Invitation from Big Boi

I feel a vibration from my watch, *zzzzt* *zzzt*. A text message notification shows up, then a chibi emote with a smiley face comes right after in the next text. I decide to call them back.

“Yo”.

“Crimzon?! Why did you call me you could’ve just texted me back…”

“It’s easier this way. You were going to just keep texting me if I was going online later today anyway right, Silent Flash?” I begin to place an ear bud linked to my cell phone and place the newly bought expansion into my sling.

“You realize that you’re calling internationally! I don’t want to intrude on your time.”

“You’re not intruding. By the way, how did your doctor’s appointment go? Did they find anything that can explain you getting sick? Seems like you’ve been getting sick more frequently…”

“They…they need to do more tests. Hopefully they can determine what made me sick. For now, I’m okay. Thank you for asking Crimzon. Platinum messaged the clan if we could meet in game once everyone has the expansion downloaded. It seems like something important she wanted to discuss.”

Silent Flash sounded soft spoken talking about the tests. I guess I shouldn’t push it much further. She sounds better talking about the game more and Platinum, our clan leader wants to meet in game with everyone. Is she wanting to attempt the new raid and beat it before everyone else?

“Is Platinum thinking of going for the raid boss tonight?

“I don’t think so. I think she received a message from your former clan leader, Big Boi. I thought she would’ve contacted you directly, but this sounded concerning.”

“Interesting…Big Boi huh? Okay, let Platinum know I’m on my way to download the expansion. I should be 20 mins or so. Did she gather everyone else?”

“No. She asked me to message you since I had your contact number. I’m not sure if she’s notifying the rest of the clan.”

“Okay. I’ll see you guys online soon. Oh, and Silent Flash…I won’t ask about the testing or doctors, I leave it up to you if you want to tell me. I didn’t mean to pry too much if I did, my apologies 'Flash. But I am here if you need anything, I know I’m in another country…but still, we’re in the same clan.”

I can hear Ran sniffling softly and holding in her emotions. I hope nothing serious happened, she is usually more upbeat and the most positive of our clan members. It takes a moment before she can speak.

“Arigato, Crimzon-san…You’re always looking after us even when we are thousands of miles apart. We can always count on you.”

“'Flash…please take care of yourself. I’ll see you guys soon.”

*beep* I hang up the phone and make my way home to download the expansion. Silent Flash thanked me in her native language, Japanese. She must’ve felt overwhelmed by her medical situation. I hope I did not overstep by asking her about it. 

 My thoughts shift to the name Big Boi; I used to run in his clan Shadie Hostile-808 a while back but didn’t like the overall conversations and gaming with them became less enjoyable. So, I left and started playing solo occasionally with Kyon and some of the other members that were more fun to play with in Freedom. Playing solo is where I began to run into other players like Silent Flash, Platinum and the other clan members. Before we knew it, we started playing together and decided to create our own clan…Sanctum of Nine, abbreviated into S09.

I reach home and enter the code for the expansion Leviathan and login. My account settings pop up with my account name for my online gaming. The account name Jack Noone comes up and lists a bunch of settings I must go through. As I go through the updated settings I think about the names I use for gaming. I always used a pseudonym for my accounts; Jack Noone is a play on ‘Jack of Trades’ and Noone is basically No One together. The name Jimmy Reese was another pseudonym I used, two first names and it went together. It became one of my go-to names when I saw a film and the main character was an ex-military investigator who traveled around the world like a nomad helping people.

My character name in Freedom, however, was named Crimzon with a Z instead of an S. At one point I was a ‘cutter’ in when I was going through depression and when I saw my own blood, the color of red was so rich and deep. I liked the color that my blood had that I began to research which shade of red came closest to it. Then, I found the one that matched closest to the color of blood is crimson. When I started online gaming, I just began to name my characters Crimson, but then I wanted to do something different, so I replaced letter S with the letter Z. Crimzon, then became the name of many characters I used for gaming. Playing Freedom would be no different.

I finally save all the new settings and one last prompt pops up, “Do you want to change the name of your character?” Interesting. In Freedom the one thing that you don’t have freedom for is once you name your character, you cannot change it. The only way to have a new name is to create and start with a new character. I click on “No” and complete the settings and the game initiates.

Once I’m logged in, I see a display come in from the side, “Invite to join party from Platinum. Do you accept?” I click on “Yes” and enter the party. My character is being transported to Platinum’s location, and I enter the chat room.

“Oh! Crimzon is joining! It’s been a while. How are you doing?” says Trigger. Trigger is always outgoing when she’s with the clan. A great player and when things get tense her gameplay rises to an insane level.

“Yo, Trigger”

“Crimzon, I need to run with you some missions. I need you to help me build another weapon for me! I’m getting bored.”

“Open your inventory. I’ll give you this one that I just finished.” I click on my inventory and transfer ownership of the weapon called ‘Hellfire’ to Trigger. Trigger smiles as I watch her accept the transfer and quickly opens the weapon description.

“WHAT!?! You BUILT this?!” Trigger begins to go through the weapons attributes and perks. As she goes down the list, she catches the unique attribute to the weapon and looks at me with wide eyes. She keeps looking at the screen and back to me in disbelief.

“Crimzon, you really built this?”

“Yes, I did.”

“A..An…And I can have this one?!” Trigger hesitates with excitement. “Really!?”

“Yes Trigger, you can have this. It was built for the way you play.”

Trigger’s face begins to gleam and runs at me, grabbing me into a bear hug. Trigger is overjoyed, “Thank you Crimzon! I can’t wait to try this one out.”

Overhearing the commotion another member of our clan makes their way to see what all the fuss is about. She walks calmly putting away the weapons she was inspecting back into her inventory. As she walks you can tell from afar it is Eagle-Eye, as her character has Heterochromia Iridium. The eyes are different colors not by choice as Eagle-Eye explained that her character build had both eyes the same color. Rather that the right eye changed color on its own when she obtained her unique skill, ‘Unwavering Sight’, a skill she obtained by the numerous headshots she has done using any long-range weapon she uses. Her weapon of choice is a rifle that we created called No Name Saved.

“Yaho, Crimzon.”

“Ah! Eagle-Eye, take a look at this beauty. Go on and look, incredible isn’t it!?”

Eagle-Eye opens her inventory log and pulls up No Name Saved and Trigger’s newly acquired Hellfire stats and attributes. Eagle-Eye reads through them with focus as she crosses her arms and places her left hand under her chin. Silent but you can tell Eagle-Eye is impressed as her eyes widened. Eagle-Eye looks up and smiles.

“Oh, Crimzon…You made her weapon better than mine?! Not only is it a minigun with two barrels, but you gave it this unique attribute too.”

“No, I did not! In fact, it’s very similar to complimenting your roles in gameplay. Now Trigger can cover you more with a wide range when needed.”

“True, but this…how did you pull this unique attribute, Rage 1? Or did you create this on unique attribute?”

“Remember that area we found with the endless spawn point of mid-level titans? I went there to level up some weapons and I encountered one titan that had a condition above it called Rage. I had to use two of my special abilities to defeat it and when I did, the Rage Core dropped in the loot. Then I checked it and equipped it to one of my weapons and grinded more till I maxed it out. Turns out the Rage Core can be built into a weapon to have the unique attribute Rage and stacks upon use.”

“Interesting. No one else has discovered this Rage Core?”

“Nope. Apparently once I killed that titan the spawn point disappeared and did not exist. Guess it was a spawn point to obtain the core.”

“Wait, we killed countless of those mid-level titans before to level up. How much did you kill there?!”

I hesitate to answer as I believe I’ll be judged by the amount of mid-level titans I killed to level up. But if I don’t, she’ll continue to pry, “Maybe around a hundred thousand?”

Eagle-Eye looks at Trigger who is still overwhelmed with joy, until she hears the amount of mid-level titans I killed. Then Trigger looks at Eagle-Eye and they both look at me in unison and say,

“How long were you there to kill a hundred thousand of those mid-level titans at that spawn point?!”

“About two hours.” I said nonchalantly.

Eagle-Eye compares the stats again and is amazed at the Hellfire build. She looks over it three more times and looks at me and says, “So basically her weapon is like an equal to mine. As I shoot from afar, Trigger can lay down suppression fire that also trigger her unique skills and perks. Impressive.”

“Crimzon, does the unique attribute Rage 1 grow or level up?” asks Trigger.

“The unique attribute to Rage 1 is the more damage you deal, it doesn’t matter if you hit a player in PVP or enemies in game, Rage 1 will escalate until it reaches Rage 3. At Rage 3, Hellfire’s magazine size will go infinite for 1 minute until it cools down to Rage 1 and repeat the process.”

Trigger in amazement pulls Hellfire form her inventory and begins to handle it, “Incredible. One minute of infinite ammo for a minigun will be insane in PVP! It is lighter than most miniguns in game.”

“I was able to use certain materials that wouldn’t add weight and allowed you to move more freely. This is probably the lightest minigun in the game, and one more thing. When you reach Rage 2 as it escalates, you have the option to change the ammo to explosive rounds to deal more damage going into Rage 3.”

“Just like my rifle No Name Saved with its unique attribute Divine Strike 1. When it escalates to Divine Strike 2, I have a window of a minute to call in an airstrike to a selected area. I can also select the Divine Strike loadout as I continue to level it up. You really think ahead Crimzon, well done.” Eagle-eye is very analytical and to see her appreciate the two builds brings me joy when I see her silently smile.

As I leave Trigger and Eagle-Eye to their conversation, I begin to make my way to the hanger area of our base where Platinum and Silent Flash are waiting. On my way, there are other members of our clan in the other areas. Demo and Chaotic are in the armory going over new builds for their weapon loadouts and in the laboratory, there is Tomoe and Carbon researching through materials. Finally, I walk into the hanger where our airships the “Ten Kara” and “Chapter 140” sit in the backdrop as Platinum and 'Flash simultaneously turn to greet me.

“If you’ll excuse us 'Flash, I’ll speak with Crimzon first and then you can gather everyone here, okay?”

“Ok. Hi Crimzon! I’ll see you in a bit.” Silent Flash smiles and heads out to meet with the others. I feel relieved, 'Flash seemed more like herself just now.

“Hello, Platinum. 'Flash said you received a message from Big Boi?”

Platinum pulls up a screen and sends the message to me. She keeps the window up displayed and smiles as she begins to speak, “It seems Big Boi wants us to participate in the upcoming raid to fight the Leviathan, this expansion pack’s unique raid boss. What is your take on this? We’ve never collaborated with them in this game; can you think of any reason why he would ask us?”

“Was there any other reason mentioned other than the raid? Any other conditions or wagers stated up front?” I asked.

“No. I didn’t see any. I’m concerned this is a vendetta against you and that because he saw you as cofounder of this clan, he wants to get back at you for leaving Shadie Hostile-808. That seems petty but the only thing I can see why he would reach out to us. What do you think?”

“In the real world we work together. But I only work there part-time as I am working a full-time job elsewhere. I agree with you that this seems very unusual and wouldn’t doubt that it is a vendetta against me.”

“Did something happen between the two of you?” Platinum begins to look concerned and begins to approach me, “Crimzon, do you want to go through with this?”

I sigh and take a deep breath. I know Platinum is nervous about the situation and here in the clan we only know each other by our character names. We contact each other via the Freedom gaming app and at times called to discuss the games components. Our real lives never came into our gaming; we just left it separated as we all have things we’re going through. We all range from different ages, from teenagers to me being the oldest member.

If I know Big Boi though, he definitely wants something that he is not telling us. Kyon and Aoi were also part of his clan. The only thing I can think of is that they might’ve left, but why would they? Kyon has known and played with Big Boi for years. Aoi is new to gaming and began playing to build her character. Before I left the clan she would run with me and Kyon missions to level up. Maybe I’ll check with Kyon before we proceed.

Platinum waits patiently with her smile slowly fading. I look up at her and smile which brings confusion to her expression, “I think we should have a meeting to discuss our situation together. The nine of us were all solo players that came together and then we created Sanctum of Nine as a safe place for us to game. I think we should start with that and decide together how we will answer Big Boi.”

Platinum’s smile is ear to ear as the anxiety melts off her. It’s as though a heavy burden has been removed from her. She stands more composed and renewed by what was said. She prompts open a window from her display and hits a button, “I’m relieved you said that, this wasn’t a decision I wanted to make without speaking to you. You are the one who found us, even though I was appointed leader I didn’t feel right making the decision.”

As soon as Platinum said that all nine members of Sanctum of Nine were standing in the hanger area. Two airships we built, the “Ten Kara” and the “Chapter 140” are the first accomplishments of our clan and with it we found a secluded area in a cave deep enough that led underground to where we built our base called Haven. All nine members only met through missions and PVP battles online, only knowing each other by our character names. The next question was what do we do about Big Boi’s invitation to fight the new raid boss Leviathan?