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  He'd managed to collect all the rifles and magazines in a single trip and had linked the backpack up to the system so that it could unload all the items, which he then promptly distributed to each of his troops, including Trooper One—who remained on his private retinue. If something catastrophic suddenly happened to the base, he still wanted to have someone on his side, following orders.

  Some of the rifles had been destroyed, either by the Golem Jelly or the explosions. He had only acquired twenty-eight of them. Along with sixty-seven magazines. This wasn't a lot of ammo, and it was likely that the jelly creature had digested them quickly, since they were small. If that was how it even worked.

  After another hour, he'd collected enough resources to build another seven troops, bringing his total to twelve, including Trooper One. The extractor was paying out a little better at times, giving him more iron than he was seeing earlier, along with other things. Sometimes he saw twice as much of some resources, but at the detriment of not getting any of another.

  He went about equipping each of his troops with a rifle and some spare magazines. None of the troopers he’d made had any repair skill yet. He knew that NPCs could level up and that they could acquire skills. They could also be implanted with different skills, but he didn't have any of those schematics available to him. So he had to let them remain as their base template for now.

  His next project was to fix the rest of the solar array, across the last two buildings. He'd sent five of his troopers into the excavator to check it in detail. There had been nothing out of the ordinary and no white orbs.

  With the entire base checked and secured, he spread out his troopers, three to each building, except for the command center. He had them patrolling the inside of the structure. That used nine of his troopers. So after he got another excavator shipment, he went and made another one, bringing his total to thirteen. He put three on a patrol around the base. Trooper One was now tasked to being at his side at all times, just to have someone looking over his shoulder and watching his back.

  It was strange. He knew Trooper One was just as expendable as the rest, but he couldn't help but hold a certain fondness for the first NPC he'd ever created.

  Time continued to pass. He got new shipments every twenty minutes, some paying out even more resources than he was expecting.

  He repaired the rest of the solar array, which gave him 75 panels producing a total of 1,650,000 GU of power. The base still required about 1,000,000 at any given time. This meant that he would have a surplus of 7,800,000 GU when the next sunset came. Which put him at 2,200,000 short. He'd need another nine panels, at least, to make it through another night. Ten to be safe.

  With the schematics still loaded on the drive that came with the facility, he was able to produce ten more panels and fit them in onto two different roofs, just to spread them out.

  Now that power generation was done, and with the data-drive slotted into the command center, he perused what else it had to offer. Besides the solar panels, the drive also had plans for: fixed-placement mortars, a teleporter, a storage building, an excavator, walls, reinforced glass, other basic building materials and defensive structuring, cameras, conduits, wire, mortar rounds, an armature with a decent amount of movable range within a confined area and an AI-controlled machine gun emplacement that could fit on the movable armature, and the ammo that such a gun required.

  The previous data-drive held a number of useful things for him. So he went to work on building some of them. Basic building materials such as wall and reinforced glass weren't all that pricey in terms of materials. The wall was essentially waste-rock with some iron ore thrown in. Some of the other things he had to hold off on until he was able to acquire more resources. He was currently working on a twenty-minute basis, but if he were to log off or go somewhere for twenty-four hours and then return, he'd be able to work with a whole store of materials. But he had to remain vigilant and keep the base as well-defended as he could get it, twenty-minute by twenty-minute interval. Else, he might risk losing the base and all the hard work he'd already put into it.

  He'd gotten so distracted with building the base up that he'd forgotten to try and reach Chrono again. Since a couple hours had now passed, he tried calling him again.

  But still, there was just static.

  Riley was wondering what could possibly be the cause. He hadn't had any trouble with comms on his way to the facility. Was there simply something creating a bubble of interference between his exact location and the base? Perhaps it had been there all this time, but he was only really getting it because he was in the base now, and not the rover.

  Speaking of the rover, it was damaged. He needed to repair it a bit, but it took a resource called 'Itium,' which was a white rock with little gray specks in it, almost like gray glitter. It just so happened that the resource was not a part of what this facility could mine. So if he wanted to repair the vehicle, he'd have to return to Crimson City—what Sage had renamed Gargantuan City to. Riley was still having trouble remembering that it was no longer called Gargantuan City. In retrospect, he probably should've told Gella that it was Crimson City, but at the time, it had never crossed his mind.

  To go with the new name, Sage had set about a loose order to have guilds go around and repaint buildings in various shades of dark and bright red, with bronze and copper undertones throughout. It looked far more intricate than it had before, and stood in contrast to the grays, blacks, and concrete tone of the other cities.

  "System, can a teleport push through the static we're getting?" he asked.

  "Yes. The static is only affecting the communication spectrum. A teleporter, like the one based on the schematic on the currently loaded data-drive, functions differently and is unlikely to be affected by the interference."

  Riley lifted a brow and glanced to the side. "What do you mean 'unlikely?'"

  "I cannot give a definite answer in regards to if the interference will alter or hinder a teleport. If I had the ability to scan the source of the interference, I might be able to make a better judgement. But as it stands currently, I cannot. All I can say for certain is that a teleporter uses a higher power concentration to get an object from one point to another. This is usually much more powerful than transmitting audio or video to a location. Therefore, the teleporter won't be as severely affected."

  Riley had the materials for a teleporter. It was going to use a bunch of them and if he was doing the math right, he'd only be able to teleport three times from this facility, with his current supply of poryte. He wasn't sure how different it was than the teleporter back at the alliance base, but he'd have to take all the poryte crystals back with him, since Chrono said they were out.

  Obtaining a small stream of poryte crystal extraction had been one of the hopes of the base he was currently residing in.

  Now that he had some of the materials he needed, and now that he knew a little more about what was on the schematic drive, he set about modifying the base itself. It took another hour, but he built one armature at the top of each wall and placed a turret upon it. Each armature would be able to hide behind the wall, and if the system detected a threat, it would pull up and even be able to lean over the wall to shoot targets directly at the base of the fortifications. It had an armored front, so that it was more resistant to oncoming damage. A single such turret could've surely caused plenty of havoc on that encroaching group of fifty soldiers. But by itself, it might've had difficulty with the mortar.

  Speaking of mortars, he went ahead and fabricated five mortar rounds, just so he'd have some sort of long-range capability at the start of a fight. He still had three functional mortar emplacements located on the command center in the middle of the base. They were at 100% durability, they just needed ammo. But he didn't want to go spending too much on mortar rounds just yet.

  At this point, the sun had begun to rise in the sky. Any residual power from the epper rods would help him last the next night, even though the arrays should be able to store enough duri
ng the day, if he did the math right.

  He primarily needed to head back to Crimson City and let them know that the site was secure and usable and that it could use some further upgrading, if they wanted to keep it that way.

  He pondered what he could do with the railgun emplacement that was located at the top of the command center. It required a lot of power output that he just didn't have, since he needed the poryte crystals for teleportation and he didn't have some of the more rare materials that it would take to repair it. So, for now, it was dead weight.

  To round things off, he went and made three more troopers, bringing his trooper count to 16, including Trooper One. Until he got more resources, 16 would have to be enough.

  Five mortar rounds, three working mortar emplacements. Sixteen troopers spread out and patrolling buildings, four gun turrets—one for each wall.

  He was as prepared as he was going to be. But there was one last thing he wanted to check.

  "System, are there any further…leadership things I can do, to improve the base's defenses? Like, are you just going to defend the base in my absence?"

  "I can defend the base in your absence, but you may assign a leadership role to one of your NPCs, even if they are under my oversight. They will gain experience bonuses for the duration that they are assigned as a leader on the base. Only one primary leader can be assigned. If enough experience is gained under this role, the NPC that was assigned as a leader could become more intelligent and better at base defense strategies."

  Riley looked over to Trooper One.

  "Alright, sounds good. Can you make Trooper One the leader, without having him under your direct control? Would he still be under mine?"

  "Yes," said the system. "Trooper One will be the leader of the base, and be able to direct forces in tandem with my automated responses to attacks. He will have control of patrol movements and gradually learn new routines and skills. I will not be able to control him myself, but his defensive tactics will override my own, if he sees fit. You will be able to control him via auditory commands, but not through the base interface map."

  "Great, make that happen. I'm still in command of the base though, right? I can keep the arm-band?"

  "That is correct," said the system. "A new band will be produced for Trooper One, and he will mainly be in a defensive leadership capacity. He will only utilize base resources to ensure the defense of the base. You can limit what resources he can use."

  Riley looked up at the ceiling and hummed to himself. "Hmm, alright…let's see…restrict access to poryte. He has free reign of all the common materials, if he wanted to build something, or make ammo or more troops. If the situation requires it. You'll advise him and stuff, right?"

  "Yes, I can do that. And I've set the permissions."

  "Thank you," he said as he then looked over to Trooper One. "Alright, buddy. You're in command while I'm gone."

  "I won't let you down, sir," said Trooper One.

  "I'm sure you won't," said Riley. But really, he wasn't entirely sure what to say. He was essentially leaving two artificial intelligences in control of the base he'd just been hard-pressed to win.

  "Just don't go attacking anything that isn't a clear threat," he added, remembering Gella.

  "Of course, sir. I won't put the base unnecessarily in danger."

  "Great, great," he murmured, trying to think of anything else. "Alright, I guess that's it." He then went to the functions of the base and constructed a teleporter up on the second floor of the command building. It would be built in about a minute, so it'd be ready for him by the time he got up there.

  He decided to leave the backpack crate around for now, in case he needed it when he returned. They weren't all that expensive, so he could just bring another one with him if he needed. He relinquished what he could from his personal inventory, such as the repair tool, letting the base take it back and place it where he'd found it. With the inventory space available, he took all the extra poryte crystals, leaving just enough for a single teleport to the alliance base. Since the power requirement was always on the 'sender,' the base itself wouldn't need any poryte to 'receive.'

  He nodded to Trooper One as he got up out of the command chair. "Chair's yours, make me proud," he said, just because he thought it sounded amusing. Since it was just him, the system, and Trooper One.

  "Will do, sir," the trooper said, as he walked over and took a seat on the chair. The chair would produce a new command band for him to wear, which would also have its own holographic display of the base.

  The idea that an AI would be commanding troops around the base was interesting to him. But he supposed it wasn't all that different than old real-time strategy games, where the artificial intelligence was smart enough to attack and defend itself on different difficulty settings. But in a game like this, the AI couldn't cheat with extra resources or vision. It was on par with everything else.

  Riley left the command room and took a short stairwell to the second floor.

  The second floor didn't have as much stuff sitting around, as the command room did, but it did have a noticeable teleportation bay. He walked right over to it and stood inside of it. It was essentially a floor-piece with a blue base, a ceiling piece with a blue tile inside, and then a support wall in the back. There was a terminal jutting up from the floor in front of him. He could tap at it if he wanted. But he decided to go the easier route. "System, teleport me to the alliance base."

  "Teleport commencing in ten…nine…"

  Riley let out a slow breath. Teleportation wasn't as harsh on him as portals were. And since the pain update, the game had undergone a number of fixes and patches to improve the symptoms that players were feeling from intense mental load. For him, it always manifested in the form of nausea and on a rare occasion, passing out. He hadn't passed out since that time back when he and some of his guild mates had attacked Sage's lair. But then again, he hadn't taken a portal since that day. There were numerous reports that people who had the same problem as him weren't having it as severely any more. He was incredibly thankful to hear it, but he still needed to be cautious. His doctor had warned (and still warned him) of playing any virtual reality game. But it wasn't as if he could just stop now. It was his job. It was his life.

  "Two…one."

  In a flash, he was gone.

  Chapter 9: Crimson City

  One moment, Riley was staring into the openness of the second floor of the command center. The next, he was in a rouge-red street. He glanced around immediately. He was surrounded by blood-red buildings, mixed with burgundy and scarlet. Every shade of red imaginable was represented around him. Some were softer clay-like hues, while others were more metallic. But this was Gargantuan City. At least, what was once Gargantuan City. Now, with Sage in control, it was Crimson City. The city of red.

  'The city of red' was a unique moniker. It had two meanings. There was the visual one, which anyone could see, but there was also the reference to the fact that it was a place of conflict. Like all of the original Sigil Online cities, it was decently large. There were tons of buildings, a few skyscrapers, and plenty of warehouses, houses, offices, stores, and everything else you'd associate with a city. Whereas the other original cities were now divided up and shared, (all except for Uber City,) Crimson City was now owned by a single alliance. Sage's Crimson Alliance.

  Crimson Alliance was made up of numerous guilds: The Pale Ones, The Crimsons, The Royals, The Bunker Brawlers, The Thrashers, The Great Weavers, The Sappers, The Vigilant, and a few other more minor guilds.

  The Vigilant were one of the newer guilds to join with Crimson Alliance. They were a paragon guild that had held a section of the city from the early days of Sage's great conquering invasion. They quickly gathered many other paragons into their ranks, since they had the buildings to put up a good defense. But even they relented under Sage's military and political pressure. Instead of being wiped out and losing their precious territory with their stored items and homes, they joined. They didn't
have much in the way of permissions as far as coming and going into the Alliance HQ, but they were left alone, and now defended their territory in Crimson City if other non-alliance members tried to encroach upon it. They also helped defend the rest of the city, if the need arose.

  NPCs had always been an immense feature in Sigil Online. Mostly, NPCs were the regular civilians that walked around and gave life to the world. There were still NPCs, but now, instead of seeing someone in a suit with a briefcase, or someone jogging, or carrying something around, there were more menacing creatures skittering around, nesting, making hives and all sorts of other things. The city had a more monstrous feel (everywhere other than what The Vigilant controlled.) But none of it was hostile. None of it was evil. None of it was 'bad.' It was just…different.

  Riley watched as a spider the size of a car slowly skittered across the street about fifty feet away. His eyes slowly followed it as it crawled up one of the buildings on the right and then disappeared into one of the windows. A dozen bats suddenly flew out from one of the other windows in the office. Riley glanced around, disconcerted.

  It wasn't the giant spider, the bats, all the red, or even the strange growls he heard coming from one of the side streets.

  It was the fact that this wasn't where the teleport should've sent him.

  He turned and looked around some more, trying to get his bearings. He was somewhere in the vicinity of The Vigilant and The Great Weavers.

  The Great Weavers were a guild made up of hellions that all resembled arachnids in some way.

  It was a fantastic place to be.

  Especially for someone like Riley, who would fetch his hand vacuum anytime he saw a spider in his apartment. Which was more often than he liked.

  With a sideways swipe of his hand and a flip of his wrist, his cellphone appeared in a shimmer of particles. "Call Chrono," he said as he brought it to his ear, not wanting to take the time to look through the contacts.