Gray and Ginro got back to work and modified every single map after about 40 more hours of work. Gray was feeling exhausted mentally even though in the real world it had only been about an hour and 45 minutes in reality due to time being accelerated in the workspace.
"Thank you for your hard work Gray. I thought it would take all night but since you could keep up with me the maps were fixed quickly." Ginro said as him and Gray were looking over the last map they worked on.
"It was actually fun, at least once I got over the trauma from earlier." Gray's face paled when he recalled it again. It would take a long time for him to forget about that incident.
"As you've figured it out, we're not game developers here so we do appreciate this assistance." Ginro added.
"Kinda figured that, but why didn't you guys get help from a game company in the real world then?" Gray asked.
"Large scale game developers no longer exist like they used to." said Ginro. "Greed and pirating ended up finally killing the last triple A studio before the great war. Why make a quality game when you can make way more money making a cheap mobile game with ads and micro transactions."
"That's... so sad..." Gray replied solemnly.
"I know... but anyways, do you have any other suggestions you have we can consider regarding maps or modes?" asked Ginro.
"Right now? Hmmm... let us switch load outs between rounds when it is an offense and defense type of match. Also, built-in chat channels would be great instead of just one single team channel. How about at least 4 team channels where the leader can assign group leaders to each channel and have the ability to broadcast over all channels." Gray suggested.
"Switching load outs between rounds... got it... As for the chat channels, it was intentionally left sparse. We want to get you guys used to managing it for you since on the field you'll have to do it anyways. Although the feature to let group leaders broadcast to all channels isn't bad, I'll see about adding that to the permissions." Ginro said.
"Fair enough, oh, stupid thought... how about you guys add a movie monster mode like you showed me just for fun where we can fight giant monsters in our equally giant mechs."
Ginro laughed and added "You miss Bertha already?"
"..." Gray unconsciously protected himself between his thighs.
"That aside... I'll see what the others think. As much as I personally would like that, it falls outside of the scope of what we are trying to accomplish here."
"Oh fine... well, that's all I got for now, shoot me your contact info and I can ask my teammates what they would like to see." Gray said.
Ginro nodded and Gray and Ginro swapped contact information.
"I'm ready to get out of here" Gray thought.
"System, end sandbox" Ginro commanded and then took off his neural integrator and nodded to Gray as he walked away.
Gray removed the neural integrator and placed it back on the desk. He was amazed that only about 3 hours had passed when it felt like almost 3 days. "Technology is amazing" Gray thought.
Gray looked around for Felicia in order to mooch more of the benefits of pretending to be her boyfriend, but according to one of the other techs she had left about an hour ago. Gray returned to the Alterra Corporation's main entrance and retrieved Jono's scooter.
"I need to remember to return this... maybe..." Gray thought as he fired up the electric scooter to head back to his apartment and log off.
Gray looked at the clock and noticed that it was just past 11pm.
"I guess I should get to sleep... I'll have to eventually get used to a military schedule." Gray thought to himself. Gray felt mentally fatigued so he had no trouble dozing off.
__________
The next morning Gray woke up to a constant pinging sound, he had received dozens of new messages while he was asleep, the vast majority of which were from Jono calling him every name in the book for "borrowing" his electric scooter last night. One message from Ginro caught his eye, sadly it seemed that the monster movie mode wouldn't be added but the other ideas would be implemented.
Remembering what he was thinking about last night, Gray thought about asking the others on his team if they remember or know anything about their familes. As Gray was lying in bed he tossed off the sheets and went to go change. He felt like it was normal to wake up, shower, and get dressed, but the players that still believed this was a virtual world would always wear the same clothes over and over is what Gray thought. Just finishing his shower, Gray had put his clothes on his bed to get dressed for the day. Gray grabbed his socks and started to put them on when he heard a feint knock on his door.
"Hold on, I'm getting dressed!" Gray yelled
Gray was startled when he heard Yurika's voice say "Don't bother!" followed by the door opening and Yurika walked in and then said seductively. "Gray... I need you to take me..."
Gray's eyes lit up and his mind started to race as he tried to piece together what Yurika could've possible meant since he didn't think he was lucky enough to get her to want him in that way so fast.
Yurika plopped down on Gray's bed and laid on her side with her head propped up on one hand. "I need you to take me... take us to town!" Yurika said teasingly.
The 5 others of Gray's team were standing in the doorway and grinning at Gray.
"I hate all of you..." Gray said while shaking his head in defeat.
"Good morning to you to captain! Aren't you forgetting the flag on that pole?" Geoff said teasingly.
Gray looked down at his boxers and realized what he meant...
Gray started to get very annoyed and yelled "Well if everyone wants to see it here it is!"
Gray made a motion like he was about to take his boxers off and everyone else ran out of his room, except Yurika who was now lying on her stomach with her feet sticking up while looking through some of Gray's things. Gray stared at her and grabbed the waistband on his boxers like he was about to pull them down.
"What? You're not going to do it..." Yurika said plainly while not even bothering to look at him.
"No... you'd enjoy that too much..." Gray said with a smug expression.
Yurika left Gray's room and added "You know it!" before slamming his door.
Gray got dressed hurriedly then walked out of the pilot's quarters and saw the rest of his team standing around talking as if they are waiting for him.
"What's up guys?" Gray asked.
The 6 others on Gray's team all looked down at Gray's pants.
"Why don't you tell us, Gray?" Geoff said teasingly.
Gray thought "... I walked in to that one..."
"I mean, you guys want to go to town? What for?" Gray asked.
Stacia replied "Yeah, Paul's 28th birthday is soon so we were just thinking about celebrating it in town next weekend if possible."
"Don't you have friends and family from the virtual world to celebrate with?" Gray asked.
"Well... that's... none of my friend's from the virtual world are players... so I don't even know if they are real people or just simulated people." Paul said.
"That's... an interesting point. Guys, what are your thoughts on this? Are the other people actual people or are they simulated in the virtual world?" Gray asked everyone.
"Obviously they are simulated since it is a simulated reality, but that is probably not what you meant to ask, correct?" Caleb countered.
"You would be correct... I mean, are the non-players in the virtual world real or simulated people?"
"Gray, personally I think they are real... I feel like they are people anyways." Stacia said timidly
"I agree with Stacia, but mainly because I believe they wouldn't be able to fool everyone for so long if they weren't real people." Geoff added.
"I agree with both of you, so Paul, go spend your birthday with your family and friends and remember that they are what we need to train ourselves for. We train to protect them!" Gray said. "On that note, let's get back to earning merits! We're way behind teams like Giacobbe's team and the normal players will probably catch us if we don't put in some effort!"
Everyone agreed and headed over to the cafeteria to get some breakfast before heading to the simulators to begin some early matchmaking.