"Alright, sure. Do your thing, build your... character like you want. There are still laws within the Game, though, so try to follow those. As the good old United World Government rules the Earth, the laws are basically the same. And remember they were able to make the laws not because they were elected, but because they hold the control points in the Game."

"If you say so," Alan said.

"Trust me, when the Enforcer fleet first came here they did jack shit but hand out capsules and broadcast the Message. UWG laws weren't enforced until they had Earth conquered in-game."

"Okay, okay, I believe you. It explains why credits are worth ten dollars each. Can I start playing now?" Alan asked.

Icewolf glanced over at Alan's capsule. It was a smooth metallic grey oval about 10 feet long resting on a large black rectangular docking bay, like for a phone, but much larger. Attached to the docking bay were all sorts of metal wires and tubes, some nearly an inch in diameter. Everything led into the walls and floor, off to who knows where.

Alan's capsule looked slightly different from the four others in the suite; it was slightly larger, was a darker shade of grey, and included a black box attachment that the others didn't. The black box was attached to a miniature satellite dish, as well as to all of the screens at the center of the room, and had a series of giant Ethernet cords running off of it. All in all, the capsule reminded Alan of a sensory deprivation tank more than anything else.

"Fine, last words of advice," Icewolf said for the fifth time. "Focus on yourself before anything else, but remember you owe me ten million dollars for the capsule. You can begin paying me off after the tutorial.

"I recommend energy weapons, they're easy to use. Point and shoot, no recoil or reloading needed. Armor is of the utmost necessity. Don't piss off anyone with bigger guns or a backer you can't trace. Finally, are you sure you trust that AI you designed? I know you programmed it yourself, but there have been incidences of AI going haywire after being transferred into the Game."

"Eve is the reason I made it here," Alan replied. "She was designed to beat games."

"Just be careful. The AI that oversees the entirety of US military operations is only rank B, and your AI is apparently rank D. Combined with the rank B capsule..." Icewolf trailed off.

"How accurate are these ranks anyway? Shouldn't a game use levels?" Alan asked.

"Ranks are accurate enough that everyone from the Department of Education to the god damn Pentagon now use them to assess and classify everything from cubes to spaceships," Icewolf said.

"And the Games does use levels, but that's tied to your character; ranks judge the strength of everything else, from items to monsters to abilities. The reason your capsule cost ten million instead of a hundred thousand is because it's a rank B capsule specialized to let you have an in-game AI, and I got it for a steal. Nowadays, I bet an Olympic weightlifter’s strength would be rank D at most, and a capsule like this one could sell for 50 million on the open market."