Chapter 31: The Military

Jaxir thought he had grown used to boredom. Laying in the same bed everyday, staring at the same ceiling, sometimes binging the same videos from the same creators.

Entertainment was something he had given up on experiencing as anything more than a passing itch.

But these last four days, he thought if his heart didn’t take him out, then the boredom definitely would.

The highlight of his day was when Lue swung by. One would have thought they hadn’t spent any time apart at all.

Unfortunately, unlike Jaxir, Lue had responsibilities. He had work, he had his grandfather to check in on, so he couldn’t stay with Jaxir all day.

During that time, Jaxir could only choose between lying half-dead in his hospital bed and walking around.

He might have chosen to just rot in the past, but this time he took up his little mobile monitoring station and wheeled it around the hospital with him.

Slowly, his strides were growing more confident, and though he looked more zombie than man whenever he passed by a mirror, a familiar smile was slowly returning.

**

"WOO!" Lue shouted out as they zipped down the highway.

He had fit wheels that felt almost 50% too big onto an off-roading jeep, but he drove it like it was a sports car, weaving between the lanes and zipping between cars.

Jaxir held onto one of the handle bars for dear life.

At this point in the future, all cars were electric, but there was a split between flying vehicles and road vehicles, a half and half splitting paved roadways.

Some people still liked the feeling of the road beneath them. Plus, the restrictions on flying vehicles were a lot heavier, not to mention the fact getting a license was much harder.

Usually, those in flying vehicles all had chauffeurs from elite academies.

Lue was in the military so he definitely had a flying license, but he clearly liked the feeling of the road more.

"We’re definitely going to get stopped." Jaxir spoke with blasts of wind threatening to make him swallow his tongue.

"Oh please, they can try if they want!" Lue laughed.

Jaxir laughed too and shook his head. No police officer was going to give a man in military garb a hard time, even if he was putting citizens at risk apparently.

That said, Lue didn’t even have a single close call as they whipped into a neighborhood with homes that stood on hills. Each one practically looked like a castle of their own making.

Still, it felt like they lacked a bit of character. Each one had the same tanned to bleached walls, the same false towers, the same grand pillars.

It was a textbook cookie cutter development.

It was the sort of place people who had come into wealth lived in after they first sold off their companies for a big profit. The neighborhood was top 1%, but anyone who knew what they were looking for knew the top 0.1% lived completely differently.

Lue pulled up to Jaxir’s home and compared to the pristine lawns and perfect upkeep of the others, his own was a mess.

The grass was overgrown and filled with weeds, HOA fines were piling up and jetting out of the mailbox, and vines looked like they were growing up one side of the house.

One would have thought it was abandoned.

The funny part was that Jaxir just kept paying the fines so the HOA couldn’t even put a lien on him with how they wrote their own bylaws.

"Thanks for the ride, buddy. But you know I could have just taken a taxi."

"Fuck that. I’m coming inside."

Jaxir laughed. "You don’t have work today? I don’t really have anything to entertain you with."

"We live in the age of the Kinext, good sir. Entertainment can be ordered on demand. I could have a party booming here in the next half hour. Your neighbors already hate you anyway."

"If you say so," Jaxir replied with a chuckle.

He hopped out of the car on his own and unlocked the door.

He took a deep breath. The outside air felt good.

"Show me the gaming set up." Lue asked with bright eyes.

"Sure." Jaxir nodded and led Lue to the basement.

"Holy shit." Lue’s eyes went wide. "You have a submersible. I knew you were rich, but not this rich."

"Submersible?" Jaxir asked, blinking. "The green sludge?"

Lue scoffed. "That green sludge goes for 10$ a milliliter. You have at least 30,000 liters here. You do the math."

Jaxir raised an eyebrow. He was wealthy, yes. But his uncle had left him with pennies compared to what he was owed from his parents’ fortune.

He definitely didn’t have 300 million dollars to spend on a gaming set up.

"After the second integration phase, there’s upward pressure on that quote, by the way. Some people are saying their coordination is off without it.

"Usually people buy just enough to make a thin bed to lie in, and those are the hard core people."

Jaxir looked at the sludge. "... You want some? It looked like a waste. I don’t think that much is necessary."

Lue burst into laughter. "No way, man. I can’t afford something like that. I can tell, the game is important to you. Maximize that.

"Plus, I have access to some military pods that are about as good as this. Not quite as good, but decent enough."

"The military plays divinity too?"

Lue grinned. "Governments are very involved in Divinity. Too much money is flowing through it. Plus, warfare these days is a lot closer to Divinity than not."

Jaxir’s gaze flickered. "Really... I have heard that Vestigem Cards are used in military applications, but I’ve never seen it."

"Yeah, it’s all super hush, hush. I can’t say too much. But hey, if you want to join the military, I can put in a good word for you. They recruit through the game too. I’m sure they’d be interested in you, would provide some buffer against the Golden Fleece Guild, too, so long as you didn’t do anything too crazy?"

Jaxir’s expression became weird. "Nothing too crazy? Why does it sound like you’re saying if I went too far the government would be too scared to help me?"

Lue stuck his tongue out, laughing a bit sheepishly.

"It took a bit for the governments to realize how important the games would be, so in a lot of places where democracy runs supreme, the governments are actually weaker than the guilds and players that got a head start.

"It’s starting to level out as we pour more money into it, especially with phase two, but the numbers advantage is the greatest worry.

"Any citizen can join a guild, but not everyone can join the military and make it through basic training."

"But that probably means your guys are stronger on average, though, right?"

"Sometimes. Depends on the guild you’re talking about. Plus, since it’s a video game, it’s not like you get put on trial for messing with the government―outside of whatever penalties there are in game. So we have to be more cautious.

"The more... dictatorial countries just outright execute people for things they do in-game all the time. But you know how it is. We have laws and morals and stuff."

Jaxir burst into laughter. "Or maybe we’re just more two-faced."

Lue grinned, but didn’t elaborate further.

"But you should think about it. Up to you."

Jaxir nodded. "I will think about it. For now I think I’ll just have some fun."

"Ah, ah, ah," Lue dragged Jaxir away before he could stare at the pod any longer. "Today, we party. Then tomorrow you can go back to kicking the Golden Fleece Guild’s ass.

"And once they inevitably overrun you and kill you back to level 0, then you can come running to your Papa Lue, we’ll get you sorted in the most pristine military garb you’ve ever seen!"

**

That next day, the very first thing Jaxir did was log on. He simply couldn’t wait.

What he saw before him left him stunned, though.