The scent of damp boxes mixed with ancient batteries? You don't ever quite adjust. Clings to your shirt, your strands, also - bet it burrows into the tiny hairs inside your nostrils.
My name's Tom. I'm staying in Zone 4 - basically another term for The Dump
Picture a place full of flashy folks in sky-piercing glass buildings. Think about where they dump their junk. That's my neighborhood. I hunt through scraps. They call me a "Rat." Not fancy, sure - but it covers the cost of my slop, which is basically soggy chalk mixed with gloom.
Today kicked off just like every other Tuesday. Sky hung there, dull gray from pollution, while rain drizzled down - strong enough to itch your skin, weak enough not to burn through. Pretty solid weather, if you ask me.
I dug into a heap of old electronics - what folks call e-trash. This one's my favorite spot. Others skip it; could zap you if you mess up. Still, I love that jolt. Hits harder than the watery brew from the shop down the block.
"Come on, come on," I muttered to myself, shifting a broken toaster with my foot. "Give me something good. Give me a circuit board. Give me a battery that isn't leaking green goo."
I shifted a thick slab of rusted metal - kinda like a wrecked car door. Beneath it, resting in greasy rainwater, sat a smooth dark shape.
I froze. To my left - nothing. Then I checked right. Fifty feet off, Old Man Gary wrestled a metal hound over some copper strand. That machine? It had the upper hand.
I hit the ground on one knee, didn't care about the wet dirt seeping through. My hand moved forward, brushed against something solid. Felt like metal - cold, curved. Turned out to be headgear. Not ordinary gear though. This was top-tier deep-sea tech from Aetheria.
My heart began pounding in my chest, sort of like a bird stuck indoors.
Aetheria. That game everyone talked about. Not simply pixels on a screen - more like another life entirely. Be sharp in Aetheria, though, and cash followed. Fame crept in too. Escape Zone 4? Sure - if you leveled up fast enough, those sleek high-rises waited.
Yet a Dive Rig set you back way more cash than I'd earn in ten lives put together.
I grabbed it. Heavy, for sure. The face shield split straight through - like glass after a rock hits it. Wires dangled from the rear, flickering here and there. Seemed tossed from somewhere high, out of pure anger. Maybe some spoiled teen who couldn't handle losing and wrecked his gear.
"You beautiful, broken piece of junk," I whispered.
I yanked off my pack - jammed with junk, sure - but no time to worry. Out went a hunk of copper wire, along with crumbs from yesterday's snack. In popped the helmet, squeezed tight. I had to keep it out of sight. Otherwise, someone would rob me - maybe even hurt me - before I made it down the street.
I got to my feet, acting like I didn't care. Like any dude heading back with a bag slung over one shoulder. No reason to stare. Everything normal.
"Hey! Tom!"
I jerked back. There stood Gary - beat by the robot hound, clutching his lower leg tight.
"Find anything good?" he yelled.
"Trash!" I shouted, voice squeaking slightly. "Like... y'know... busted appliances!
"Liar! You look guilty!"
I really gotta pee!" I yelled, then moved quick - no sprinting though. Sprinting screams "chase me." Gotta hit that Zone 4 strut instead. Looks like you've got zero worth, maybe even some weird skin thing - back off.
I got back home. Home's just an old shipping crate - tumbled off a rig about ten years past. One side open, three walls standing, metal lid overhead, and a thick tarp for entry. Feels snug, assuming you don't mind rattling around in leftover scrap.
I dashed in, then yanked the curtain closed. After that, I locked it - just a heavy steel rod shoved through the frame.
I dropped the backpack on my desk - stuff shifted inside. Then the helmet hit the tabletop with a short rattle.
Once I stood under the glow of my shaky little lamp, things looked worse than I'd thought. Not just messy - awful. Like, seriously messed up.
The neural link cable looked gnawed on. Without the power cell, it just sat there dead. A dent smashed the side processor hard. Most folks would've tossed the whole thing out.
Yet I don't only collect scraps - I rebuild stuff. Not merely gathering bits, I reshape them. While others toss, I twist parts into something new.
"Okay," I said, rolling up my sleeves. "Let's see what we can do."
I grabbed my gear - a screwdriver with a crooked end, a homemade soldering tool forged from a hot nail, also some old electrical tape barely holding onto its grip.
Over the following half day, I stayed put. Not a bite passed my lips. No sip touched my mouth. Instead, I kept going.
The first issue? Power. Aetheria Rigs need strong energy cells - mine wasn't ready. No proper cell around. Still, I had three scooter batteries. Picked 'em up off an old hover-board last week.
"If I wire these in a series," I mumbled, twisting two wires together with my teeth, "it should give enough voltage. Or it might explode and blow my eyebrows off. Fifty-fifty chance."
I stuck the scooter batteries onto the helmet's back side. Pretty messy, honestly. Kinda reminded me of a school experiment that failed hard. Still, once I connected the wires, the helmet lit up with a tiny red blink.
"Yeah!" I whispered, grinning. "It's breathing now."
Then came the neural link - risky stuff. That cord goes into a jack right by your neck. A shaky hookup? Electric kickback might cook your mind. They say it's called "Getting Toasted." One minute you're awake - the next, your brain checks out. Just sitting around, unable to move or think - until hunger takes over.
The wire looked rough. So I fixed it by joining the ends. There was this tiny lens from an old breakfast prize - helped me see better. My fingers wouldn't stay still.
"Steady, Tom," I told myself. "Don't Toast your brain. You like your brain. It tells you when to eat pizza."
I fixed the thin wires by melting solder on them. Not neat at all - just a messy blob right in the center. So I covered it up with some tape.
Lastly, the visor thing. Fixing the cracked glass? Nah, didn't need to. Instead, visuals get beamed right into your eyeballs - laser-style. So really, if the lasers worked fine, the pane was mostly decoration.
I leaned back, checking out what I'd made.
It looked like some kind of beast. Covered in gunk, old tape, rust - filthy mess. On its rear, three scooter cells stuck on with sticky strips. Stank of melted plastic, sharp and sour.
That moment blew me away like nothing before.
I checked the time - nearly midnight. The Aetheria servers stayed up constantly, yet tonight brought a fresh "Worldwide Patch." Folks couldn't stop chatting. Fresh areas popped up, strange creatures roamed, plus players saw real shot at big rewards.
I breathed in slowly.
"If I do this," I said to the empty room, "there is no going back."
If the rig messed up, I was dead. When game cops spotted a tweaked system, they'd trace my feed - then haul me in.
Still, what else could I do? Dig through garbage till I couldn't move or ended up bedridden? See those wealthy brats zip by in their floating cars while I choked down dusty gruel?
No. Because I craved something extra.
I took a water bottle, finished every drop. After that, I flopped onto my mattress - bumpy, yeah, still mine.
I grabbed the helmet. Heavy, right away. Slipped it on - suddenly everything changed.
It reeked of body heat mixed with electric air in there. Felt cramped. So I shifted the buckle beneath my jaw.
"Okay," I whispered. "Please don't explode."
I grabbed the switch above me, then toggled it to turn on the scooter's power pack.
HUMMMMM.
A sharp hum rang inside the headgear. Heat pressed at my neck's base.
ZAP!
A flash zipped past my head - made me shout, yet I stayed put.
Outta nowhere, glowing blue words popped up in the dark right before me.
[ SYSTEM BOOTING... ]
It happened. I was shocked. For real, it did work.
[ HARDWARE DETECTED: UNKNOWN MODEL ]
[ WARNING: UNSTABLE CONNECTION ]
[ WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS DETECTED ]
The words lit up in red. Yet my pulse hammered - loud, fast, like a drumbeat behind my eyes.
"Come on," I pleaded. "Just let me in. Just this once."
[ BYPASSING SECURITY CHECKS... ]
Hold on - what just happened? This shouldn't occur. Normally, a busted setup gets you booted right away. Yet since mine was completely trashed, perhaps the system had no clue how to handle it.
[ ERROR: NEURAL SYNC AT 42% ]
[ ERROR: PACKET LOSS DETECTED ]
[ INITIATING EMERGENCY DIVE ]
My head began throbbing - like a balloon blowing up inside my brain. Then the battery noise rose, almost buzzing like furious insects swarming close. A sharp pressure built behind my eyes while that drone kept rising, kind of like metal vibrating under tension. Everything tightened at once, sorta how wires feel when they're about to snap.
"Maybe this was a bad idea," I thought. "Maybe I should take it off."
I stretched toward the helmet, yet nothing happened. The connection had locked onto my nerves by then. So I couldn't shift at all.
[ WELCOME TO AETHERIA ]
The blue words spun, then curled. As the shadows faded, light crept in.
After that - agony. A stabbing, blazing flash ripped up my back. I yelled, yet out here, my lips stayed shut.
The crack in the visor kinda lit up. Even so, the duct tape stayed put. Meanwhile, the scooter's batteries shoved rough power into the game's fragile wiring.
The world bent sideways. My grimy metal box dissolved - no warning. The stink of garbage dropped out, swapped with something sharp... burnt maybe?
[ LOGIN SUCCESSFUL ]
[ WELCOME, USER: TOM ]
[ DETECTING CLASS... ]
The words blinked on and off. Suddenly, they messed up. Characters shifted - odd shapes appeared instead of normal ones. Numbers popped out of nowhere.
[ Oops. Can't find that category. ]
[ ASSIGNING GLITCHED ATTRIBUTE... ]
I felt a final sharp shake, so hard it made my teeth vibrate. After that, everything went quiet.
I blinked awake.
I'd left my room behind. On a mound of old twisted metal, I stood beneath a sky glowing red. Copper filled the air, sharp on my tongue.
I glanced at my palms. Not mine - somehow. Fake ones, yet totally lifelike. Made it inside. Really there now.
I chuckled - uneven, wild. Because I'd slipped past doom. Not just once, but outsmarted the setup itself. Now? I wasn't just along for the ride - I'd changed sides.
"Alright, Aetheria," I muttered, staring across the barren land. Let's find out what you can do
A blue box appeared right in front of me. Yet this one didn't look like the usual greeting shown on screen before. Instead, it shook slightly while the words looked rough around the edges.
[ CONGRATULATIONS! ]
[ YOU HAVE UNLOCKED: THE ULTIMATE INFINITE EXTRACTION SYSTEM ]
The what?" I said.
Just as I opened my mouth, a sharp shriek ripped through the air - coming from behind heaps of rusted junk. Outta the dark, two bright red eyes locked onto mine.
I tapped my side - no blade there. No shield either. Just some old cloth tunic slapped on like day one.
"Oops," I muttered.
The shape in the dark let out a sharp sound.
"Cute pup?" I said, giving it a shot.
It wasn't a dog. Yet I sensed trouble coming right back.