With Peter gone, that Left Quinn and Vorden on their own. They were currently walking down the high street which was full of clothes shops and restaurants.
Students only received 10 credits a day as an allowance but that didn’t stop their parents from sending them extra money while they were in school. The richer students were free to spend and buy whatever they liked and sadly the richer students were usually the stronger ones as well.
Although the city didn’t open up to any regular civilians it was still open up to all the workers.
The city was full of military personal but not all of them were soldiers. There was still cooks that were needed, admin staff, engineers, building workers and even general people who would run the shop.
They had all been granted special access from the military and in return were given nice living accommodations and didn’t have to worry about life on the outside world.
So all though they worked for the military they weren’t required to be relied on for fighting unless absolutely necessary.
While the two were walking Quinn couldn’t help but think back to the fight between Vorden and Momo.
“Hey Vorden, I know you said your ability resets every day but you never said you could wield two abilities at once?” Quinn asked.
“Didn’t I?” Voden said with an awkward smile. “Well, there are some in my family that can even hold three.”
“Really? So how does it exactly work.”
“Well if I told you our family secrets Quinn, you would have to become a part of our family. Either that or I’d have to kill you.”
For a second there was an awkward silence between the two. As Quinn wasn’t sure if Vorden was joking or not.
“Relax will you.” Vorden said, “But yeah I honestly can’t tell you anything, you know Originals rules and all.”
Vorden belonged to one of the Original families that had decided to keep their ability within their family. Meaning the only people that knew how to copy other abilities were the Blades. Of course, Vorden wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone about their ability.
“Yeah, sorry about that but if you don’t mind me asking. If you copy an ability you’ve never received before, how are you able to fight with them so well?”
“Let me show you something,” Vorden said.
The two of them continued to walk down the high street which was filled with shops, until Vorden eventually stopped just outside a game store. The two of them headed inside and there were all types of games filled on the shelves.
At the very back of the shop was a VR pod for people to test out before they bought anything. Just like everything else, even the gaming technology had improved significantly after the war.
Then Vorden pointed at the VR capsule.
“You see that thing, I grew up playing on that.”
“What?” Quinn thought, but then Quinn remembered Leo mentioning something about a VR game that was popular between students. He said if he wanted to get fighting experience it would be good if he played a certain game, is this what he was talking about?
“There’s a popular game played in the outside world and within the military schools called Power fighter. The game is simple, it gives you an open empty room and the two of you fight until one loses. Although it sounds simple the game itself is used to help people train. The VR capsule can record all attributes of your body. Anything you do in the real world you can do in the game. The only thing that it can’t do is record your ability.”
Vorden then walked up to the capsule and touched the front of the capsule where there was a round ring. A holographic display appeared with the game’s settings on the top. Vorden then placed his hand on the holographic display and a notification sound was heard.
“Welcome User ID VBCopy.” The machine said.
As Vorden logged into the game, his user ID’s information could be seen along with a dummy model of his fighter which looked nothing like Vorden. It displayed the total amount of fights Vorden had, and how many wins and losses. Although Vorden quickly went of that screen on to another, too quick for Quinn to see anything.
Then Vorden was suddenly on an ability tab. The list seemed almost endless.
“Wait I thought you said the game couldn’t record your ability?” Quinn asked.
“It can’t, but so the game was even more realistic and so it could be used a training tool, it uploads into its database every ability that is shared out there in the world that we know today. Of course, only the ones that are made public. So Original abilities and abilities that have yet to be discovered aren’t on this list, including my own. However, I can select any ability I want, even if I can’t perform it in the real world I can practice with it in the game.”
Quinn finally understood how Vorden was able to become well adverse with multiple different abilities. This was something that would only greatly benefit someone like him who was able to use whatever ability he wished.
Most people who were playing the game would want to get stronger and better at using their abilities. That meant they would usually only select their own ability, what was the point of selecting something that you could never use in the real world, unless you just wanted to have the experience.
“The game is actually very popular with the other military schools.” Vorden continued to explain. “So much so that the military has designed its own servers so it only connects to other schools but you can also just play with the outside world as well. Before you enter the game you can even input your power level. This way it will match you with those people around the same level. People can lie about their level but those type of people will never get better at fighting, bullying those weaker than them all the time.”
Quinn then walked up to the capsule and started to inspect it. It sounded amazing and was exactly what Quinn needed. This way he was able to practise against other students without others realising it was him.
Then when Quinn lifted up the tag on it, there were more zeros on the thing then he had ever seen before. There was no way he could afford such a thing. Maybe some of the other students who could be sent credits from their family but not Quinn.
Vorden started to laugh.
“Don’t worry about it, you don’t need to buy one yourself, the academy has a room full of them.”
“Really?”
“Come on, let’s head back and give it a go.”