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  Contents

  Secondary Title

  Copyright

  Reading Order

  Dedication

  Changelog Version 3.0.0

  Part One: Processing in Progress

  Chapter One: Transfer Complete

  Chapter Two: A Gray Haven

  Chapter Three: Bogged Down

  Chapter Four: Select Words Among Friends

  Chapter Five: Just Rewards

  Chapter Six: Warm-Up

  Chapter Seven: The First Strike

  Chapter Eight: Star Struck

  Chapter Nine: Pits and SIFs

  Chapter Ten: Spin the Wheel

  Part Two: Tasked

  Chapter Eleven: Race into the Shadow

  Chapter Twelve: An Error in Judgement

  Chapter Thirteen : Technical Support

  Chapter Fourteen: The Second Floor

  Chapter Fifteen: Shadow and Clay

  Chapter Sixteen: Raiding the Dungeon

  Chapter Seventeen: Ending Shadows

  Chapter Eighteen: A Night's Efforts

  Chapter Nineteen: Exhibition

  Chapter Twenty: Match

  Chapter Twenty-One: Streaming Service

  Chapter Twenty-Two: The Temple Run

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Divine Mandate

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Fallout

  Chapter Twenty-Five: Dellis

  Part Three: Party Lines

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Allies in Shadow

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: More Questions, Fewer Answers

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: A Rogue Element

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Shatterswarm

  Chapter Thirty: The Door

  Chapter Thirty-One: Smoke and Mirrors

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Reflection's Challenge

  Chapter: Thirty-Three: Reflection's Fault

  Chapter Thirty-Four: Blink

  Chapter Thirty-Five: The Line in the Sand

  Chapter Thirty-Six: Damage Control

  Acknowledgments

  Hacked Preview - A Hero's Reward

  Login Re:Coded

  Incipere Online - Book Two

  Copyright © 2019 RJ Triveri

  All rights reserved.

  The Era of Calm:

  Login Accepted

  The Glitched Era:

  Login Re:Coded

  To my wife for putting up with me while I do my best and steal late night hours to write.

  To Player Three, may you one day find my work and be proud of your father.

  To my readers, this wouldn’t be possible without you. Thank you for your continued support.

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  Incipere Version 3.0 Release Changelog

  Added Integrated SIFS support!

  Inciperians and humans can now mingle like never before thanks to the SIFS!

  With the Singular Inciperian Focus System, or SIFS, humans can watch their favorite Inciperians interact with their world, live, love, and fight like the streamers of the 20XX’s. Those interested in becoming a streaming Inciperian will need to enable the feed from their new SIFS pane.

  By paying a modest fee ($5.99 per month for a basic membership), you can even send messages to your favorite streaming citizen or add information to their Wiki!

  Weak constitution? The SIFS’ automated censoring system will block out the more graphic content. For those of you with a bit more of a bloodlust, this can be bypassed with the premium membership package of $19.99 per month. Sexual content is still subject to blackout periods.

  Bugs are still being worked out for the IRL Dollars to Bytes donation system.

  The Pantheon has arrived!

  The Gods of Incipere have returned. Visit the temples in Graywall, Siris, The Depths of Inaris, or the Mountains of Ranar to show your devotion and dedicate yourself to Unum, Rani, Ella, or Priam!

  Contact your faction leader by speaking to the oracles. If their timing is just right, you might be able to gain favor.

  The Dark Lands have opened!

  Far beyond the Majorn Ocean, the Shadow Lands of Inaris have been discovered. With it, the rank cap has increased… that is, if you can pass the trials to unlock the Limit Breaker. New skills, weapons, talents, and traits await those clever enough to discover them!

  Rumor has it that beasts never seen before roam the lands here. Beware! These Wild Ones aren’t to be underestimated.

  Timing is everything!

  In order to help facilitate our new connections to the other world, time has been synced. You may notice a few sluggish moments, but do not worry, it won’t last long.

  Exceed Update

  Due to exploitation, the following changes have been made to Exceed skills:

  Exceeds can no longer target Inciperians.

  Exceeds can no longer be transferred between one Inciperian and another.

  Exceed costs can no longer be paid for by other party members unless specifically stated in the skill description.

  Exceed mutation has been removed.

  Additional Various Bug and Skill Fixes

  Dual classes no longer rank up their individual classes.

  Leveling is now done as combined classes and progresses at the same rate.

  Abuse of glitches or corrupt programming will now result in negative alignments with Unum and his peacekeepers.

  A glitch rendering bodies and faces of pact and other summon beasts has been corrected.

  A glitch resulting in negative integrity restoration has been removed.

  A glitch resulting in cross-classing necromancy has been removed.

  The Gray Hunter class has now been added to the restricted class list by Unum.

  World Bosses are now classified as Raid Bosses and require a party of six or more to avoid damage multipliers.

  Status messages have been normalized.

  Part One: Processing in Progress

  Application Processing…

  Auxiliary Support 42 (Moonkin - Tril) on Duty

  October 18th, 2049 - 6:35PM EST

  Subject: Jordan Rohandal

  Age: 20

  Positive Quantifiers: Loyalty, determination, mental and physical strength

  Negative Quantifiers: Anger

  Reason for Application: The subject believes that they are in a position such that they would progress in their life far better in Incipere, than if they were to continue on Earth in their current situation.

  Underlying Reason: Disassociation with the subject’s current life and situation. The subject has no confidence in the security and laws provided by Earth. The subject deeply believes that the only way to continue is to gain a strength that they cannot gain on Earth.

  Testing Results: 70% Compatibility

  Unum: Rejected for possibility of violence

  Rani: Accepted

  AS42: Accepted

  Rejection Overridden

  Preloading for name and body has been optioned and accepted.

  Subject will be notified of their acceptance.

  ***

  Subject: Daniel Rior

  Age: 22

  Positive Quantifiers: Intelligence, empathy, loyalty, mental strength

  Negative Quantifiers: None displayed

  Reason for Application: The subject is bored with their normal life and believes things would be more fun in Incipere.

  Underlying Reason: The subject deeply fears what may happen to their friend if left alone. In addition to this, the subject does genuinely seem bored with Earth and had been considering Login for more than a few months.

  Testing Results: 96% Compatibility


  Unum: Accepted

  Rani: Accepted

  AS42: Accepted

  Preloading for name and body has been optioned and accepted.

  Landing area has been preauthorized - Auxi 42

  Subject will be notified of their acceptance.

  Chapter One: Transfer Complete

  In a world taken over by plastic, steel, and glass, Incipere was ironically considered the last escape from the modern world. Whereas the real world became more micromanaged by the year, the digital frontier was growing wilder as the map refused to completely fill itself in. With every update, new things were created to discover. It was almost the law of the land that the world begged to be explored and would bow to no one. The only ones that held a snowball’s chance in hell to tame the wilds of the world fell on anyone able to pass the test and take the plunge. For all, it was a chance to start over with a newfound purpose. For some, it was a chance to take hold of their fate and become who they were destined to be.

  In this case, it was hard to determine which reason this woman truly took the plunge for. As her heart stopped in an Earth hospital, her form began to take shape in a sterile, uniform blue glass cube within Incipere. Her data was slow as snow drifting at first, but it soon grew into a blizzard of life as data and light coalesced into the sound and fury of a woman’s form.

  As the data at the bottoms of her feet finally connected to the fully formed core data of her body, the woman’s first words as an Inciperian were as profound as anyone could imagine.

  “Why is this place so fucking cold!”

  As the years went by, the darkness of the ever-expanding North America Division Access Point held the promise that fewer and fewer were given the option to take. In all directions, the newest Inciperian was standing naked, surrounded in all directions by deep-blue glass that did nothing to tame the cold of the digital void under her feet and seeping up her body, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

  A smile bloomed against her face as soon as she realized just why it had been so cold. She wasn’t in the hospital anymore. The bed was gone. The gown, the blankets, and the warm noon day sun were gone with it as a manic excitement blossomed within her chest.

  I made it, she thought to herself as she looked all around her. I actually did it! I passed! 42 didn’t lie! “I’m here!” she screamed into emptiness.

  Her thoughts raced a bit faster as she tried to take control of the situation and grinned. It wasn’t often she decided to walk around naked in a glass box, suspended above the endless maw of oblivion, but she’d make an exception this time as the world reflected her from every angle. Looking at her feet, hands, and the parts of her body she could see at the moment, she couldn’t help but feel an insurmountable debt to her personal patron saint of Auxi 42. She had never felt so much more like herself than she had in those few moments.

  She could feel the changes, but in the same breath, they felt like they had been a part of her all along. The changes weren’t as drastic as she had thought, but now was the final test. Looking, truly looking into the reflecting surface and seeing herself from all angles was something that some might have been self-conscious of, but she took everything in: every wisp of hair lingering on her shoulders, every digit on her slender, strong fingers, every curve of her body that had grown or already been, everything that she was and could have ever hoped for was what she had become. Nothing could take her out of that moment…

  Well, nothing before she was rudely, suddenly interrupted from every conceivable angle.

  Hello, River Hexi. Huh, that’s an odd name, isn’t it?

  If she hadn’t read last week’s release guide, the sudden voice might have been enough to freak her out, but River only smiled as she thought of a response.

  As a rule for new Inciperians, the voice wasn’t a judgmental one demanding her life story. It already knew everything anyways. In some strange blessing, the feminine voice was more like an odd mix of friendly, helpful, bored, and annoyed all in equal measures as she listened to the slight echo of its words in the empty void. It wasn’t surprising to her that she was being watched. In all honesty, she was surprised it had taken an administrator this long to contact her. However, there were quite a few people it could be, so she took a moment to puzzle out just which type of Inciperian it could be.

  Doubt it’s one of the gods for someone like me, so it must be one of the assistant AI, River thought to herself as she continued to admire her gracious form. What were they called? Gamas? Eh, not important right now. Could be much worse anyways. At that moment, another thought came to mind. What would her voice sound like when she wasn’t teetering on the far edges of the emotional spectrum? She hadn’t been paying enough attention to really figure that out, so her words were simple as she responded to the AI. “Shh… I’m checking things.”

  The new voice almost surprised her as the words left her lips and sounded back into her ears. If she had been paying attention the first time, she would have already known that her voice was strong, but this way, River could hear the way it held a pitch and tone that made it sound strangely musical. It was something so simple, but it helped to add to the hope and pride she felt growing in her chest. She was quite enjoying herself until the voice broke her concentration once more.

  Well, that was rude.

  Rude!? That brought her to attention faster than the icy chill of the floor on her bare feet. “Well, you interrupted me!” River defended quickly.

  Unfortunately for her, the AI was quite good at returning any quip.

  If you weren’t ogling yourself like a horny schoolgirl, I wouldn’t have had to interrupt!

  “I wasn’t ogling!” The flush of heat rushing through her cheeks was something the girl was all too familiar with as she looked for the source of the voice. Besides, it wasn’t her fault that 42 had done such a… Oh wait, yes it was. A sly grin crossed her face before she hid it away behind a scowl as she went back on the offensive. “And come out here and say that to my face!”

  However, the response wasn’t quite what she expected as the AI rose to the challenge.

  Fine.

  The cube seemed to vibrate as noise began to grow from all sides and a swarm of blue pixels came into being, hovered around the woman, and flooded her vision with fluctuating blue-white static. Though there was no buzzing, River was compelled to swat the three-dimensional annoyances away like she might have done to a fly or swarm of gnats. A moment later, every last pixel vanished back into the walls of the cube. A moment later when there were no words forthcoming from River, the voice returned in all its annoyed glory.

  Now, unless you can understand my static binary, can we get on with this?

  Of course, she had no idea how to understand binary. Even as zeros and ones, only her super-nerd of a friend could make heads or tails of programming languages. With her pride knocked down a peg, River just sighed in defeat. “Fine….”

  Good! Now with that out of the way, I’m Gama, Profession Administrator of Incipere, English Language Division. I’m your gatekeeper, River, and… Gama let the voice drone on and carry the final word a bit longer than necessary with its annoyingly perky tone. Whether Gama was enjoying itself or not, River was getting the distinct feeling that Gama was just the tiniest bit of an ass. It’s my job to fit you with a job!

  Yet another instance River was more than ready for. Hell, ready was an understatement with the woman in this case. Without even seeing the options, River knew what she wanted to be. “Warrior,” she declared firmly. “I want to be a swordswoman.”

  Swordsman, Gama corrected as a list of options appeared on the far wall of the blue cube with their proper names outlined in easy-to-read white against midnight blue. The title is gender neutral, and if that’s what you want, I guess I don’t have to go into all of these other options? Its voice was slightly dejected as a list of ten different professions appeared. That’s really too bad. I took a lot of time to study your test results and personality to create these for you to just rush in
to things like that. I mean look at these! You have quite the physical aptitudes: a brawler, a monk… Oh! An interrupter sounds fun. I haven’t seen one of those in ages!

  Her ears perked under the hair that flowed over the sides of her head at that one. She’d never heard of an interrupter or even seen it mentioned on the SIFS Wiki. If it fit her style, maybe she would reconsider the giant-sword-smashing-things approach. “What’s an interrupter?”

  Oh, that’s easy, Gama continued as its voice dropped a decibel as the words began to appear on the wall as it spoke. Interrupter – An interrupter is a mage class and embodies someone that doesn’t let me finish talking and keeps me from doing my Unum-given job! Next to the description, a mirror coalesced into being and reflected the woman’s nudity back at her. See? It fits you perfectly, River.

  Not that she minded the sight one bit, but River had to let the sneer she had prepared melt into a smile. Gama had a bit of fire in its code she could respect with a prank like that. “I think I like you.”

  I’m sorry, but I don’t really like people. Too squishy really, according to the health files I studied a few months ago. No wonder so many of your kind come to my world. It must suck being in a body that is constantly dying and trying to repair itself. Sounds exhausting.

  Though River wasn’t new to being the butt of someone’s joke, she was new to dealing with the Inciperians. She wasn’t quite sure if the AI’s words were a joke or the truth, and when a laugh didn’t come, she rubbed her bare neck and looked at the list. Interrupter had vanished, leaving only nine professions for her to choose from. Strangely, she had the option of a dancer. The idea tugged at her mind. Wasn’t it possible to combine classes?

  “Hey Gama, can’t I choose two classes?”

  The air seemed to carry the weight of hesitation as the air filled with a low hum of static. Technically… you can get a second class after you gain at least a rank in your primary class. However, you do have nearly 98% potential in both warrior and dancer.