NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter Fifty: Aliens
Connections between different mesh places are usually made with transport points. These are usually trains, metro boats or plains. These can take you anywhere in the mesh, real or fictional. People believe that these systems were created so that Meshizen had something to look at when they switched servers or to make it feel more real and not break immersion.
This, however, is false. The average Meshizen travels a lot, so the companies have not only found a way to monetise this travel but also to force you into a waiting room where you are forced to watch the ads for 5 min.
— How the mesh is paid for, part of a documentary made by the Purple Truth
After getting some more gear and a random assortment of clothes, we pack into the car and head off to Zurich. And we are instantly stuck in traffic, great, like this it is going to be next month before we get there. Eva puts on some old pop music while John is driving, and both of them talk about different weapon types or something. Meanwhile, I am stuck in the back seat with Mio, who is playing some kind of game on her tablet, I think. There are a lot of conveyor belts bringing stuff everywhere. I sigh and lean back into my chair.
“Something wrong?” Mio asks, “This game is multiplayer, so we can play together if you are bored.”
“Thanks, it's complicated. There is so much stuff I have to get done at home, and now I am leaving the city. It just does not feel right to me.” I complain up at the car’s roof.
“What do you have to worry about? Don’t you have the perfect life?” Mio asks, curiosity in her voice.
“What makes you think I have the perfect life?” I ask, confused; my life has been getting better recently, but it is far from perfect.
“Well, you are dating the CEO’s daughter. Life must be rather comfortable in the lap of luxury.”
“Uh, well, you see, we kind of broke up.” I say in an awkward tone.
Suddenly the entire car goes silent, the conversation John and Eva were having all but forgotten.
“I am sorry to hear that.” Mio says. “Wait, did you not come to the conference yesterday with a bunch of hickeys?”
“Yeah, I did. Sorry about that. I would have worn something better if I had noticed.” I say, feeling my face go hot with embarrassment
“So that was not because of Cierra?” Mio asks tentatively.
“No, I have a girlfriend now,” I say with a bit of blush.
“Yes, you got me.” Mio says while sticking out her tongue at me.
“If you are going to give me marks like that, we are going to have trouble.” I say, trying my best to hide my smile.
“That is fair. Anyway, I have been meaning to ask how you got into the black cube. Are there any tips you can give?”
“Get into what?” I ask, confused.
“I thought you said that you were a black cube hacker?”
“Uhm, I have to admit I do not even know what that is.”
“Well, it is this like building in the mesh that has all of the best hackers in it, but to join it, you have to hack into the cube itself.” She says excitedly.
“That actually sounds kind of fun; you have the mesh coordinates for it?” I say, while checking our navigation software.
“You want to go try to get in now?”
“Why not? The car is barely moving, so we have some time. Why don’t you join me? It can be a good teamwork exercise for when we need to hack something together. At least now we don’t have any real stakes.”
She just looks at me like I am crazy, and then she slowly nods. “I guess that makes sense. Here.” A ping comes through on my augs with a friend request from Crazykitty32.
“Crazykitty?” I say, eyebrow raised.
“I was eleven when I got the name, okay? Don’t judge me.” she says, going red in the face, “just accept it so we can meet up in the mesh.”
“Yeah, no problem. See you on the inside,” I say as I activate my inbuilt mesh dive gear.
I deep dive into the mesh, landing on one of the random gathering hubs of the city; there is some kind of green statue beside me, with a man holding a scroll or book open. I sent Mio a quick message about my location. Before I go, stand in front of the statue to wait. An anthropomorphic tabby orange cat approaches me.
“Well, you are easy to spot. What? Did you not want to make yourself look different?” The cat asks, Mio’s voice coming from it.
“You’re a cat?” I say, a bit confused.
Mio shrugs her furry shoulders. “I am already a human in real life; being human in the virtual world as well seems a bit boring.”
“That is a fair point, but why are you not wearing clothes?”
“Because cats don’t wear them.” the Mio-cat says with a shrug. “Also, this model has no parts that would get me age-restricted, so don’t worry.”
“I see. Well, if it works for you, then that is fine, I guess.”
“So, what kind of avatar are you picking for yourself?” Mio asks, bouncing on her feet excitedly.
“Do I have to?” I ask with a groan.
“Yes, we are on a mission. Having an avatar is like a mask, so it is important.”
I can’t argue with that, really. I open up my file with models and looked through them. “I only have the samurai avatars that I made for Cierra.”
“I mean, unless you want to buy a new one, select one of those and be done with it.”
I shrug and select Schmetterlingskreuzritter, a Berlin-based samurai. A suit of colourful armour appears around me as my hair becomes shorter and blue. I do a little stretch, but this being mesh space, unless someone fucked up, the Avatar will work just fine without any discomfort from transforming your body.
Mio raise an eyebrow “The one that shoots poisoned bullets?”
“Yeah, why not?” I ask. While dusting off the armour, I heard the bells chime on it.
“I mean, I thought you picked someone more popular, like Sparkling Magenta Explosion or something.”
“Uuh, somehow, I feel like that is not a good idea.”
“Why not? She is really popular compared to the other samurai streamers.”
“That is fair, but I like Little Butterfly better.”
“Really, you don’t seem like the armour punk type.”
I shrug. “I like shiny big things.”
“What are you a magpie or something?”
“No, I am pretty sure that is a different samurai,” I say, wondering if I can now get their phone number.
“Whatever, let's head to a transit point.” she says as she starts walking to the nearest train station.
I follow behind her, the bells of my armoured boots ringing as I walk. We head in, and I politely tell the ticket counter to subtract the money for the ticket from the Global Entertainment Risk Advisory bank account. I mean, I still have all the details, and the account has not been closed yet, so I am going to make it someone elses problem.
We get into our designated train cart and head off to wherever this black cube is located. I run a quick program, and the train speeds up and gets there in an instant. Mio looks up at me, confused, flicking her cat ears in agitation.
“How did you do that?” Mio asks as she gets up from her seat.
“Do what?” I ask, as we walk out of the train.
“Like, make the train go faster like that.” she says, her arms flailing around wildly.
“I ran an ad blocker. You do realise, those things are just fancy ads that you have on any streaming platform.”
“Wait, really, so my ad blocker should work for this as well?”
“Probably not; I got a fancy one from Cierra that blocks out in-game ads.”
“Yeah, those are a fucking pain. Why do we need ads in our medieval fantasy games? It really takes me out of it.” Mio complains.
“So they can sell you a premium subscription that gets rid of all the ads.”
“Ugh, maybe Manaic is right. Fuck all the corporations!” Mio says as she walks up the stairs out of the station.
I just stop at that. I am not completely sure I never said that, but I am at least 99% sure I never said anything like that. First, the fan club, now this. I should probably ask Magenta at some point to do some damage mitigation. Protests never really go well for the people protesting.
I walk out of the station and take a good look around, taking in the underground military complex that has opened up all around me, tanks going as far as the eye can see in little rows. Barracks and other military buildings scattered throughout. A huge elevator big enough to carry two tanks up and down is moving on the far wall.
“Mio, where the fuck are we?” I ask.
“I told you, that it is Yui!” the cat says angrily, “And we are in the area 51 node. After the whole USA government collapsed, it turned into a weapon and conspiracy theory museum.”
“Conspiracy theory museum?”
“Yeah, like flat earth and Atlantis and such.”
“Seems like a bit of a weird combination, but okay.” I say while looking around. “So where is this black cube thing?”
“It's a floor up in the pyramided powerplant exhibit,” Mio, wait, Yui says.
“The pyramids were powerplants?” I ask, confused.
“Are you dumb? Of course not! Everything in here is just some fake made-up theory.”
“Ah, my mistake.” I say, a bit embarrassed. “So, shall we go there then?”
“Sure, let’s go. Do you have any plans for how to get in?”
“I assume knocking is not an option? So, not really, but seeing the door we have to open probably makes the process quicker than just guessing at what we need to do.”
“Right. Have you done stuff like this before?”
“Hacking into stuff? Yeah, kind of, but in the mesh, everything works a bit differently. But it should be doable.”
“You make it sound so easy. This is not a corporate competitor but the black cube, the place where hackers and programmers gather. Won’t they have defenses upon defenses?”
“Honestly, I'm not sure, but if the only way in is by hacking in, then there must be some kind of vulnerability somewhere; otherwise, no one would get in,” I say, looking at the nervous cat. “And weren’t you the person that wanted to get in here?”
“Yeah, but now that we actually are doing it, I am scared. What would happen if we fuck up?”
I shrug. “Not much, as far as I am aware. Neither one of us has implants that carry a voltage high enough to kill us if they get compromised.”
“What a nice thought.” Yui says, giving me a weird look.
“What? You know that if it were possible, people would already have made programs to do just that, right?”
“You are scary sometimes, you know that?” she says with a toothy grin.
We get on one of the elevator platforms and head up. The next floor is a hot desert with a collection of pyramids, with sleek black walls and electricity sparking off them; some weird contraptions are set up shooting lasers.
In between all of this chaos stands a large black cube. People are not going anywhere near it, avoiding it at all costs, it seems. Well, I guess we go there then. I slowly approach, but once I get to about 20 meters away from it, it buzzes alive and starts shooting at me. I jump back, dodging the lasers as I take several paces back.
“The fuck?”