Isaac left the building and stood in the busy streets as fancy cars drove by all around him. He looked across the street at the grand building labelled "SurgeSystems." With a click of his tongue, he decided to look something up.
His eyes appeared red as small, tiny text appeared before them that only he could read. After a moment of digging through trash, he found the website he was looking for. The NET was filled with garbage but every once and a while, you'd find a gem.
This site was one of them. Isaac had found it a few years ago and it was invaluable for his operations. It held the schematics of just about every building on the planet, excluding the makeshift ones (although rarely even they appeared).
None of the schematics were acquired legally, but this wasn't exactly a legal site. It was never removed because nearly everyone used it from mercenaries, corporate agents, and even the police themselves.
Isaac shifted through the files looking for the SurgeSystems headquarters as he navigated to a bench to look less suspicious. As he sat, he finally found it. He opened it and started shifting through the various files, finding the various small weaknesses such as the vents.
A few hours passed with him doing little to nothing besides look at the building. He even walked around to get food and looked at the building then too. He eventually returned home and sat down at the computer that came with the room. Even now he was still reviewing the building.
That's when his mind wandered and eventually thought about oil lamps for no particular reason. He did say he'd look them up and learn about them. He also needed to learn more about that stuff in general. So, with a happy face, he turned on the computer and started researching.
When another few hours had passed and night was descending, when he heard a knock on his door.
"Is that Roscoe?" He muttered to himself as he stood up. He walked over to the door before opening it.
That's when a small stun baton shot through the door and connected with his skin. As he felt a massive jolt enter his body, his muscles froze up and he fell backwards. Five men entered the room with massive amounts of cybernetics and metal bats in each of their hands.
Among the men there was the man Isaac had met in the elevator. He had another cigar that he took a puff from as he looked around the small room, his gaze eventually reaching Isaac on the floor.
"Told ya you needed to pay the insurance. You never know when there'll be a break in…" He leaned down and looked at Isaac. "Look, just pay the fee every month, and you won't have to deal with these problems anymore. It's as simple as that."
The man's hand went to his jack, and he pulled out a data crystal. "Here, put your money on it, and I mean all of it by the way. That way we won't break every bone in your body."
Isaac thought rationally, he didn't have much money left. He had food stored to eat, water to drink, and the apartment had three months of payment already secured. The best decision here was to give them the money, especially considering he'd be going on an operation shortly and receive a boatload from it. But knowing this city there was a high chance he'd get the shit kicked out of him anyway.
So, he came up with a plan and provoked them from the floor. "Why don't you just come and fucking take it?"
The man with the cigar looked at one of his cronies, and with simply that, the man walked forward and planted himself on top of Isaac as the other's surrounded him with their weapons.
The man pulled a long cable from the port in his wrist and slotted into Isaac's jack. Streams of code immediately began flowing in front of his eyes.
'Warning! Intrusion detected! Purging systems!' Isaac heard the same voice in his head from earlier in the day ring out. He stopped it though and issued a separate command.
The feminine voice rang out again, 'Uploading deconstruction daemon to intruder's OS! Generating key for disabling!'
That's when the man in front of him froze and blood started dripping from their eyes. They didn't die however, they just stayed like that with blood trickling down their dazed face. The others got startled and backed up.
Isaac grabbed the frozen person and tossed them to the side. He stood up, dusted himself off and looked at the rest. "Hey, fuck off and maybe I'll give you the key to disable it."
They quickly left the apartment after grabbing their partner and taking them away. As they left into the hallway with their friends, Isaac quickly closed the door and locked it. He slumped against the metal door and slid down it, exhaling deeply.
'I need a gun.' He thought to himself with an annoyed expression.
After resting for a moment, he realized how late it was and got ready for bed. As he sat there, his gaze drifted towards the shelf with Manifest Destiny on it.
He hesitated for a moment but eventually found himself reaching for it. Not a second later he inserted the data crystal into his jack and went to the digital world. He found himself back on the bench that he had logged off on.
He stood and decided something then and there. He was going to rob the bank. He served in a place that might as well be described as hell and made it out alive.
So, what if everyone had magical abilities, if they got hit by a bullet they'd die.
At least that's what he hoped. Roscoe's realistic description was not exactly holding up well. Isaac wouldn't be surprised if there were people who could take a bullet to the face and life with just a slight headache.
So, what did Isaac need?
First off, he needed money. When he respawned, he got another gun and 18 bullets, six already being loaded in the gun, a knife and a lasso. It was the same stuff that he got when he first started playing.
This meant that Isaac needed to get some money to buy a bandana or a mask for the heist. So, he spent some time looking and asking around the town for jobs.
Eventually he landed a job generally meant for civilians. It was a job to cut some firewood, meant to be an introduction to the lumberjack profession.
So, he spent nearly an hour doing that. It netted him a pitiful amount of money by today's standards, but it'd be enough to buy a simple bandana and maybe some extra ammunition. He then headed back to the town covered in sweat.
'Okay, maybe the game is at least somewhat realistic.' Isaac thought to himself as he walked with sore arms. It was pretty unexpected how realistic certain aspects of the game were.
He entered a small general store once he got to town. A shopkeeper with a massive moustache stood behind a counter next to an old cash register.
"Whatcha' lookin' for partner? We've got canned goods over there, fresh produce over there, and daily necessities over there." The shopkeeper pointed to three different places.
"Do you happen to have a large handkerchief?" He asked for a handkerchief rather than a bandana to seem less like a criminal.
"Yeah, they should be over there." He pointed to where the daily necessities were. Isaac went over there and grabbed a plain black one. He took it over at the cash register.
"That it?" The shopkeeper asked and Isaac nodded. The shopkeeper continued, "Okay, that'll be 15 cents."
Isaac placed a dime and a nickel on the table and the shopkeeper scooped it up. "Thank you for your patronage. Have a good day partner."
Isaac nodded as he grabbed the handkerchief and slipped it into his pocket. He left the store and went to the gunsmith at the other side of the town. He entered and inquired about the ammo prices.
"Yeah, your revolver takes .45 cartridges. They cost about 6 cents each, meaning that's 36 cents for 6." The gunsmith said while thinking about his prices.
Isaac looked at his money stat.
[Money: $0.72 ($0)]
He scoffed involuntarily. He had just enough money to buy 12 bullets, meaning once he paid it, he'd have no money. The in-game woodcutting job he tried actually paid decent money for the 1880s, but you could only do it once for around an hour, it was a trial after all.
He placed the money on the counter and asked for the ammunition. The gunsmith nodded and went to grab a single box of ammo. He handed it over to Isaac and Isaac left with a sullen expression.
As he returned outside, he looked up and determined it to be around midday. He headed over to the bank and sat down at a random bench facing it. For his plan to work and to get as much money as possible, he'd have to wait for the person who could open the vault to visit.
The bank teller said the person with the safe codes came around when the bank was closing, meaning that Isaac had a few hours to spare. So, he sat around and explored the menus.
Finding nothing new or interesting, he came up with an idea.
Usually for games like this, you could access any data shards that you had jacked in. So, Isaac decided to access the NET to learn more about the game. Most of the research he had done was about the 1880s and not the game. A shortcoming on his part considering how different they were.
He quickly found the website for the game.
[Welcome to Manifest Destiny! An all new VRMMORPG by SurgeSystems! Play with players all around the world* and experience a truly wild, wild west! With fantasy systems added from our previous games to spice up the American west from 1881!]
[Future updates will change the way the game is played, and future expansions will add to this setting, adding all new locations, mechanics, and time periods!]
[*Title not accessible in New Zealand or New Australia.]
Isaac scrolled through their site a bit before going back up to the top to look at the different navigation links. That's when he saw one for the game forums. He had never been to a game's forums before, so he clicked on it out of interest.
As he clicked it, a different menu popped up in Manifest Destiny.
[It looks like you're trying to access the game's forums, would you like to open them in-game?]
"Oh neat…" He blurted out. He tapped yes and the forums opened up on a separate menu in-game. He closed his access to the NET and focused instead on the game.
He scrolled through the forum to find tons of people talking about the game and all the things they've found. It ranged from medieval knights raiding a town to wizards hunting in the woods with rifles. Not to mention the other stuff like dragons and of course zombies.
He remembered saying it before, but he couldn't help but think it again. 'Realistic. My. Ass.' He planned to mess with Roscoe somehow as payback, but that was for later.
He scrolled a bit more and found a link to a stream from Jollygator who had thousands of viewers. He scrolled past it and started reading a post about zombies. It was talking about things he had already figured out- 'Wait… Jollygator?'
'Aren't they the top bounty hunter?' He scrolled back to it and clicked on the link. The game had already been out for a weak, but they had a stronghold on the class's rankings. As did the player King who stood atop the outlaws.
The stream opened and Isaac was greeted by Jollygator shooting at a large gang trying to escape through a coal breaker plant. The gang ran forward through the plant, shooting back at Jollygator to prevent them from moving up. That's when Jollygator made a strange hand gesture and teleported creating a black mist.
They appeared in front of them but were hidden from their view in some strange otherworld. They ran further ahead and returned to the natural world. They placed a stick of dynamite at the building's exit and hid behind a large metal mining cart.
As the group left the building, smiling due to their "success," Jollygator leaned out from their cover and shot the stick of dynamite with their revolver. It instantly exploded killing the majority of the gang. Then Jollygator quickly fanned their gun's hammer and killed the rest of them.
The coal town became deathly silent after the commotion suddenly ended. Jollygator walked forward while reloading their revolver with blinding speed. They inspected the bodies on the ground and started looting them. That's when the lawmen from out of town finally arrived.
A marshal pulled over on his horse and looked at the dead bodies from above. They then reached into a satchel and tossed a large amount of money to Jollygator without a single word spoken. Jollygator pocketed it and began leaving. Once they hopped onto their horse and began riding away, the stream ended.
Isaac's eyes narrowed after the screen paused on the ending frame. Jollygator was going to be a problem when he got infamous, he already knew it.
But before he could dwell on the topic, the sky had darkened, and he noticed someone walking towards the closing bank. The man wore a nice suit and the people in the bank opened the door for him.
Isaac stood and began making his way towards the bank as he put on the bandana. It was time to make some money.