“Alive! Against all odds, we actually made it!”
Jie’s voice boomed across the gray platform, breaking the silence.
A young girl, tears streaming down her face, ran out of a doorway at the edge of the square and sprinted toward him.
The veteran’s face softened.
He met her halfway, caught her in his arms, and held her tight.
“…Remember,” Jie muttered quickly, holding her against his chest, “if anything isn’t clear, ask the God directly in your mind. Don’t trade for anything except creating a woman for yourself! We’ll talk strategy tomorrow. Pick a room—just imagine what you want…”
He picked her up without looking back at the rest of the team, walked into his room, and kicked the door shut behind them.
Zha and the other survivors stood frozen.
After a long silence, Zha sank down onto the stone floor, completely drained.
“Unbelievable,” Lan muttered, holding a hand to her chest.
“Running off like that… and using his points on… a construct…”
Zha shivered.
The memory of the Licker in the Hive was still fresh.
“I was terrified down there. My legs still feel like lead. Who would’ve thought he’d just move on as if nothing happened?”
Lan glared around the platform.
Near the center, two of the male survivors stood beneath the floating obsidian sphere, bathed in warm light with their eyes closed.
The obvious shapes pressing against their pants made their thoughts clear enough.
“Idiots!” she spat, her voice tight with anger.
“Men are all the same. We barely survived, and that’s what you focus on? Disgusting.”
She turned toward Alexandra, who was still holding the shotgun she had used to blast the Licker on the platform.
“And you?” Lan asked sharply.
“What are you staring at?”
Alexandra didn’t blink.
“Why do you all look like you got dragged through hell?”
Lan scoffed and looked away.
“Crawlers swarmed the laser hall at the end. We held them off at first, but the power flickered and one got through. We barely made it out.”
Alexandra paused.
‘The replacement motherboard probably overheated during the Red Queen’s reboot cycle,’ she thought, looking down at the dried blood on her sleeves.
She looked back at Lan.
“Shower first, I think.”
Alexandra walked over to an open door frame at the edge of the platform and closed her eyes to design her room: an industrial loft with high ceilings, warm amber lights, heavy crimson curtains to block out sound, a modular sectional sofa, a lit vanity mirror with a rolling gear rack, and an open studio floor with oak wood.
She opened the door, stepped inside, and set her heavy shotgun in the corner.
But as she reached for the couch, she remembered how the God functioned.
‘Right.
The God isn’t a remote app.
If I want to check my rewards or trade for enhancements, I have to stand under the orb.’
“Of course,” she muttered to herself.
“Why would anything in this place be convenient?”
Shouldering her heavy pack once more, she walked back out onto the central platform and stepped beneath the floating obsidian sphere, linking her mind to the central system.
Beneath the God, the scenario ledger opened in her mind.
Operational Ledger: Resident Evil Scenario
Scenario Completion: +1,000 Reward Points
Saving Rain: +3,000 Reward Points + 1 Rank C Reward
Rescuing J.D.: +1,500 Reward Points + 1 Rank C Reward
Escort Directive — One: +1,000 Reward Points
Escort Directive — Rain: +1,000 Reward Points
Escort Directive — J.D.: +1,000 Reward Points
Escort Directive — Kaplan: +1,000 Reward Points
Combat Reward — Ten Standard Zombies: +1 Reward Point
Licker — Rail Hub: +50 Reward Points (Assist)
Licker — Final Platform: +100 Reward Points
Licker — Final Platform: +100 Reward Points
Her eyes stopped on the special assessment lines at the bottom.
Spence Parks — Scenario Deviation Assessment: +2,500 Reward Points + 1 Rank C Reward
Spence Parks — Elimination Contribution: +1,500 Reward Points
Matt Addison — Survival Outcome Altered: +2,000 Reward Points
Raw Reward Total: 15,751 Reward Points
Rank Rewards: 3 Rank C Rewards
Alexandra stared at the line for Matt.
Matt?
She read it again.
Matt Addison — Survival Outcome Altered.
‘Okay,’ she thought.
‘Apparently that’s a thing.
What did I even do that God considered significant enough to pay two thousand points for?
I kept him alive, obviously, but I kept a lot of people alive.’
Then she remembered Spence drawing the gun, the muzzle flash, Matt shouting, and her hands moving before she had time to think.
Alexandra frowned.
‘Did I mean to let him get shot?
No…
my body just reacted.’ She looked back at the display.
Two thousand points.
‘Huh.’
A prompt appeared below the total.
[Exchange Available: 3 Rank C Rewards 1 Rank B Reward]
Alexandra accepted the trade.
[Rank Reward Conversion Complete.]
[Remaining Rank Rewards: 1 Rank B Reward]
[Current Reward Point Balance: 15,751]
She gritted her teeth at the numbers.
‘I nearly died down there for fifteen thousand points and three Cs, and Zheng Zha gets five thousand and a B rank just for running down a hallway?’ She glared up at the black sphere.
‘Unfair.’
She let out a slow breath.
‘Then again…
Zhan Lan only got a thousand.
And Li Xiaoyi lost points just for opening his mouth.’
She sighed quietly.
‘Okay.
Could be worse.’
She pulled up her physical attributes.
Intellect: 120
Mental Power: 130
Cellular Vitality: 110
Neural Reflex Speed: 120
Muscle Tissue Strength: 90
Immunity: 120
She knew the standard physical limit for ordinary human attributes before genetic lock breakthroughs sat at 200 per stat.
Her current stats were well below that ceiling, but her muscle strength definitely needed work.
Alexandra turned to the upgrade menu and searched specifically for options involving the T-virus samples in her possession:
System Interface: T-Virus Integration Protocols
Surrender all T-virus and vaccines: 3,000 reward points + 1 rank C reward.
T-Virus Mutation (T-VM):
+20 Intellect
+20 Mental Power
+50 Cellular Vitality
+50 Neural Reflex Speed
+50 Muscle Tissue Strength
+100 ImmunityT-virus evolution function (1,500 reward points + 1 rank C reward)
Having T-virus and vaccines:
T-VM requires 500 reward points
T-Virus Perfect Mutation (T-VPM):
Effects unknown
Consumes all T-virus and vaccines
Requires 2,000 reward points
Alexandra read through the details line by line.
So Jie hadn’t been exaggerating back in the train.
The option was real, and she had more than enough points to afford it.
T-VM was straightforward.
It raised specific attributes, likely pushing them closer to the standard 200-stat ceiling everyone else operated under.
T-VPM was completely different.
The God offered no detailed breakdown, which meant it was either a far more unusual upgrade path or a massive gamble.
‘If I take T-VPM, the God consumes both the T-virus and the antitoxin,’ she realized.
She unzipped the top of her pack and glanced at the sealed glass containers inside.
She had originally wanted to keep the antitoxin to study it herself—to see if she could decipher its molecular structure and synthesize a stable version down the line.
Alexandra considered asking the God whether it offered lab analysis services or could break down the formula for her, but the interface was strictly an exchange directory, not a research station.
‘There goes the idea of keeping the sample,’ she thought, weighing her options.
‘If I accept T-VPM, those original vials are gone.
But a high-tier mutation for two thousand points without needing a rank badge is too valuable to pass up.
I can always hunt down another sample or synthesize one in a future scenario if I survive.’
She made her choice.
She would consume the samples for T-VPM.
Next, she opened the combat directory to add practical skills to her setup.
‘Complete Gun Combat Techniques—Alpha, Beta, and Gamma,’ she thought, selecting the entry.
‘I survived the Hive on luck, reflex, and whatever baseline coordination this body came with.
I’m not gambling on luck twice.
If firearms are going to be part of my life now, I need to know how to use them properly.’
She scrolled down to engineering.
‘Matured 21st-Century Weaponry Designs,’ she noted.
‘Buying individual guns sitting around waiting for the next scenario is a waste.
Having the schematics to build, maintain, and modify my own?
That’s practical.’
She paused over the remaining list.
‘That’s enough for now,’ she thought.
‘I have no idea what the next scenario will throw at me.
Keep some points in reserve.’
She confirmed the transaction under the God.
[Confirmation: T-Virus Perfect Mutation requires 2,000 points. Gun Combat Techniques: 3,000 points. Matured 21st-Century Weaponry Designs: 200 points.]
[Total Cost: 5,200 Reward Points.]
[Remaining Balance: 1 Rank B Reward, 10,551 Reward Points.]
A column of warm light descended from the floating sphere and lifted Alexandra off the platform floor.
Inside her backpack on the platform, the two sealed glass vials dissolved into the light as the God claimed the physical materials required for the procedure.
Simultaneously, pressure built behind Alexandra’s eyes as firing stances, recoil control, target tracking algorithms, reloading speed drills, and industrial weapon schematics poured into her mind.
She kept her eyes shut while her nervous system absorbed the timing, balance, and coordination.
Inside her body, her cellular framework shifted, raising her metabolic stability.
The bullet graze on her shoulder closed up and vanished beneath the light, leaving smooth skin behind.
The light faded, and Alexandra’s feet settled back onto the platform stone.
Alexandra opened her eyes.
Her senses were noticeably sharper.
She could pick out individual dust motes floating near the sphere, hear the faint breathing of the other survivors across the square, and feel the steady, calm beat of her heart.
A brief wave of dizziness hit her as her mind processed the technical data.
She steadied her footing, took a slow breath, and stepped out from under the sphere.
With her upgrades complete, Alexandra turned her attention to the companion creation process.
She looked over at Jie’s closed door, then back at the God interface.
‘Create a man?’ She wrinkled her nose.
‘Nope.
Absolutely not.’ Actually bringing a guy into her private loft sounded like an immediate headache.
‘A woman, though…’ Her eyes brightened.
‘Oh, that is a completely different situation.’
The idea grew on her.
‘A beautiful woman living with me in God’s Dimension, someone I can actually talk to and spend time with between scenarios—okay, this is sounding much better.
Very much better.’ She didn’t pretend otherwise.
‘If I’m creating a companion, I want a gorgeous one.
I’m allowed to have standards.
But she needs to be strong enough to survive, intelligent enough to be useful, and capable enough that I’m not spending every movie dragging her out of trouble.’
She leaned her shoulder against the platform pillar and tapped her chin.
‘Bayonetta?’ she wondered.
‘Stunning, but asking God for an Umbra Witch is either going to be rejected outright or cost millions of points.’ She tapped her armrest mentally.
‘Erza Scarlet?
Magical armor swaps mid-fight would be incredible, but trying to code spatial magic into a construct is a headache I don’t need right now.’
Her eyes lit up.
‘Number Six.’
She smiled.
‘Smart, drop-dead gorgeous, politically capable, and dangerous.
Way more interesting than a standard bodyguard.’
She brought up the construction parameters and began looking through the available physical templates.
‘Okay.
If I’m making a person, the basic human template is already pretty good.
But I don’t want to spend four thousand points just to get someone who can shoot a gun slightly better than I can.’
Her eyes moved to the advanced mechanical templates.
Then she stopped.
‘T-X.’
She opened the specification.
The God displayed the available components.
[Companion Construction — Number Six Template]
Identity, Memory, Personality, and Autonomy: 500 points
Enhanced Cognitive Processing Architecture: 300 points
T-X Endoskeleton: 1,200 points
Mimetic Polyalloy Exterior: 800 points
Enhanced Strength, Speed, Reflexes, and Durability: 600 points
Basic Infiltration and Targeting Systems: 300 points
Limited Internal Weapon Systems: 200 points
Red Queen Auxiliary Heuristics: 100 points
Total Construction Cost: 4,000 Reward Points
Remaining Reward Points After Construction: 6,551
Alexandra stared at the total.
‘Four thousand.’
She looked back at the T-X specifications.
‘That’s a lot.’
She glanced toward the closed doors of the other survivors’ rooms.
‘But I’m planning to go back into those scenarios.
I’m going to be fighting things that can kill me, and right now I’m one person with a shotgun and a bunch of newly purchased gun training.’
Her gaze returned to the construction menu.
‘A second person who can actually survive those scenarios isn’t exactly a luxury.’
She opened the T-X specifications again.
‘Endoskeleton.
Mimetic metal.
Enhanced strength and reflexes.
Internal weapons.
Infiltration systems.’
Her smile slowly returned.
‘Okay.
Four thousand is painful, but this is exactly the kind of painful purchase that might keep me alive.’
She paused.
‘And Six is still Six.
I’m not buying a robot and hoping it develops a personality.
I’m buying the person I actually want and giving her a body that won’t get herself killed the first time something ugly comes through a door.’
She looked at the T-X blueprint.
‘Wait.
The T-X can change its face.’
Her smile widened.
‘Its mimetic-metal exterior can reproduce different human forms.
I don’t have to choose between the T-X’s default appearance and Six’s face.
I can configure the mimetic exterior to use Six’s appearance as its default form.’
She leaned forward.
‘And Red Queen can handle the extra analysis without taking over her personality.’
She laughed under her breath.
‘A Cylon personality inside a Terminator body with liquid metal skin.
That is completely ridiculous.’
She looked at the remaining balance one last time.
‘Six thousand five hundred and fifty-one points left.
Fine.
I’m doing it.’
She submitted the parameters to the God:
Physical Architecture: T-X series endoskeleton, mimetic polyalloy exterior, enhanced physical performance, and limited internal weapon systems.
Default Visual Mesh: Number Six (Cylon Model Six).
Neural Architecture: Number Six’s memory matrix, tactical intellect, emotional range, and personal autonomy.
Secondary Systems: Red Queen core heuristics integrated as an auxiliary analytical layer, providing enhanced data processing, pattern recognition, tactical analysis, systems interfacing, technical analysis, and threat assessment without overriding the primary personality..
Satisfied with the parameters, she confirmed the creation order and designated her private loft as the materialization point.
Alexandra walked back across the platform, picked up her lighter pack, opened her door, and stepped into her room.
The air beside the vanity mirror shimmered.
Metal assembled into an endoskeleton, and liquid alloy spread over the frame, settling into the striking form and face of Number Six.
The process finished.
The woman opened her eyes, looked around the loft, and focused on Alexandra.
Alexandra looked her up and down.
Beneath the skin was a fully loaded T-X.
She smiled.
“Hello.”
The woman spoke in a calm, clear voice.
“Hello, Alexandra.”
Alexandra looked over her new companion once more.
“Pretty, dangerous, and built like a Terminator. Yeah, definitely worth it.”