Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 410: Digital Game Time

Chapter 410: Digital Game Time
Jace looked over the data and assessed the situation. He had only a few more rounds left. While he had a single shoulder missile remaining. He peaked out from around a corner and was met with a face full of explosions and debris.
Jace cursed as his screen went dark and a single message appeared on the screen. [You are dead.] Simple and to the point. Especially in a game like this. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as the waiting screen appeared.
While he was waiting he looked to the side and opened the game score. Honestly he was both bewildered and amazed at what was happening. He may not have touched video games because he preferred the real world, but he did not think he would end up with this bad of a score. Even when his two adopted daughters were absolutely crushing it.
At the moment he had no kills of the other team’s mechs. Instead he was being killed and adding to their own counts. Jordan had a remarkable twelve kills with zero deaths. The best in the lobby so far. While Cho was doing a bit better than even with six kills and five deaths.
The game is an online mech battle royale. Each team has between one and four members. In Jace’s case they have three members. Himself and the girls. There were nine other teams in this game. But at the moment they were at the top . Simply because of Jordan’s remarkable gaming skills. Although it could be that she was remarkable with mechs and not video games.
He would have to check later to find out.
As he was waiting he was watching the girls. Feeling particularly proud when Jordan used an injured enemy to lure out his allies and then kill them. He was honestly surprised by her ruthlessness. She was using a combination of traps, remote controlled weapons, and a sniper to take down her opponents. Usually without them ever seeing her.
Cho on the other hand was clearly more of a brawler and less of a planner. Her mech was smashing another mech over the head with her massive rotary gun. She had taken a bit but she figured out how to use the weapons and gear to make melee damage despite this game not actually having mech melee weapons. She was rough at first but now she is getting better with using the mech.
As for Jace. He was too used to using his own body rather than relying on a machine. So he was stuck here waiting to ’revive’ so he could join the game again. Not that he cared, he was enjoying watching the girls play more than actually playing himself.
But as he sat there he suddenly received an alert. It was something he set up to automatically trigger and signal him. The alert would go right to his communicator. But since at the moment it was connected to his VR pod, it was going right to him.
Jace frowned as he looked at the alert which informed him that someone was attempting to hack into the girls and his VR equipment. He had already gone in and custom made the equipment to prevent breaches. But the attempt was still worrying since these digital connections were supposed to be secure.
He watched as someone began tearing through the digital firewalls. Then they began working on the digital mimicry wall that Jace set up. Almost immediately falling into the digital trap he set that would show Jace what this digital attacker planned. The digital mimicry wall would make it look like they succeeded.
Jace watched as the hacker looked at the information available to him. Then he overheated Jace’s VR pod so it would cook him alive. While he also programmed the fans in the VR headsets to run above the programmable rate. Which would essentially cook the girl’s brains.
Jace frowned and his eyes twitched in annoyance as he immediately began tracing the origin of the hacker. While the hacker seemed to be patiently waiting for the results of their work. Unfortunately they would never get them as Jace learned what was going on.
This small-time hacker was using exploits in the games programming to give himself an edge. But his adorable adopted daughters were doing so well that they were crushing him and his team that are full of hackers.
One of them made a joke that they could win the match if they just killed them for real. Another bet several units that it was not possible. So then this guy stepped up and volunteered, jumping right in to try and kill them. All over a game.
Jace immediately started by locking up their VR pods so they could not exit without outside assistance. That would keep them contained until either the police found them or their bodies stopped functioning, the VR pods would keep a person fed and hydrated but that could only do so much.
He then began draining all of their money whether it was legal or illegal he just sent it to orphanages around the station. As he was doing that he also sold all of their assets including the apartments they were staying in. He then made a clean and easy to look at digital record of their various crimes.
Of which there were a lot of. Unfortunately none of these goons were in the information business. So he did not end up with an abundance of wealth that he could use. Instead a lot of what he found made his skin crawl in disgust.
One of them was the most basic form of digital bandit that he had seen. He was pirating several movies, television shows, and songs. He also broke into and stole digital information from celebrities. But that was about it. Very tame when compared to the others.
The next one, who also happened to be the one who volunteered to kill them, was more of a dark net movie broker. Not your typical movie but rather videos, pictures, or even sound clips of torture, death, or other possible atrocities. They flowed sometimes in the physical black market, but they were typically found deep in the dark net. It seemed this guy bought them, made copies, and then sold them.
The one after that is a blackmailer. He was hacking and digging up dirt on anyone and everyone. Using even the most minor of things to get units out of a person. But instead of using actual information for some, he would just create some.
The last one actually made him incredibly angry. He was going around selling illegal movies as well. But these ones were more sexual in nature. After looking at what he did to get these videos he decided to modify his plan a little.
Jace modified the last VR Pod to cook the man alive. Then once that was all done and all four of them exited the game. He began paying attention to his surroundings. While those four were trapped in hell. They would probably remain in hell as well unless police managed to find them.
Jace looked around and saw he was alive again. At the moment he was in a rundown building that was half falling apart. It probably happened a while ago, but he was so busy that he never noticed.
He only moved a step forward as he wanted to assess the situation and he was immediately under fire and ran with heavy metal steps behind some crumbling walls. In the real world he would already be dead in a situation like this. Which was why these health bars were so annoying for him. It lacked the realism where you could get your arm shot off but still remain alive.
As Jace hid behind cover he checked the ’mini map’ a concept that he thought was interesting and he might implement with his own armor. He could make a radar detections system that would allow him to know if enemies are nearby or not. Although, he had enough on his plate at the moment.
A message suddenly appeared on his screen from Jordan, [they are shooting at you from a nearby rooftop. Do not aim at them, instead aim at the building under them. It looks unstable enough.] Jordan instructed and Jace’s mech peeked around the corner.
She was right, the building did look unstable.
Jace fired a barrage of rockets at the spots he calculated as having the most structural support. Then watched as the building fell in on itself almost immediately. But upon seeing it he clicked his tongue. That is not how a building would fall.
"Oh?" Jace then made a noise of surprise as he got a kill from his action. But then as they were recovering a blue bolt shot through the air and made one explode. Sending the last mech flying back a bit. There was a loud click followed by an explosion as it no doubt found one of the mines that Jordan had left around. "You are a bit too good at this game Jordan." Jace pointed out with a chuckle.