The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Two years ago.

Flor waited on the sidewalk with a suitcase for Alastair to arrive. He was usually already there to pick he up when she arrived. Maybe he’s run into traffic on the way, she thought. Honestly, she was surprised that he had lasted a year here. She bundled herself up in her coat against the chill in the air. Flurries were already coming down and it was only still October, which was probably nice because climate change hadn’t completely destroyed the earth yet.

Flor heard tires squeal before she saw Alastair’s short-term hire car. Since both she and he had been earning an acceptable amount of money with their respective jobs, he always rented a car for the duration she was in town. He said he had done the calculations and it was more economical than straight-up buying a vehicle. Even though they were both accustomed to riding the bus, he and she liked the privacy and freedom to go when and where they chose.

The Peugeot pulled up to her and he rushed out. He looked a bit harried as if he had just woken from a nap. He hugged her, kissed her, and there was the light in his eyes that she adored! He threw her suitcase in the boot, and then they buckled and drove.

“Do you want food? We can stop, or make something at home?”

“No, it’s alright. I ate at the airport before the flight,” she said.

“So, directly home, then? These flurries are supposed to pick up a bit tonight, but shouldn’t impede traffic or anything.”

“Yeah, it might be nice to walk around the park before it gets dark. Are you up for that?”

Alastair said, “Well…I have a work obligation tonight. So, if we do, I may need to cut the walk short. Is…are you okay with that?”

Flor considered. It had taken her a little while to get through her hangups that playing video games could be regarded as work, especially since her job involved such tedious travel. But, sure enough, Alastair pulled in an amount of money that would be considered adequate. Arguably, between two jobs and the US’s UBI, they saved a reasonable amount each month. Probably not enough to buy a home, in the USA at least, but raising a child wouldn’t be as challenging. Her work was still the major hangup to that. Although the European model provided for new mothers really well, she still worked for a company licensed in the United States. They fought hand and foot against giving their employees anything more than minimally necessary.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Do you expect it will be long?”

“Probably a couple of hours. The clan is taking on a new instance dungeon.”

“I’m proud that you got over your hangups on working with a group. It’s refreshing character growth for you.”

“Well…thanks. The game made it easy to find a reasonable clan, and it has boosted my revenue by being able to take on more challenging locations. It was hard to maximize resources when soloing since everything took a cut of my profits. Although, I still think we could make a great team if you wanted to play. We could profit together.”

“I’m happy that you’re happy. And I appreciate that you’ve done so well for yourself, even if I don’t fully understand how you earn an income in this game. No, please don’t try to describe it again,” she cut him off before he started. “I’ve had a full day already. I’ve got so much going on in my head that I can’t give your game more than cursory acknowledgment.”

“Yeah, I know. Sometimes I feel as if I’m getting addicted. I’m constantly in a VR helmet with haptics but with the weightlessness and gravity as we accelerate and the brilliance of the emptiness of space, it’s…I find it beautiful, in a haunting sort of way, and it fills me with hope and pain simultaneously. I want you to experience that, too.”

“You almost sold it, Alastair. But I’m not there yet.”

“We’re here regardless,” he said, pulling into the spot assigned to their apartment. “These flurries are already picking up, and it’ll get dark soon. You start on the walk and I’ll catch up after I put your bag in the apartment.”

“Just leave it in the car. We’ll get it on the way back.”

Alastair was thoroughly asleep. After his clan’s raid, and dinner with some wine, she had accepted Alastair’s seductive advances.

She snuck out of the bedroom and into the study. Her computer and desk sat next to his. She turned it on. After three weeks, she was informed of a vital update, so she clicked yes to let the machine do its thing. To fill a moment, she sat at Alastair’s desk. He had left the space simulator logged in and his character looked pleasantly relaxed.

Glancing at her computer, she realized she had maybe another fifteen minutes of downloads and updates and reboots. So, her curiosity overtook her and she typed in a few commands to pull up Alastair Nova’s character.

Huh! Well, I didn’t expect him to focus on puncture puzzles. They’re so much less effective than the threaded. Maybe the new instance dungeons require punctures or something. She made a mental note to look it up on Holst’s Reddit forum and Discord. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.

She next glanced at his inventory. There were the standard items for a space miner, but also a few unique items, including a Level 3 (+2) pneumatic hammer with a beneficial modifier to energy use. Maybe he got that as part of a quest. I’ll look that up, also.

She looked back to her computer and realized it was just about done updating, so she minimized Alastair’s windows and moved over. She let the last bit of refresh update and then automatically restarted her computer again. Because who doesn’t automatically restart after an update?

Her computer loaded quickly. She clicked around on a few things. Then, she clicked on an icon she had changed to prevent snooping. Holst’s Solar Explorer started to load up. While it loaded, she logged into Reddit to see what the new instance was about and if someone posted about that pneumatic hammer.

The Reddit discussion went into some depth on the origins of the tardigrades that had grown to an unusual size and infested a string of rocks. It was a mission to isolate and prevent further expansion because these tardigrades feasted on an imaginary rare element, that drove the value to spike. She looked up the hammering ability and realized there was a wormhole of back threads that she probably couldn’t get through easily. So she looked over and saw her character had loaded.

Flor didn’t play much, usually just when she knew Alastair was asleep, or when she traveled for work and didn’t have paperwork to focus on. But, she was close to level 2 in piloting, and once she reached that, she would surprise Alastair with a ship and a captain capable of piloting it. She figured it would be a Christmas present he desired more than he would ever let on.