“To be fair, so have you two.”
While Jon absolutely wasn’t wrong, the small stack of loot boxes sitting in my B.E.L.T. was proof enough of that, it was hard not to be slightly overwhelmed by the common area that we had entered.
Although Jon had already started to mess with the layout before we had been called out for the attack on the Central Park Zoo, he had clearly been spending at least some of the last few hours tinkering and adjusting things. The walls were done in a two-tone style, with light gray paint covering the top half of the walls and what looked like wood paneling across the bottom. There were a handful of incredibly generic looking posters, containing stuff like comic panels with the words BAM, SPLAT, and POW, a minimalistic depiction of a city, and a few with completely random inspirational quotes like “Heroes Never Rest” and “Teamwork Makes the Dream work.”
On each wall near our respective doors there were completely empty bookshelves that looked strikingly similar to the display case that I had in my bedroom with the exception of being completely empty. A quick highlight proved that they were in fact almost exactly the same except instead of having space for three trophies and two Safe House expansions, this case held space for two trophies and one Squad Base upgrade.
In one of the back corners there were several large bean bag chairs setup and in the other there was a table that would have looked right at home in the breakfast nook of a grandma’s kitchen.
The circular depression at the center of the space was still there, though now there was a small set of staircases directly in line with the hallway leading toward the exit and the second hallway that Jon had already added to the space. The depression now had two long, curved couches that each stretched from one of the staircases to the other.
“Really… color coded couches?” Swansong said and I could see her face scrunch slightly out of the corner of my eye.
“At least they aren’t exact matches…”
The plush cushions that covered the couches were, as Swansong had pointed out, color coded, with the cushions on the couch nearest to my door a deep ocher color that was almost a muted version of my jacket and the opposite ones striped in white and gold.
“Hey I never claimed to be an interior decorator, I’ve just been playing with the system,” Jon shot back, though I thought I could hear a bit of dejection in his tone. “If you think you could do better, by all means.”
A smile spread over Swansong’s face before she smacked her hands together.
“Don’t mind if I do,” she said.
As I descended into the pit, moving to take a seat on the orange cushions, they suddenly flashed and changed into a deep blue color. Several gold, orange, and white pillows appeared atop the empty spaces. The grey paint on the upper portions of the walls shifted through several colors, with Swansong’s face scrunching up as she followed me down into the pit and took a seat on one side of the holographic display.
“Don’t we have to pay for this stuff? Isn’t that the whole point of the Base Points and all of these Squad Loot Boxes we gained?” I asked.
“Nah, this is all the default stuff that comes when you get the Squad Base,” Jon explained. “It doesn’t come with any bonuses and is just there so that you guys can fill out the space with a bit of furniture.”
“Makes as much sense as anything,” I said with a shrug. There was a small table surrounding the spinning wire ball that floated at the center of the pit and with a thought I materialized half a dozen boxes onto it just as the table shifted from a metallic silver to a grey and gold speckled marble.
The second coming of the gorillas hadn’t been the end of our day and as soon as we were finished with one Crime Alert, yet another would appear. What was odd was that besides the initial fight with the pterodactyl, none of the fights even felt remotely difficult. We would show up, there’d be a handful of Clockwork animals, be they gorillas, wolves, or in one case acid-spitting llamas, and we would get to work with me taking the lead. It felt like hardly a challenge to beat them into the ground. The biggest issue was the exploding aftermath, but even then, the damage they left behind was barely worse than the normal potholes that littered the streets of the city.
It felt like we were missing something big but at the same time, while we were dealing with the scattershot of enemies that Droids R’ Us had been sending out, Pinneedle and his team were actively working toward weeding them out of the city. While everything with SnakeBite had been my responsibility, even if it was only because Axio had pushed me into it, my responsibility here ended with keeping the droids from hurting civilians.
Swansong managed to level up to 13 after we had defeated the sixth consecutive Crime Alert and while I wanted to stay out, hoping maybe another alert would push me across the line to 15, after flying in a circle for a half hour we had to assume the stream of Clockwork opponents had dried up for the time being. It wasn’t like it was that bad of a thing that we had found the time to take a break though, with all of the Alerts, we had walked away with five Squad Loot Boxes and several personal loot boxes each.
I reached toward the first of the Squad boxes, the only A:Tier on the table, and opened it, finding only a single item. a Base Level Up Coupon. When applied, our base moved up to Level 2, and on top of being granted 2 additional Base Points to allocate each, we were also given an extra 500 square feet for our base’s size allocation, plus both of the display cases that we had gained an extra slot each for trophies and base upgrades. I hadn’t exactly been sure what to expect from this new type of boxes and that alone didn’t give me a whole lot to go off of. I found myself growing a bit more confused when I opened up the first of the four B:Tier boxes we had gathered.
“Okay, that settles it, either Axio or the original developers were definitely trying to encourage people to team up,” Jon said with a long whistle. “Like, just so many wasted days where you could have had access to this thing already.”
“Yeah… Like, just these base upgrades alone… I kind of wish Hydramental wouldn’t have been as big of a dick as he was… ” I said as I opened the first item’s description window. With a wave, the item seemed to move from my display and into the center of the holographic display in front of us.. “Then again, without Swansong’s coupon maybe we wouldn’t have either.”
“For what it’s worth, if we are going to have a base gym, there better be a shower upgrade we can get too,” Swansong said, drawing my attention before she squirmed and a blush spread under her mask. “We uh… we only have one shower at my parent’s house and I am already tired of fighting with everyone else to use it… especially after flying around all day.”
“Garage Gym. Uncommon Squad Base Upgrade. Install this upgrade into an available Squad Display Case to unlock the Garage Gym Expansion. This expansion occupies 150 square feet of your base’s total size allocation and provides a dedicated space for personal growth. Each squad member may spend up to one hour per day, 4 days per week, utilizing the various gym equipment in this room to raise either their Strength, Dexterity, or Toughness by 1 point up to a maximum of 35 base points in any of these stats. Members are subject to one instance of the Exhausted debuff after utilizing this room.”
“As an FYI, there are bathroom amenities, they range in point value but we could probably get you two a basic setup, just have to make sure we save around 60-70 square feet of area for the space,” Jon added as I waved the first item to the side and tapped on the next box.
Once again, this box only contained a single item and after it appeared in my vision, it moved into the center of the table. Swansong’s eyes seemed to gleam as she read the description and her blush faded.
“Team Book Nook. Uncommon Squad Base Upgrade. Install this upgrade into an available Squad Display Case to unlock the Team Book Nook Expansion. This expansion occupies 150 square feet of your base’s total size allocation and provides a dedicated space for intellectual growth and knowledge sharing among squad members. Within this tranquil and well-organized study area, any squad member may spend up to one hour in meditation and focused study to generate a Knowledge Book on a subject of their choosing. The resulting book will always be three ranks lower than the creator’s personal knowledge level in that subject. Once created, this Knowledge Book is not consumed upon use and may be freely shared among all squad members. However, the knowledge remains accessible only as long as the individual remains a registered member of the squad. The created books are subject to Intelligence level prerequisites and Powerset Association requirements. And since it’s a commonly asked question, yes, you can store any other random books you might want to keep on the various bookshelves, there will be space.”
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“Okay, well looks like we are gonna need to be figuring out what level 6 knowledge skills you two have,” Jon said with a clap of his hands together. “Nate’s only gained one from books and while he’s got level 3 in a few really useless things like Stain Removal but nothing higher than that.”
Swansong looked over at me curiously and I shrugged.
“I grew up with my Grandma and she had white furniture when I first moved in… I had to learn how to clean more than a few things that I spilled on it,” I said and then felt an odd sense of insecurity as she continued to watch.
“But wouldn’t you still have level 3 knowledge levels in stuff that you were going to school for?”
“Loophole uh,” Jon started but he seemed to hesitate.
“I was a bit of a chronic underachiever,” I explained so that he didn’t have to. “My grandma's health started to deteriorate after I graduated and I didn’t exactly get any scholarships so I just grabbed a job with a cleaning company cause I really didn't exactly have any plans or like, real goals for what I wanted to do with life. I was able to help her around the apartment still which made the last year before she passed easier for her.”
“Ah,” Swansong said as she thankfully looked away from me. “I’m sorry you lost your grandma…”
“It’s okay,” I said as I reached for the next box. “She had a long and happy life. It hurt when she first passed away but she never would have wanted me to dwell. ‘You can’t let life get you too down. You just gotta put one foot in front of the other, even if the next step is into the unknown’.”
Swansong looked up and met my eyes briefly before her smile returned to her. She looked away only a moment later as she seemed to be scanning the walls. I turned my attention to the new item that opened and floated into the holographic display.
“Valor Crest. Standard Squad Trophy. When this trophy is placed in a Display Case within your Squad Base, make the following adjustments to Phase Point gains: Team Victory: 250 Phase Points per Gain, Squad Raider: 350 Phase Points per Gain. There are eight additional phase point gains that are increased by this trophy, discover them to have them included on this list.”
“Well if you guys are beholden to getting to a set amount of phase points again when the next phase starts, that certainly will be helpful,” Jon said and I set the item aside as I reached for the last of the squad boxes before I could turn to my personal ones.
There was a flash of light that briefly drew my attention to the hallway leading toward our base exit and a long, framed rectangular poster appeared that had my grandma’s quote in it. I looked over at Swansong curiously and this time she squirmed.
“I can take it down if-”
“No… It’s nice, thank you,” I said and then opened the next box.
“Sentinel Shield. Standard Squad Trophy. When this trophy is placed in a Display Case within your Squad Base, activate the Sentinel Aura squad effect. Automatically creates a shield on all squad members equal to 10% of health whenever any member of the squad is struck with an attack that deals more than 33% of their health. This Aura is only in effect when squad members are within 50 yards of each other.”
“Well that’s all she wrote for the squad base boxes,” I said and cracked my knuckles as I materialized four personal loot boxes onto the table.
“Wait! Before you do that, can you please spend 5 of the Base Points to integrate the Command Room?” Jon asked and I leaned back onto the soft couch.
I opened the window in my interface and scrolled through the list of options that I could spend the points on until I found the Command Room Integration at the bottom of the list. I clicked on it, only to find that it errored out.
“Looks like you gotta step out of the Command Room for the integration to happen,” I said and I could literally hear him scramble out of his chair.
“Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”
“Dude couldn’t move fast enough,” I muttered before I clicked on the integration again.
This time it didn’t error, and much like when I first installed the room into my Safe House, there was a rush of construction sounds as a glass panel rose up in the one empty corner that we still had left in the room. It was just to the side of the door leading into my room and the wall on the inside of the glass panel that created a small pocket room gained a new door. A desk sprang up along the glass panel and a familiar looking plush desk chair popped into existence before everything settled into place.
A moment later, the door to the room opened and Jon stepped through it. To my surprise, he sported a black version of the How The Hell Does This Fool Anybody? mask and he looked around like a kid in a candy shop as he took in his new room.
“Oh this is so damn cool…” He said, dropping into his chair. Several opaque looking windows materialized on the inside of the glass panel as he settled right into his position. “Hey there!” He said with a big wave as he looked over at Swansong who held up a hand back.
“I’m gonna get back to my-”
“I can reroll for both of you now!” Jon whooped out. “Same rule as when it was just you Loophole but I have windows for each of you now.”
“Well I have an F:Tier here to open so we might be needing it. Bit of a shame I used my Luck Bomb earlier but oh well,” I said. I opened the three C:Tier boxes I had first, receiving 2 Targeted Ability Level Up Scrolls, 2500 Credits, and a Belt of Dexterity that I immediately put into the small pile of items I really needed to make sure I sold the next time I was in Sanctuary Square. Once those were done, I clicked on the F:Tier, watching the window spin until it settled on Strength Gloves.
“+1 to Strength… that might have been useful when you first started,” Jon murmured. His voice no longer rang out in my head as his casual conversation reached us in the Base as if he was sitting right alongside us.
“Reroll that, literally no need for those,” I said and Jon obliged. When the spinning finally came to a stop, I felt my brows raise. “Lucky me…”
“The Tome of Many Things. Rare Trophy. Lucky you sure is right and maybe lucky for your entire squad because this is the item you’ve been waiting for Loophole. When placed in your Personal Display Case, this Trophy will generate a random Level 3 Knowledge Book into your B.E.L.T. every 6 hours. This book is non-transferrable and if it is unused after 3 hours, it will dematerialize. Upon using a book, the trophy will go on cooldown for 24 hours and will not generate another book until the cooldown has elapsed. If you do not use the materialized books six times in a row, that’s 36 hours in case you’re having trouble doing the math, the next book that appears in your B.E.L.T. will be a Level 6 Knowledge Book that has the same expiry. If you do not use the materialized books for a total of 48 hours from the generation of the first Level 3 Knowledge Book that you did not absorb, you may choose one skill that you already have a Level 3 Knowledge in and upgrade it to a Level 6 Knowledge. The books generated by this tome do not have Intelligence prerequisites for you. You may choose one of your Level 3 knowledges to immediately upgrade in lieu of a new Level 3 Knowledge book when you first place this Trophy.”
“Oh that’s good… like, really good,” Jon said and Swansong looked between us curiously.
“What am I missing?” She asked, causing me to realize my personal boxes hadn’t been moving into the holographic display like the squad items had. I found with a click I could move the item over and as she read through it her eyes widened. “Oh wow…”
“I think we’ve got some stuff to-”
“Sorry, just got a message,” I said, waving the screen away. “As I was saying, let’s get this stuff installed and maybe-”
“You okay?” Swansong asked after I stayed silent for maybe a moment too long.
“Pinky has been bothering me about having a rematch and I guess she’s decided now is the time to do it,” I said.
“Ah… well I can’t get up to the Fight Club. I've got some boxes to open up still here, but Codex and I can take care of getting the base set up the rest of the way if you’d like to run and do that,” Swansong said as she materialized her own loot boxes onto the table. The room around us hadn’t undergone too many changes, but the posters all seemed to be hanging at more even levels and the colors were all far more muted.
“Well, I did promise,” I said as I pushed myself to my feet and looked at the Tome trophy. “But maybe I’ll go and increase my Quantum Mechanics knowledge up to level 6 first…”
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