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life and talk about my proposal like grown adults. They even offered to buy me dinner! Well, no wonder—for a hundred thousand dollars, I’d buy myself dinner too. Having received the information I needed from the Black Lightning, I ordered Stan to delete my vidphone number and mail account. Maybe I was being too careful, but it was better than getting bitten a second time.
    When I finally delved into the beard’s leveling guide, I couldn’t help but crack a smile over having quit the game right away, before entering the allocation center. For, precisely in this lay the pivotal move that would give me a special reputation among the Training Sector’s instructors—and not a very good reputation at that.
    “What’s the holdup?” yelled the local motivational speaker and kicked the air where my body had just been. Except of course I was already gone…The scenario hinged on being able to control your body and wanting to beat the bully, earning thereby a trip to jail even before you got into allocation. Fighting earned the player a bad reputation, allowing him to access an underground tournament that was held every few weeks. The specifics of the tournament (there were actually three tournaments altogether) varied each time. One would involve dueling, another item gathering and the third mining. Even if the player lost, he would still get pretty good money for someone just starting out. In my situation, this was a blessing from on high. According to the game manual, the only way to get money in the training sector was by investing real money.
    Well…If I have to brawl a little, why not? Brawling can be fun…
    “Feisty one, eh?” the bozo exclaimed and, scurrying faster than I expected, went for me with his giant arms akimbo. The ship behind me prevented any retreat and a jump to the side would land me in the embrace of the onrushing rhino. So I decided to do the one thing that the NPC’s barebones AI would not anticipate—stepping back, I kicked off the ship’s fuselage and launched myself into the bozo. Let’s see who gets whom…
    What’s there to say about Galactogon ’s physics engine? It’s almost perfect. What happens when a six-foot monster with a full head of steam meets an ordinary body? Jumping forward, I assumed that I’d at least stop him in his tracks. However, he didn’t even seem to realize that I was trying to hit him and simply tossed me a dozen or so feet aside—right onto the pavement.
    “What’s this?” came the smug laugh. “Tough as a rock, but light as a feather, eh?”
    The ground shook as the giant bozo vaulted from the gangway down to me. Strange, I wondered, where are the security guards? According to the guide, they should have already appeared to break us up and arrested me for fighting.
    “Who dares mock Drill?”
    Well, well, it turned out that this Frankenstein’s monster had a name! Though, I couldn’t figure out exactly when I had managed to mock him, but we could put that down to an oversight in the AI’s scripting.
    “Enjoy your stay in the medbay!” rhymed Drill, impressively managing to sound a little sinister. Raising his foot, he stomped it on the very place where my head had just been. Had he struck it, I would’ve lost a critical amount of health—maybe even been forced into resurrection. So I did something that the beard’s guide never mentioned—I responded.
    Rolling out of the way of the bozo’s boot (stuffed to its seams with his trunk of a leg), I aimed a sweep at his supporting leg. It felt like I had kicked a pole buried deep in the ground. My health fell again. I whimpered something about how I couldn’t care less about someone as insignificant as him—but my counterstrike had had its intended effect. Bellowing savagely the bozo began to keel over.
    Ignoring the pain in my leg, I continued my roll, springing to my feet through inertia and then jumping—my intention being to land on Drill. Pointing my elbow in front of me and aiming it at his