Cole came to in a pod filled to the brim in transparent green liquid. It was frothy and bubbled almost as he was dumped in a vat of soda, but Cole knew it was nothing of the sort. He was in a cradle. A; according to lore in Titan rising online, a sophisticated machine capable of biological and mechanical 3d and even so much as 4d printing by having prior knowledge and storage of an individual’s biological matter and unique identification Id.

In other words, as long as you’re registered to it, once you die you’re given a list of prior places or depending on the kind of area in space you were in, the last habitable area close to where you died or where you had prior registered to set as your respawn point. The crazy thing about this though is that respawns cost money, and the price varies from place to place depending on the economic power of said area, or which layer of faction controlled it.

There were also factors to respawn, every death causes a loss of stats and items, and you will pay depending on the amount of stats you would want to recover and for your items too. Also only items that have been registered prior would be eligible for respawns, if you’ve already registered and say went dungeon diving in the heart of a dying star or one some obscure ancient castle on some cyber-punk planet. All items gained would have to be taken to a terminal or back to the place you registered to be eligible for respawn, or else you drop everything not registered prior when you die, and even some of your personal equipment and items if they’re not fully insured.

Titan Rising Online is as hardcore as it gets. And this was just the tip of the iceberg. Cole shifted, feeling naked for the most part but not yet ready to eject. There was a sort of calmness to being in the cradle…like the warmth a person would and could receive when they were in the embrace of their mother… and frankly speaking a mother’s embrace was something he has been starved off for quite some time….he missed his father too, and his brothers, and his annoying little sister. His insufferable cousins, his aunts and uncles with their gossips and constant intent to undermine whatever power his father had in his grasp…. And above all he missed his grandparents…he honestly could not imagine how big of a disappointment he was to them.

Or maybe he could. In a way it was not that different for what his now ex fiancés did to him. He chose her over them when they told him she wasn’t good enough and already had a prior marriage arrangement with a powerful American family. They gave him their best, but it was not enough, he couldn’t trust their judgment or their love over his own life, so he struck out and ended up reaping what he had sown….perhaps it’s just about time to go back home and make up for his mess. Support from the family if they would ever be willing to give it to him again should help him in this event. And while he has no intention of running around with people and changing his planned solo status….he was not so shallow and prideful that he wouldn’t admit that he missed his family, and right now after being blown to bits by a Nijat alien with a grenade launcher….he missed his mommy.

[<>You Have Ten Lives Remaining! Tutorial Session Is now Over! Please Exit Respawn Cradle. <>]

Cole did not exit though he heaved a sigh of relief, so everything up until this point was just tutorial, well that was understandable. Just throwing everyone right in the middle of the conflict like that after an introductory speech was crazy. But at the time Cole had no questioned it, he had just wanted to survive whatever was thrown his way at the time. He was thankful, for however long this event will go on, he would only be using a cradle for 10 times, 11 if you count this freebie for the tutorial. Of course it was said you could purchase life or find ways to gain it during the event, but until such an opportunity comes up, he would be guarding what he has jealously. For now though he has bought himself a little bit of reprieve, so it would o him so good if he used that time to see what his skills were good for.

PERCEPTION: BRONZE PASSIVE [AERONAUT: +15% knowledge and bonus to all flight based abilities, inclusive of navigation, transportation and aerial combat of any aeronautical vehicle both on and off world]

PERCEPTION: BRONZE PASSIVE [SPECTER EYES: See all projected attacks 1.55555 Seconds before They Land, Increases Accuracy by a Small Margin.] 𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

INTELLIGENCE: BRONZE PASSIVE [SHIELDED MIND: +10% Defense Against Mental Based Attacks, 1% Chance To Reflect Psychic Damage Of Any Kind Back To Attacker Up To 35% Of Maximum Damage of The Attack]

INTELLIGENCE: BRONZE PASSIVE [SIPHON: Once Activated Absorb 5% Of Health Or Energy At Random Every Successful Damage Dealing Hit, Has A 2% Chance To Stun Target For 1 Second]

DEXTERITY: BRONZE ACTIVE [WILD CHARGE: Build up power and rush forwards for a distance of three meters to slam into your opponent creating a knockback effect. Has A 5% chance To Stun Opponents for 2 Seconds. The Longer The Charge Is Held The Greater The Damage and Stun Duration. Has A 2% Chance To Stun User Based on Factors Of opponent’s Defense]

ATTUNEMENT: BRONZE MASTERY [GRAVITY: Have Absolute Mastery over Gravity in a Range of Two Meters in an Omnidirectional Sphere! Bring to Bear the Gravitational Force 1,372N (Two times Earth’s Gravity).

Those hard core min-maxers and players that paid every little attention to details and the kind of prims they’d get during early, mid and late game areas would have a field day with annoyance. His skills were all over the place with little to almost no synergy amongst them. There have been tried, tested and proven methods of how to get powerful classes in the game, and more often than not it was almost 85% correct, if the guides for the game are followed to the T.

But classes in Titan rising online are tailored to individuals, but even at that you could get a certain type of class if you knew the right kind of prisms to slot into your stats, and if you had the right stats for them too. For Cole, his skills were all a compete mess, but in that chaos he could see 1 or 2 ways that synergy between those skills could be achieved, and beyond that there are still more skills to be gained. He would definitely end up with something that would build a bridge to one or two of his skills, then he did not have to worry about synergy.

Though he was a bit worried though, he really hasn’t paid as much attention to his skills and titles, he really did not want to get saddled with a useless class. What he had in the full game had been a generic ranger build like class. It wasn’t bad, but it did not take full advantage of his capabilities as a close quarter’s combatant, however it had been an extreme learning experience as he had learnt how to use guns, bows, cross bows, and throwing weapons, with an extreme fondness developed for sniper rifles. While he would not be remiss to get a ranger class again, he was hoping to gain something this time that cold and would help him hit harder in close quarters, the [Wild Charge] skill was already a step in the right direction.

“Open Cradle.”

It wasn’t so much speech as tit was a mental command. The water in the cradle disappeared, seemingly turning into vapor that vanished into Cole’s skin. But wherever it touched, all of his previous equipment and clothes appeared right back on him. With pneumatic hiss, the doors slid to the side and Cole came face to face with a pair of blue eyes that were just too blue to be natural, and belonged in a skull that was way too young to even be allowed in any virtual reality game….especially one with an 18+ rating as Titan Rising Online.

The kid gave a wild yelp and jumped back, covering more distance than should be possible, and that was perhaps way more distance as she almost went over the railing. Cole rushed forwards making it just in time to prevent the kid from plummeting almost thirty meters to the ground where at the moment a massive crowd of people were gathered. There was hardly any space to left to walk around, and landing on people was definitely a terrible way to go, but still as he saved her, a scrappy pre-teen with her player identifier showing a bright yellow, Cole could not help but ask.

“What’s a kid doing here?”

“I’m not a kid!” she snapped back, pulling her herself away from Cole as she fell in a guarded position. Cole considered for a whole minute not exactly sure what to make of it, before promptly turning around and walking away, much to the shock of the girl as she stood there sputtering in shock as his blatant disregard of her presence. But it wasn’t disregard per say, it’s obvious this girl was way below the age limit allowed for titan Rising Online, which means if she was in here, somehow a part of the 5 million people that had been chosen, it couldn’t have been through legal means.

Hacking the game was not impossible, but it was frowned upon and hacker are usually quickly caught and hunted down like terrorists and then promptly jailed if not out rightly executed. This was an age where most people lived their lives in virtual space, people who can access such space could very much fuck with if not kill and out rightly damage the brains of thousands of people. He did not want to get mixed up in anything that scandalous, not when he was already off to a good start with the event.

Cole took a closer look, noticing he was in the cradle facility of the space station. This was probably the safest and most secure place in the facility as it was where players could respawn after they have fallen in the field. During sieges where players had to take over a base or a station, you could pretty much consider that location conquered when you have full control of the Cradle Facility. Either way, Cole had no intention of staying here for too long, they had 72 hours, and that was not much as the smallest space station should be about the size of a small town, this one was as large as New York City itself. Building a coliseum that can and could hold 5 million people with ease at the same time would require this to be on a scale so grand the human mind would be unable to grasp it fully.

He had to find a map of the surrounding area, get on a ship and get the fuck out of here. Of course dealing with the Nijat aliens would also be a priority as he was sure that in order to get off the station he would have to get past them. He looked around, noticing an exit to the north of his positon, on the next platform above him which held an almost endless row of cradles. There was an escalator that led to periphery of the facility, he should be able to find his way out from there.

“Hey!”

Cole did not answer, he had to get away from that black flag bad omen kid. Perhaps it was too early to judge the girl, but she was a problem, a very massive problem, and it was not one he was ready to deal with, absolutely not. He moved forwards faster, picking up speed, the sooner he put this safe zone behind him, the better, but no matter how fast he moved, the kid just kept on pulling closer. Just as he left the facility Cole felt her hand touch his back, and all he could do at that moment was look the ground and swear.

“Shit!”