Take Down Chapter 47: Solo

“So. Who is going to tell Free?” Migata asked, still touching your thigh under the table.

“We don’t need to tell her anything until she comes to find us, right? She doesn’t know what level we’re on,” O/N said.

Just then a small message icon popped up in the peripherals of your vision and you looked at it.

“Uh… Migata?” you asked, “what’s this?”

He leaned across and had a look.

“Oh! That’s a message, right? Click on it. It opens a chat with the person.”

You pressed the little icon with your finger and a chat opened up.

“Hi!” the message read, followed by another one, “this is Free!”

“Migata?!” you said with apprehensive horror, “I think she’s found a way to talk to us.”

Migata leaned over and read the messages and grimaced, “just tell her that we’re not leaving for a few weeks yet,” he said.

“Hi Free,” you replied, your response automatically allowing unlimited conversation between the two of you, “we are still in the planning phase and won’t be leaving for the mission in another few weeks.”

“Oh! Thank you for replying!” Free sent back with a smile emoji, “let me know when you are going. I’ll be waiting!” She added a waving hand emoji on the end and then left the conversation.

“Oh. She’s gone now. That wasn’t too bad?” you mumbled, looking at Migata.

“We really don’t have to be going over much,” O/N said, “so if it’s ok, we’ll leave it till closer to the ‘do’ date. I have to be back in the real world for some…things… right now.”

“Me to,” butterfli3 added.

“Do you have a date?” Migata teased.

“No!” They both said quickly, making you and Migata chuckle.

“Ok, well have fun on your not date and actually, I have something I want to work on too,” you said with a smile.

“Well. If we all have other things to be doing then we’ll all catch up later, yes?” Migata said, looking at each person in turn with his bright smile.

Everyone nodded then logged out. Leaving Migata and yourself alone.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Migata asked you, “would you like to meet up for a drink?”

“That would be nice,” you said with a genuine smile, “I look forward to it.”

You and Migata logged out then said your goodbyes in the real world and wished Hansu a good night as well- the three of you parting ways.

“Now to do some upgrading of my own,” you thought, heading home to do a little bit of research on how to level up quickly in your chosen class.

……………………………………..

It was close to 3am when you had done all the research you could, and you were itching to try out some of your moves- so onto the late bus you hopped, heading for your work building.

Thankfully, you still had a key and you let yourself in the back door and made your way up the darkened levels to your lab, keen to dive solo.

“I’ll head to level 1 frst, then practice there a bit before moving on. I need to be more helpful when we’re on the next mission. During the first one I did absolutely nothing helpful at all!”

Climbing up onto the examination table- still in the dark, you put your own headset on and called out the connecting phrase.

“Link start!” you hollered into the empty room, your body being sucked into the game the minute the words left your lips.

You blinked, back in Butterfli3’s house where you had been only hours before- but this time you were well and truly alone.

“Feels kinda eerie to be in the game by myself. I’ve never dived solo before…”

Slowly you stood up then walked to the door. It was daylight outside and it looked like the morning had only just begun in game.

“Time to level up!”

With a smile, you stepped out of the house and closed the door behind you then set off on the trail to the teleport pad.

It didn’t take long to get to the blue glowing ring and you stepped up onto the platform then called for level 1, your body dissolving quickly and re- materializing on level 1 in the centre of Dawn city.

“Now. to head out of the gates and find something to battle,” you thought, making your way through the cobblestone streets.

There weren’t a lot of people around but you must have been recognized by some as they gave you shy smiles and a wave as you made your way past them.

“I think they suspect I am strong because of the others on the team,” you thought as you made your way out of the gates and headed out into the field,”so being challenged by another player shouldn’t be an issue.”

Once away from everything you opened your menu and hada look at the skill list that was there.

The heading read.

“Wait, so I only have one skill at the moment?”

You clicked on the skill and a voice in your headset spoke to you.

“To utilize this skill, you are free to verbally call for it, or, to change its name- please go to settings and adjust it there…”

“Not a bad idea actually, changing the name so that the opponents don’t know what skill I am going to use.”

You clicked on settings and followed the prompts to change the skill name from ‘Dance’ to ‘Move’ – a simple term that wouldn’t be a give away when you called for your skill to activate.

“Now to see what it does,” you thought, standing straight and calling ‘Move’ loudly.

Suddenly two blue, shining whips appeared, one in each hand, and you looked down at them in surprise.

Before you had a chance to comprehend what you were to do with these items, your body rotated lightly on it’s own and you flicked the

whips out as you spun then drew them up and straight down, causing a loud whip crack to emit into the empty field before the skill finished and the whips disappeared.

“Oh! Ok, well that was kind of cool? I need to practice it.”

You wandered along a little, looking for something to practice on and found a few small sapling trees to try and hit.

“So I just need to make sure I’m within striking range and rotate towards the target when the skill is activated,” you thought.

You stood side on to the small tree and called out loudly.

“Move!”

The whips materialized and you focused on the tree as your body rotated, noticing a faint red line that seemed to be lining you up with your target.

“Step, turn… arms up, then, GOT IT!”

The sound of the whip crack echoed around again and you looked to where the tree had been standing straight, elated that it was bowed over and a small slither had been whipped from it.

<<< Take Down Chapter 46: Planning Ahead

Take Down Chapter 48: Getting Better At It >>>