I grip my ax tightly. There's no telling where she is but I know she's nearby as I stalk down the street. I'm using a different avatar skin than I have previously. This one is bigger, more muscular. Augmented Stars doesn't have much by way of body shapes other than "slim" to "fit" to "body builder" unless the avatar is assigned female, then there are options for curves so long as those curves fit a narrow view of 'beautiful' that I suspect was programmed by a cis heterosexual man. The avatars are highly customizable yes, but if someone wanted to have more fat anywhere but their chest or butt they'd have to hope their default body would suffice. Even then, I'm not sure Augmented Stars would copy them to be honest. It's one of the things I found strange about the character creation options. They seem so tied to antiquated ideas of beauty. I did notice a variety of skin tones and hair types so at least there's that. Overall the character designing options could be much better than they are, much more inclusive. For instance, there's no real options for people with disabilities. I'm not even sure the default, which is supposed to copy you near exactly, would do so if someone had a disability. The lack of options for people in those regards really bothers me. Especially since I read a well known professional gamer, Crystal Perez, announced she would be playing Augmented Stars soon. Crystal is paraplegic. There are no wheelchair options in the game.
I have read online that besides the price of the EcFi Halo being a barrier and lack of things to do in the game, the fact that the game inclusive as it could be could be has caused people to pass on buying the system to play the game. That, and the EcFi Halo and Augmented Stars are only available in the continental United States. It's another weird thing that I chew on from time to time. Could the Everglade Corporation be having that much trouble getting the game and system approved in other countries? If it really does inject players with nanomachines I could see other countries governments giving the approval for sale a hard pass.
I let my guard down while I'm lost in thought which opens myself up to SparkleDog2020's attack. She slices my back with a katana. I manage to roll away and put my ax up to block her next attack. Thankfully the game doesn't transmit pain the same way a real sword wound would. I can tell I was hit, but it feels a lot more like I was hit by something soft, like a foam pool noodle. It's an impact and minor sting over the area. I watch as my health meter begins to fall.
"You're barely doing anything," Sparkle says as she lowers her sword to her side. "Come on, dude, fight back."
"This avatar is female," I say.
She raises an eyebrow. "Oh. Sorry. You really went all out with the muscles on that one."
"I thought I could use the strength bonus," I say as I ready my ax. "I think that hit would have killed my other avatars."
"That's what you get for being level one," she says.
Sparkle lunges at me. I try to dodge but she clips my side with her sword. My health meter falls again. I manage to swing my ax, backward smashing her in the face with the flat back portion of the ax head. She stumbles back.
"Ow," she says into her paw.
I don't give her a chance to regroup. I dash, as fast as I can, toward her, ax held high. This avatar is strong, but that strength comes with a speed demerit. By the time I reach her she's already got her sword up. I hit her in the arm but she's stabbed me through my gut. My health meter falls faster than before into the red.
"When you re-spawn it's your turn, okay?"
I'm unable to reply as everything fades to black. When I see light again it's in the character creation room. There doesn't seem to be anything preventing me from re-entering the game using the same avatar as before but I want to test out several. Assuming SparkleDog2020 is still lower on health I could potentially beat her with a less powerful avatar skin. I switch to a smaller avatar then log back into Augmented Stars. I had encountered Sparkle about a block from her house, which is a bit of a jog from my apartment but I know she's waiting for me to come back and finish the job so I hope she's still in the area. My hope is rewarded when I spot her standing, about where I left her. Her vivid blue anthro husky avatar is hard to miss, even if she is wearing camouflage clothing.
"Oh shi-" her words are cut off when I hit her with my ax square in the chest. She smiles as her avatar begins to fade into a million small stars. She looks like glitter as she tries to say, "Nice."
After a few seconds I'm left by myself, in the middle of the street, holding my ax in the air. I get a notification.
>General Level up: Level 2
Wow. One kill and I leveled up. I wonder if it factored in everything else I did. What level is SparkleDog2020? If she's higher than me that would probably contribute to Experience Points, or EXP, as well. Either way it looks like her plan may work. We can level up by taking one another out. I ready my ax and prepare for her to return. Maybe we can learn some decent fighting techniques to?
***
The plan works until it doesn't.
SparkleDog2020 and I repeatedly kill one another in Augmented Stars, leveling up pretty regularly while doing. That is until we find that the required EXP is more than we can generate fighting one another. I thought it would work longer than it has, at least more than one day, but instead we find ourselves both sitting at Level 6, slowly chipping away at the experience points required for the next level. We've played longer than I'm used to and I wonder if it's healthy to do so. It's a holiday weekend but I need to get up and move my real body, eat something, and get some real sleep. I'm sure Sparkle, I mean Danielle, needs a break too. Not to mention the health ramifications of nanobots running for more than an hour in someone's body, if the EcFi Halo uses those, that is.
"I think we should call it a night," I say shouldering my ax. "We can regroup and figure out something else later."
"We could grind again tomorrow," Sparkle says. "Sorry, that probably sounds creepy when there's no monsters."
"It did. We can try fighting again tomorrow or just practice fighting techniques or something. You're pretty good with that sword.," I say.
"Thanks. I bought it in the game store. I didn't know you could just take stuff from people's houses."
I look at my ax. "I gained the thief skill stealing this thing."
"And my tomatoes, I'm sure, Tomato Thief."
I can't help but smile. "Yup." I wave and turn to walk away.
"Wait, you're not going to log out here?" she asks.
I shake my head. "Nah. I like to go home to log out."
"Weird. Catch you later. Swing by my house in reality if you want, or I'll text you sometime."
"No problem."
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