lynn wondered if he was in the middle of playing some game of his own, because he wore a pair of classically stylish AR glasses.
Lynn tried not to feel self-conscious at the scrutiny. When she glanced at him a second time, though, she recognized him as one of the other residents of their building. He lived on the ground floor and seemed friendly with all the neighbors. She vaguely remembered that he’d welcomed them when they’d first moved in and had even made them some pork tenderloins and deliciously chewy Scotcheroos as an apartment-warming gift. Lynn had never talked to him much, but she knew he chatted with her mom occasionally if they met in the halls. What was his name again?
“Uh, hey,” she greeted him, then jumped back to avoid the swipe of a grinder’s pincers. “I’m, uh, playing a game.”
“So I had surmised, young lady,” the man said, smiling broadly to reveal rows of near-perfect teeth. They must have been replacement implants, considering how old the guy was. “As am I,” he continued, holding up his wrist to show off a LINC that looked for all the world like one of those vintage wrist watches that had been around before her mom had been born. “My game is rather less…active, however. I was wondering what you were playing, if you don’t mind my forwardness?”
“I’m a beta tester for TD Hunter,” Lynn said, her eyes back on the grinder, which was making its “slow” way around to come at her for another attack. “Mind if I finish off this…well, there’s a monster and I need to kill it before it kills me.”
“I understand completely,” the man said. “Please, don’t let me distract you.”
She dodged to the side of the grinder, then stabbed it in the kill spot once, twice, three times until the TDM exploded in a shower of sparks. Over the last few hours she’d taken quite a bit of damage learning the pattern of each monster, but with lots of walking she’d healed enough to stay out of the red.
Grinders dropped ichor and armor plates and she collected both before turning to smile uncertainly at the man.
“I, um, got it,” she offered, not really sure what else to say. She was fine talking to people in virtual. Not so much in the real. But she did turn off her music.
“Might I see?” the man asked. “I have actually heard of TD Hunter. Their ads are impossible to avoid. I prefer playing the various catch and collect games myself. Nothing so vigorous as TD Hunter appears to be in all of its promotions. It has been a long time since I’ve been up to such acrobatic exploits.”
“Honestly, they’re a lot for me, too,” Lynn said, grinning sheepishly. It wasn’t the walking that had made her muscles ache and put a sheen of sweat on her forehead. It was all the jumping and dodging and spinning to take out the freaking ghosts that seemed to be all over the place. “But it’s fun. Fighting monsters, collecting loot, that sort of thing. Here’s what I just took out…er, wait a sec.”
She turned away from the man and tried to speak softly.
“Hugo? Can you project that grinder image for me so I can show him? Also, you need to teach me how to do the whole subvocal thing so people don’t think I’m talking to myself.”
“Of course, Miss Lynn. Remember, you can manipulate the image with your hands and to dismiss it, simply swipe it away.”
When she turned back to the old man, he looked concerned.
“I do apologize, am I interrupting a call?” he asked.
“Oh no! That was the game’s service AI,” Lynn said. “I just got this new gaming equipment, so I wasn’t sure how to project an image and, uh, oh look, here it is,” she said as a six-inch, three-dimensional image of the grinder worm appeared before her. She used both hands to give it a spin, stopping it when it faced the man, then expanding it to over two feet long so he could get a good look and hopefully forget about her awkward mumbling.
“My goodness. Quite the boogeyman. Are they all this…ferocious-looking?”
“Pretty much. Except for the ghosts. I still don’t know what they look like beyond smokey blobs. They appear out of nowhere with barely any warning and I have to stab them quick before they do damage.”
The old man chuckled and shook his head.
“That sounds positively terrifying. I must admit, I prefer my creatures cute, fuzzy and harmless. Less chance one of them might jump out at me from behind a tree and give me a heart attack.”
Lynn shared a laugh with him.
“Well, you probably shouldn’t play TD Hunter, then. I’m Lynn, by the way,” she added, remembering her manners. She figured “don’t talk to strangers” didn’t apply here, since he was a neighbor. “Lynn Raven. I think you know my mom?”
“Ah, yes, Matilda’s girl. I’m Jerald Thomas,” Mr. Thomas said, offering his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you again, young lady. You’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you.”
Lynn took his hand tentatively and shook it. Shaking hands wasn’t really a thing anymore—not, at least, for her generation. But her mother had taught her to be polite. His palm was cool and dry and a bit leathery to the touch as if he had once worked with his hands. She wondered if Larry’s hands would feel the same way if he’d been real. They would probably be bonier and covered in scars.
“What is the game about, if I might ask?” Mr. Thomas said.
“Oh, pretty standard gaming stuff,” Lynn said. “There’s been an invasion of invisible monsters from another dimension, and we volunteer ‘Hunters’ have to clear them out and save the world. I only started playing today, but so far it’s been a fun challenge. The only drawback is that it’s a bit of a grind right now, just the same ol’ same ol’ while I’m building experience. I’m trying to level up as fast as possible to get to more interesting stuff. Do you…want to see how it works?”
“Certainly,” Mr. Thomas said, and he sounded genuinely interested.
Lynn gave another quickly whispered command for Hugo to project her entire display, hoping it would work. It did.
“Here’s my overhead map so I can see where the monsters are…” She proceeded to explain each part of her display and, since it was close by, took him over to the nearest dot, which turned out to be another imp. With imps being non-aggressive, she was able to get close enough for Mr. Thomas to see it on her display without any danger to her, and she told him all about her attack strategy. Since he was so interested and not at all condescending, she went ahead and took out the imp so he could see her in action.
“Bravo,” he said with a clap of his weathered hands, cane tucked under one arm. “Very impressive considering you only started playing today, You are quite the natural at this sort of thing.”
Lynn’s face flushed and it felt hot enough to fry an egg. She could only hope her blush wasn’t visible, considering how red she already was from her exertions. Fortunately, she didn’t have to come up with a non-awkward reply, because Mr. Thomas went right on talking.
“It doesn’t seem very fair to the poor imp, though, sneaking up behind him and stabbing him in the back.”
“There’s nothing fair about war,” Lynn pointed out. She felt a flash of amusement, imagining what Larry would say to anyone naive enough to complain about fairness. Definitely nothing fit for polite company like Mr. Thomas. “Besides, it’s not very fair to invade someone else’s dimension and start killing them, is it?”
“Touché, young lady,” Mr. Thomas said, dipping his head at her. “Is the game available now?”
“No, they’re still testing it,” Lynn said, swiping at her display to make the projected image disappear.
“Ah. How did you get your hands on it, then, if I may ask?”
“I got invited,” Lynn said, trying to shrug casually. Mr. Thomas was a good listener, but he wouldn’t know who Robert Krator was any more than her mom did. “I’m pretty into gaming. I’m not sure why they picked me for this game, though. I’m sooo not into being outside.” She shifted, suddenly conscious of her sweaty face and clothes.
“It’s hot and buggy and some of the monsters are even in the woods,” she said, grimacing comically. “I’m not really into woods. There’s birds and bugs and stuff.”
Mr. Thomas chuckled, eyes sparkling.
“I am quite familiar with such terrain, young lady. If you think woods are unpleasant, though, try navigating tropical jungle during monsoon season in full kit while carrying a ten-pound rifle.”
Lynn’s eyes went wide and she did some quick mental calculations. Medicine had made mind-blowing advances in the past few decades but surely he wasn’t that old.
“Mr. Thomas, you don’t mean—Did you fight in—” But the old gentleman cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“That is ancient history, my dear. And honestly a history that is not at all pleasant to recall. Your energetic enthusiasm simply reminded me of my younger days. Now, I would offer you a training course in woodland navigation, but I suspect questions would arise if a charming young lady went wandering the woods with an older gentleman.”
“Uh, yeah, probably,” Lynn said and laughed.
“If you would accept my suggestion, though, do find company for any such foray. It is dangerous to go alone, after all.” The old man winked at her.
Lynn cocked her head, Mr. Thomas’ words ringing a bell. Maybe he knew more about gaming than she’d given him credit for, even if his game knowledge was ancient history.
“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “I’ll be careful. There’s plenty of monsters around the complex for now, anyway.”
“Well, if you are planning on staying in this area, might I continue to watch?” Mr. Thomas asked. “It is quite fascinating to observe, now that I know the rhyme and reason behind your gyrations.”
“Uh, okay. Sure,” Lynn said.
“Thank you, I—Pardon a moment,” Mr. Thomas said as he seemed to spot something in front of him. He made a few catching motions, then snorted and shook his head. “Accursed things. I’ve come to the conclusion that this game would be far simpler if I was allowed to shoot these creatures, then pick up the carcasses.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’ll be doing for sure once I get a gun that’s worth a darn,” Lynn said. “But guns take power to fuel and I wanted to start out using the knife option.” She gestured with her electric blue Nano Blade.
“It is a very impressive weapon. I am glad it is brightly colored or I might have been concerned, seeing you brandish it so threateningly.”
From his smile and flash of white teeth, Lynn assumed he was joking. But still, he had a fair point. It was a dangerous-looking weapon.
“Ah, another one,” Mr. Thomas said, distracted again by something Lynn couldn’t see. “This won’t take much time or… And it is gone. I would use unseemly language, but one does not do so around a young lady.”
“Have you never played in virtual before?” Lynn asked, laughing. “I guarantee you I’ve heard plenty of stuff that would scandalize even you.”
“Do you mean online? I suppose ‘in virtual’ is what young people call it these days?”
“Yeah. But don’t worry, my mom still says online, too.”
“Not above a little flattery, I see,” Mr. Thomas said with another flashing smile. “If that is the state of games ‘in virtual’ these days, then sticking to my little catch and collect routine is no loss. I’ve heard quite enough cursing in my time. Is it truly that bad?”
“I don’t even play as a girl,” Lynn said, warming up to the topic. Mr. Thomas was much easier to talk to than her peers, especially considering she couldn’t talk about gaming with the few people she called friends. “And I don’t use the language. Mostly, anyway. The character I play is an older guy who got injured in the Middle East as a mercenary. Now he plays online games and schools all the ‘young pups’ on how to be ‘a real snake.’”
It felt odd but gratifying to finally talk about Larry to someone. Mr. Thomas seemed about as far outside her social circle as possible, so she wasn’t worried about it getting back to her friends.
“I would guess all this interaction is typed, then?” Mr. Thomas said.
“Nope, I’ve got a voice modulator app,” Lynn said. “It gives me a gravelly baritone. And I’m always dropping hints about being in places like Bangkok and Medellin and…East Africa, starts with an M…” She hummed a bit of a tune. “…in a barroom drinkin’ gin…”
“Mombasa,” Mr. Thomas said. “Wherever did a young lady like yourself discover the mercenary’s balladeer? Not my favorite singer of the era, but I know some of the tunes well.”
“I did as much research into the character as I could,” Lynn said, shrugging. “I’ve got another gr—”
She suddenly spun and struck out with her Nano Blade, nearly hitting Mr. Thomas.
“Oops! Sorry,” she said, feeling her face heat again. She should have taken herself out of combat mode when she’d started talking, she’d almost assaulted a senior citizen. “Another ghost. They sneak up on you out of nowhere.”
“How did you know it was there?” Mr. Thomas asked.
“Sound,” Lynn said, tapping her earbud. “They have this sort of creepy, rattling whisper. When you hear that, you know they’re close. Real close.”
“Well, I think I’ll leave you to it,” Mr. Thomas said, “I would hate to distract you at a crucial moment. I may look into TD Hunter when it comes out. Perhaps there will be an ‘easy’ setting that an old man like myself can handle,” he said with a chuckle.
Lynn didn’t think there was any chance of that but didn’t want to say as much, so she just shrugged and smiled.
“If I see you around, I’ll let you know when it comes out.”
“That is very kind of you. Thank you, young lady. Now, I believe you have a mission to attend to?”
“Yup, I guess so. These monsters won’t kill themselves. It was nice to talk to you, Mr. Thomas. Have a good evening!”
“You as well, Miz Raven.”
Lynn turned and headed for a section of the complex she hadn’t been in yet that still had plenty of dots, smiling all the while. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she might have made a friend. Maybe being forced outside by an augmented reality game wasn’t as bad as she’d thought.
A while later, Lynn was starting to slow. As long as she focused on the next dot and the next, she could ignore the growing ache in her limbs. But it was getting late and she knew she needed to head back to the apartment soon. She had the main areas of the complex cleared except for a few dots left by the pool. Since it was on her way back to her apartment, she decided to finish them off.
She took out two imps—they were everywhere—a grinder worm and a nastily aggressive brute called a gremlin. Checking her overhead, she confirmed there were no more red dots in her immediate area and was about to turn and head home when she saw an odd glint from the corner of her eye. She turned toward it and surveyed the pool’s pump system. There it was again.
Moving cautiously, Lynn approached the little fenced-off area beside the pool, staring hard at the spot where she’d caught the glint. Suddenly, about ten feet out, a sparkling mist materialized and a red dot popped up on her overhead. Her display flashed a yellow warning across her vision as Hugo’s voice chimed in her ear.
“Warning. You have encountered an Unidentified TransDimensional Entity. Please remain where you are while your battle system runs an analysis.”
Lynn stood still, as a thrill of excitement went through her. She’d stumbled upon an unidentified TDM on her very first day! The next moment, though, a bolt of light shot out from the mist and her display flashed red.
The cursed thing had shot her!
She jumped back and the mist disappeared from sight. Eyes narrowed, Lynn glared at the spot where she knew the stupid monster was as Hugo spoke in her ear.
“From the small amount of data that was collected, this entity is most likely a Delta Class-2 and should be within your ability to defeat, though caution is advised. No information about its capabilities or vulnerabilities could be detected. Good luck, Hunter.”
“Humph. Thanks, I suppose. Any tips?” she asked, still eyeing the spot by the pool pumps and catching an occasional glint.
“There are no known tactical suggestions which apply, Miss Lynn, considering the dearth of data currently available. You will have to get within range and engage the entity for the system to gain any more information.”
“So, what you’re saying is, I’m your guinea pig?”
“Quite right, Miss Lynn. The Alpha testers often use the term ‘good training.’”
Lynn snorted then cocked her head. She knew she’d heard the term before but couldn’t quite place it.
This sneaky little monster was going to pay. She would make sure of it.
Not one to give into impatience or hasty decisions, Lynn examined the terrain and circled the glinting spot cautiously until she had a clear escape route at her back, just in case this monster turned aggressive. After another moment’s thought, she tapped her weapon icon and switched to the Disruptor Pistol. She’d tried it on a few imps and a grinder worm already, but it did so little damage and used up precious power, so she’d stuck to her Nano Blade, which was more fun to use anyway. With a complete unknown, though, she thought it might be best to start with a ranged attack.
Moving cautiously, Lynn inched forward until the mist popped into view again. She quickly targeted it and squeezed off three rounds, her pistol making a satisfying pewpewpew sound as her attack showed up as blue bolts of light that hit the mist center of mass. The entity flashed red, but it made no move to chase her. Instead, another bolt of light shot out and her display flashed with damage.
Lynn jumped back before it could hit again, moving out of range. Thankfully, it didn’t follow. Checking her health, she could see the attack hadn’t been as lethal as getting into hand-to-hand with a gremlin, but it wasn’t something she could shrug off, either. The biggest problem was that she had no idea how much damage her pistol had done. She couldn’t dodge those return shots and there was no telling whose health would last longer in a fight of attrition. Time for something different.
“Hugo, if I equip a globe in my stealth slot, will that keep this monster from being able to target me?”
“Unfortunately not, Miss Lynn. The stealth aspect of the globes only helps to mask your base signature generated by your battle system. Once you attack, the TDMs are able to lock onto your signature and any element of surprise is lost.”
“Dang. So much for that idea.” She thought a little more. Maybe it was time to go big or go home. She hadn’t tried using plates yet for armor, mostly because she’d wanted to get an idea of what it was like fighting without them before she started bolstering her defenses. But this was a good reason to break them in.
She could see her armor icon had a small number eight beside it, indicating she’d collected eight plates, one for each grinder worm she’d defeated so far. Tapping the icon, she was able to add a plate to the slot, making the outline of a shield go from empty to half colored in. A little “fifty percent” appeared beside it. Hmm. She tapped it again to add one more plate and the shield went solid with a percentage of one hundred. Maybe because she was Level 2, it took two plates to fully armor up? That made sense and it was a standard mechanic in many games to increase a player’s stat capacities as they leveled.
“Time to get down and dirty,” she muttered, switching her weapon from Disruptor Pistol back to Nano Blade.
Since there was no back or front to the sparkling mist, Lynn didn’t bother getting fancy. She simply charged in and started slashing. The monster didn’t retreat or dodge, just sat there and shot again and again as she cut and stabbed. Besides the red flashes and slight vibration of her handle indicating hits, the sparkling mist didn’t react and Lynn fell into a rhythm, keeping half an eye on her health and armor.
By the time the unknown TDM exploded in a shower of sparks, her health was down thirty percent and her armor was over half gone. Good thing she’d decided to equip those plates. Luckily, the thing dropped a globe along with its ichor for all her trouble, plus…what was that tube-looking thing that had appeared on the ground?
Before she could investigate, Hugo’s voice chimed in.
“Please stand by while entity analysis is completed.”
Lynn stayed put and after a few more seconds, a new image of a monster popped up on her display beside a filled-in stat sheet. The creature looked like a floating ball of tentacles with no discernible features. Hugo began reading as she eyed the image with distaste.
“Unknown entity has been designated as a Lecta, a new Delta Class-2.
“It appears to be an electrovore, feeding on the electromagnetic spectrum. Data indicates it will be found near any electrical systems, including power nodes, transmitter antennas, or any electrically powered equipment such as pumps, environmental control units and the like. The Lecta has a low-powered ranged attack, designated as plasma spit.
“It appears to be non-aggressive towards Hunters, has no discernible defenses but does possess low stealth capabilities, forcing a Hunter to come within its own range before it can be targeted. Defeat of a Lecta should yield one globe and approximately six ichor points. Excellent job, Hunter. You now have credit for the detection, defeat and analysis of an unknown TDM!”
New images filled her display showing her achievement, with all three boxes labeled detection, kill and analysis, checked off. Each had experience points next to it and there was a bonus displayed for completing all three tasks. The combined experience points were a good twenty times what she’d have gotten for killing an imp and she also got extra ichor, plates and globes.
“You will have permanent credit for your discovery,” Hugo continued, as a line of text scrolled past, showing the date, time and her beta tester name in the “Detected in the wild” section of the new monster’s stats. Just like the other stats she’d looked up, no location was listed, which she appreciated. She’d prefer not to have her apartment complex’s address broadcasted to the entire world.
The experience she gained from her unknown detection bumped her up to Level 3 and a success screen popped up next, showing that her maximum health and power levels had increased and that she’d gained even more ichor, globes and plates. Her health was also replenished to full, which was nice since it meant she didn’t have to worry about walking off the damage the Lecta had dealt.
Sweet. She needed to find more unknowns. She would have to spend some time scanning the beta forum to see if there was any pattern to where unknowns were most likely hiding. It might be completely random, or there might be some trick to it. She would find out.
“Congratulations on your achievement, Miss Lynn,” Hugo said as her level up screen faded away. “One final reminder: the higher level you are, the more visible you are to your enemies. This means aggressive TDMs will be more likely to attack sooner and patrol type TDMs such as ghosts will be attracted to you in greater numbers. Keep this in mind as you proceed and consider making use of your plates and globes on a regular basis.”
“Thanks for the tip, Hugo, but you said the exact same thing when I leveled from 1 to 2. Do you repeat that warning at every level?”
“It bears repeating, Miss Lynn. You would be surprised at the number of Hunters who ignore it. My only recourse is to assume all humans have the mental storage capacity of a goldfish and repeat such critical information at every possible juncture.”
Lynn snickered. The AI’s tone remained professional and impassive, but his choice of words brought to mind a dark-haired and hawk-faced man pursing his lips in consternation at the idea of anyone ignoring his expert opinion.
“I’ll be sure to keep your advice firmly in mind, Hugo.”
“You flatter me, Miss Lynn.”
“Well, darn. I’ll try not to do that again. Wouldn’t want you to get a big head or anything.”
“I do not have a head, Miss Lynn. But if I did, I am quite sure it would always remain a perfectly appropriate size.”
Lynn grinned.
“You keep telling yourself that, buddy. In the meantime, what is that tube thing on the ground? Did the Lecta drop that?”
“Indeed it did, Miss Lynn. That is an augment item, which is randomly dropped by enemies. The more rare or difficult the enemy, the greater the value of the item dropped.”
“Awesome, loot!” Lynn said and collected the item. Since nothing popped up on her display, she opened the main menu and selected “Inventory.”
“If I may interrupt your well-deserved break, Miss Lynn, it is wisest to exit combat mode whenever you find yourself distracted from your combat screen for any period of time.”
“Oh, yeah, good idea. In fact, I should probably head home anyway. I feel like I’ve been beat to a pulp. Go ahead and take me out of combat mode and I’ll check out this augment on my way back.”
“Very good, Miss Lynn,” Hugo said. The next moment her overhead map disappeared and all her combat-related icons lost their glow and shifted to one side. The baton in her hand warmed slightly and shrunk, compacting itself back into its base shape.
The deactivation of her weapon and visual change in her environment made the hyper alert Larry part of her relax and she felt herself deflate like a balloon. She suddenly became aware of all the aches and pains she’d been ignoring and weariness pressed down on her shoulders. Even the thought of checking out her very first augment was exhausting, so instead she simply turned for home and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. To distract herself from the long trudge back, she asked Hugo a few questions she’d been saving up about the game and had him start teaching her to subvocalize.
Once she was back at her apartment, she would have collapsed onto the couch, except that she realized her throat was burning with thirst. She guzzled several glasses of water before summoning enough energy to make it back to her bedroom. That Counterforce backpack with its hydration system would have come in handy, but she was still hesitant about wearing it, even around her apartment complex. Too noticeable. She’d just bring a water bottle next time in one of her old school backpacks.
It took all her willpower, but she dragged herself through a brief shower to remove the sticky layer of sweat she’d acquired, then changed into comfy pajamas before collaping on her bed. As she lay on her back and stared at the ceiling, she finally took stock of her body. All the soreness from walking, running, twisting and dodging had come home to complain. Her feet felt like pounded meat and she had a twinge in one shoulder where she thought she might have pulled something swiping too enthusiastically at a gremlin.
She was way too exhausted, both mentally and physically, to play WarMonger. But it was also too early to go to bed. She wanted to do homework about as much as she wanted to get up and run a marathon, so doing research on TD Hunter would be a good excuse to procrastinate. She could put her feet up and rest while she read, then get the dishes and her homework done before going to bed.
Despite not wanting to move another inch, she dragged herself to her body-mold chair, knowing her muscles would thank her later. Then she dug into the TD Hunter main menu, exploring each of its options one by one.
In her inventory, she took a moment to examine the augment the Lecta had dropped. The black cylinder looked like a tight coil of some sort of tubing and it was listed as a “Small Power Amplifier.” It could be equipped to any one-handed ranged weapon and upped the damage done by ten percent. Of course, it also increased the energy per shot usage, but that was an expected trade-off. Lynn eagerly popped it into her Disruptor Pistol’s first augment slot and watched the stat bars for the weapon adjust accordingly. She couldn’t wait to try it out.
Next, she took a few minutes to play around with her skin customizations, to see what options were available. To her surprise, they were pretty limited. She’d have thought that with an augmented reality game as advanced as this, the possibilities would be endless. But maybe the game designers wanted players more focused on the game than their appearance. Or maybe they thought there wasn’t much point in changing how you looked in augmented reality where people could easily see the “un-skinned” you. It wasn’t like in virtual where your avatar was the only contact others had with you in game.
Taking a closer look at her skin’s equipment, she noticed that with plates equipped in her armor slot, her skin acquired what looked like knee and elbow pads and a sleek-looking helmet. Based on the ads TD Hunter had been running for months, she assumed the armor’s appearance would upgrade into something much more impressive as she advanced levels. Once she was done fiddling with the skin settings, she continued her exploration until she had a solid feel for the game’s navigation.
Next, she decided to embark on some less benign research. She’d been wanting to scratch an itch since Mr. Krator had invited her to beta. It wasn’t that she was suspicious of his motives, she was just intrigued by how…unique the game was and wondered what tricks the developers had up their sleeves.
Even though the TD Hunter app had a seamless interface with the rest of her new LINC, she decided to do a web search through her personal gaming interface instead of through the equipment Mr. Krator had sent. Maybe she did have a touch of her mom’s paranoia after all. There was no telling what sort of internal search biases might be programmed into the devices made by Tsunami Entertainment. Most people were too clueless—and happily so—to worry about such things. But considering she gamed as a seventy-some-year-old mercenary and had been forced to figure out how to move and manage large sums of money in virtual when she was legally still a minor, there were a lot of things she was aware of that most people never worried about. She wasn’t a hacker by any means, but she was careful.
It was the work of a moment to bring up her wall-screen and get a few keyword searches going. She was happy to discover that switching her focus from her AR display to the screen on her wall didn’t make her eyes hurt. Using her school-issued AR glasses in class to switch between her e-textbooks and the wall-mounted smartboards her teachers used often gave her a headache.
Lynn browsed through her search results, reading articles here and there. She wanted to find out the developmental background of this odd game, the sort of details that crazy obsessive gamers like Ronnie would know. If she’d wanted to save time, she probably could’ve pinged him and picked his brain. But then she’d have to explain why she was interested in the first place. No thanks.
What she found made her raise an eyebrow. The company that was publishing the game was not Tsunami Entertainment, as she’d assumed, but a subsidiary that listed Robert Krator as the CEO. It was a well-funded start-up and TD Hunter was its very first game. Even more interesting, the start-up had significant links to corporate, military and government sectors. None of the developers involved in it were big in the gaming industry except Mr. Krator. Most were lower profile individuals known for their work on military simulation systems, augmented and virtual reality training for corporate and military use and cutting-edge advances in artificial intelligence funded by governments and tech giants. Mr. Krator’s comment about investors made a lot more sense in that light.
Lynn hadn’t realized how much this game sat on the cusp of a potential new era of gaming that, if it caught on, would cause seismic shifts in the status quo of the gaming industry. Plus, the technology perfected in TD Hunter had so many different applications in all these sectors backing the game, Lynn wasn’t surprised Mr. Krator’s investors were pushing for a swift game release.
Lynn hoped it did catch on, for Mr. Krator’s sake if for no other reason. He seemed like a really decent guy, not at all the elitist celebrity type she’d expected from someone who was basically a demigod in the gaming industry.
With this new perspective, Lynn kept digging into her search results. There wasn’t much in the way of developmental history of the game or the usual in-depth analysis pieces most games put out leading up to a release to generate a buzz. Mostly it was interviews with Robert Krator where he talked up the augmented reality aspect, game style and his personal gaming history that inspired TD Hunter. None of the other developers were mentioned beyond passing references and Lynn got the impression most of them were happy to stay out of the limelight.
Besides the interviews, Lynn only found a few promotional pieces released by the official TD Hunter game. Most developers were constantly releasing teasers and news about upgrades, but it seemed that TD Hunter’s novel self-learning AI- and algorithm-driven game-play was turning every normal expectation on its head. Instead of promoting the game through exhaustive detail, TD Hunter was taking the opposite “less is more” approach. Speculation on fan sites abounded and replies to specific questions about things like new expansions and monster types were a variation on: “our next-generation, self-learning game play creates an exciting environment full of surprises and challenges. We’re eager for you to experience it firsthand!”
Uh-huh. It sounded to Lynn like there was some serious suppression of proprietary information going on. Not that she should be all that surprised. The non-disclosure agreement she’d signed before she’d started had been pretty draconian. In fact, now that she thought about it, she probably shouldn’t have shown Mr. Thomas the game like she had. But he was just some old retired guy. It wasn’t like she was posting insider information in virtual. And the developers couldn’t expect betas to play an AR game in absolute isolation, so she figured an innocent spectator here and there wasn’t what Mr. Krator was worried about. There was probably corporate rivalry or inter-industry unrest going on in the background. She wasn’t too worried about it and figured upcoming news and all the tips and tricks was just insular to the app itself since it was in beta.
Her “what is Mr. Krator up to” itch now scratched, she dove back into the TD Hunter app and started a more thorough poke around. She found that there was a whole TD Hunter social networking site set up with a complex trading system between individuals, informal groups and registered teams. There wasn’t much action on the social network yet, since it seemed most of the beta testers asked questions and swapped tips via the Community Forum. She would dive into that later. For now, she poked around to find out more about the trading system and how she was going to make money with the game.
As Hugo had mentioned, there were several ways to collect augments and weapons, the two items that would be most in demand. Standard model weapons could be unlocked by leveling, while some standard and non-standard weapons could be unlocked through achievements like killing a certain number or type of TDM, distance walked in the game, or discovering unknown TDMs. Monsters could also drop weapons in addition to augments and those weapons were often unique, like named weapons with special bonuses. Each item had its own level requirement, though, which was pretty standard in achievement-based games. By jumping back to the “Weapons List” in the main menu Lynn could see that the requirements were fairly low, which was good.
Her best bet for big bucks, then, was to get extremely good at killing monsters and learn all the places and types of TDMs most likely to give her high quality augments, unique weapons, or big drops of consumables like plates and globes. The practice was called item farming and it was a time-honored profession for professional gamers worldwide.
Lynn felt a trickle of excitement, knowing that if she could get to high enough levels fast enough, brokering equipment had the potential for serious cash flow. It was standard in competitive games for all beta testers to start back as new players when the game released, which was annoying but perfectly necessary. Betas would have a significant edge, though, and could use what they’d learned during beta to level faster with more achievements than anyone else. Lynn knew from experience that there would be plenty of rich, lazy players who didn’t want to be inflicted with puny starting equipment and would eagerly pay through the nose for upgrades they could brag about to all their friends. Being one of the first brokers able to get a hold of that kind of equipment was her ticket to major money.
In microtransactions, it looked like you could buy plates, globes and the healing capsules called Oneg. She recognized the name from her mom talking about “O Negative” blood type, the universal donor type. The game would allow direct transfers of “loot” between players, as well as transfers on an in-game brokering site. She’d already found the beta of that. There wasn’t any current trading, but she saw how they intended to do it. No more switching back and forth to a clunky auction site. You could put whatever you wanted to trade, including equipment, up for bid and the app itself took care of all the transactions, since everyone had to have a virtual wallet connected to their account anyway.
And then there was power leveling. The term was most common in games that had levels—something WarMonger did not have. But being hired to fight in WarMonger matches to up the rankings of the rich person who’d hired her was similar in function to power leveling. In games like TD Hunter where you had to grind to level, certain types of people—mostly entitled, impatient and rich—could pay a higher level player to form a group with them and go around slaughtering everything in sight so the lower level player could get experience easier and faster. It was standard in games that experience was shared equally among members of a group and there was almost always a group bonus on top of the normal experience to incentivize people to play together.
The only rub was that, since the game was in the real instead of in virtual, the client or the power leveler would have to travel. With how fast and cheap transportation was that wouldn’t be much of a barrier if the incentive was high enough. But—and it was a big but—TD Hunter being an AR game also meant she’d have to actually meet her clients. Face to face. Ugh. Then there was the tiny problem that she was a minor. Her mother would never let her go off alone with a stranger to a strange place to play TD Hunter. Not to mention it would be a lot harder to power level someone in unfamiliar territory. She’d have to require clients come to her home turf where she knew the lay of the land and she’d have to figure out something that would convince her mom it was safe.
Yeah, like that was going to happen. Better to start with item farming and see how things developed. Power leveling could be her backup plan.
Either way, Mr. Krator hadn’t been kidding when he’d said TD Hunter had been set up for serious gamers to monetize. She wasn’t sure how long the initial “gold rush” would last when the game launched, but she definitely needed practice to up her efficiency and attack ratings as much as possible before then.
Who knew, maybe if she decided to stick with the game, she could get sponsors to send her to tournaments, like Tommy Jones? She had a brief vision of herself decked out in sleek gaming gear covered in sponsor logos, waving at the camera for adoring fans streaming from all over the world. Then she snorted. What a dumb dream. She wasn’t “popular” material. She was the kind of person who ruled from the shadows. Best to stay on the sidelines where she could stay invisible.
Refocusing on her screens, she considered what she’d discovered so far.
Other than buying upgraded weapons and augments, there were few shortcuts. Even if you had plenty of money to spare, the fact that the game was in the real meant you still had to put in the time and work. Eventually, of course, you’d achieve a high enough level that you could engage in large-scale battles to take out the bosses, who she assumed would drop seriously valuable loot. Taking out bosses, though, required forming alliances between teams, which was odd for an FPS game. That was usually the realm of MMORPGs—massive multiplayer online role-playing games. Not that teams were uncommon in FPS gameplay, but they were always PVP, player versus player, not player versus game. Of course, it did make sense that the developers wouldn’t want hordes of people physically attacking each other, even with blunt, toylike weapons. As disappointing as it was, it did make sense to not have PVP in an augmented reality game.
In any case, until you started getting into boss battles, the game was mostly “grinding.” It was one of the constant negatives mentioned on the beta tester forum. Past catch-’em-all type AR games had been successful because of constant new expansions as well as fierce competition in the rankings. TD Hunter would need to do something similar, otherwise, the basic “kill monsters, save the world” narrative would get old, quick.
As far as competition went, she did find the leaderboard that showed ranking categories for top players world-wide and all their achievement stats, as well as the sub boards for individual stat rankings. She couldn’t wait to get her own name—well, her gaming name, whatever she decided to go with—on the leaderboard. But with no possibility of PVP competitions, she wondered what Mr. Krator had in mind to keep the game popular long-term.
Eventually, she gave a mental shrug and turned her mind to exploring the Tactical Support database and forum. Here, she picked up some good suggestions on fighting TDMs and got a better understanding of the game’s mechanics.
For instance, player Levels corresponded to the TDM classes roughly ten to one. In other words, for the first nine levels she would only be battling Delta Class monsters. She wouldn’t start detecting or being attacked by Charlie Class TDMs until she reached about Level 10. Which meant she’d have to get to Level 20 before she could detect Bravo Class, much less have a hope of defeating them and Level 30 before even considering taking on Alpha Class. Sierra Class bosses, then, wouldn’t come into play until you’d reached max level at Level 40. Based on her gaming experience, she assumed the lower levels could be gained relatively quickly and each new level would take longer and longer to achieve.
Another thread talked about strategies for using globes. If you dropped a few into both your stealth and detection slots, you became virtually invisible to lower-class TDMs or weak TDMs without good detection capabilities, while simultaneously expanding your own detection range. Then you could find the sweet spot just within your range but outside theirs and take the buggers out with little danger. With non-aggressive TDMs, they’d just sit there. Aggressive ones would start moving around, looking for you, but you could always back up to try to stay in the sweet spot.
Lynn thought that seemed like a good way to keep your kill to damage ratio high—your rate of monsters killed versus damage taken. In a monster-killing game like TD Hunter that would be one of the most prestigious scores being tracked, besides total kills. But that strategy would also consume a lot of power and, more importantly, time, at least until you unlocked some high-level weapons that could one-shot the lower-class TDMs. With enough practice, she was pretty sure she could kill faster and more efficiently with her Nano Blade. She’d have to experiment and see what worked best, especially once she unlocked better weapons and found some good augments. There was a two-handed Plasma Sword she was itching to try once she got to Level 10 and unlocked her second baton.
She was particularly delighted when she delved into the “Training Simulations” section and discovered there were hundreds of training modules covering all types of weaponry, monsters and fighting techniques. Once her school finals were over, it would be a great way to work on the game even in bad weather or after dark.
Though she knew she probably wouldn’t get high enough level to pit herself against Bravo and Alpha Class monsters before the game released, curiosity had her looking for more information about them in the discussion threads. The idea of group-based battles in the real was fascinating. She knew all about boss raids and such in MMORPG games, but it seemed like that sort of thing would be a lot harder to pull off in an AR game.
To her disappointment, there wasn’t much information available and the few firsthand accounts from beta testers agreed that taking on Bravo and Alpha Class monsters single-handed was a quick way to die. It wasn’t just that the higher-class monsters were difficult to beat but that the higher class they got, the more they attracted other monsters around them and you couldn’t mob control all by yourself. Also, there were complaints about how badly the game glitched during these “mini boss” fights, as well as stories about LINCs having hardware failures or batons going haywire. Whatever caused it, it was a big complaint by the beta testers, though TD Hunter technical support always replied on those threads that such glitches would be fixed before roll-out. In the meantime, they promised equipment replacement in the event of loss due to in-game damage, so none of the beta testers had put up much of a fuss.
Lynn was excited when she found some posts about Sierra Class “boss” encounters, though she noticed all the posts were by alpha testers and none of them were recent. Maybe they’d had enough glitches with the Sierra Class monsters that they’d pulled them from the initial release and were doing further testing for a later expansion? That would explain the disclaimer she’d read in the training tutorial. Regardless, all the alpha tester posts agreed on one thing: taking on a boss with less than fifteen to twenty people was suicide. As far as she could tell, no boss beyond the most basic Sierra Class-1 had been successfully removed so far. Apparently, whenever you attacked a boss you were positively swarmed by lower-class TDMs, as if the bosses had some sort of distress call ability.
As she read, Lynn started wondering about the alpha testers. Games sometimes recruited experienced gamers to alpha test, but just as often the alpha testers were employees already involved in the game development. Her guess was on employees based on their sequential “AlphaTester1” “AlphaTester2” designations. Most gaming enthusiasts wanted to be noticed and so chose creative game handles. She was a rare exception. In any case, if all the alpha testers were employees, then lack of leaks onto fan sites so far made more sense.
That question got her thinking about game security and wondering if anyone had found hacks for the game yet. She never used hacks herself—where was the fun in that?—but she knew the sites where they were discussed. Switching to her wall-screen, she did some poking around. Unsurprisingly, various groups had already tried to hack TD Hunter in beta. But not a single one had anything to show for it. Not only did the game have incredible encryption—“military grade plus, like trying to hack the NSA or CyberCom” according to one hacker—but its algorithms appeared impossible to spoof. The hacking groups said the data on the TDMs was not being centrally generated by the game servers themselves, but somehow it had been “seeded worldwide in place.” So, you literally had to be on top of the TDMs to find them.
Lynn found that particularly fascinating. She’d never heard of that kind of game design before and it seemed like neither had the hackers. It must have been related to the augmented reality “in the real” aspect and groundbreaking AI-driven game play.
The funniest thing was that, even though plenty of the reviews on the beta version of the game were negative—things like “lame,” “same old same old,” and “just killing stuff”—she realized she actually enjoyed it. Maybe it was that the thrill of the hunt was so strong for her, despite the drawbacks of sun, bugs and aching muscles. She liked killing stuff and looting. True, she enjoyed the challenge of PVP competition more than battling AI-generated monsters, but she had the feeling that the more she got into it, the more this game was going to be different. Maybe it was the secrecy surrounding it. Maybe it was the vibe she got from Hugo. But she had the feeling things were going to get a lot more challenging and she was always a sucker for a challenge.
But, of course, the only way to know for sure was to play the game.
That thought reminded her of how tired and achy she was. Checking the time, Lynn realized if she didn’t get homework and dishes done ASAP, she would pass out and sleep the night away in her very comfortable chair. So she hauled herself up and got to work, doing the absolute minimum necessary before collapsing into bed. She ached so much it was hard at first to get to sleep. But when sleep hit, it hit like a sledgehammer.