Was it a coincidence that Alan had ended up joining this group? The only reason that had happened was because Alan had met Kitana, who was in the same building he was. It occurred to Alan that he had never asked Kitana how she knew Icewolf. He decided to look for her.

Alan found Kitana outside, kneeling on the ground carefully sharpening her sword with a small whetstone. Alan watched as she sharpened the katana with smooth, even strokes.

She finished, gracefully laying out the tools before packing everything up with care. She looked up at Alan.

“Uh, hi, your ability with that sword is definitely quite impressive,” Alan said, hoping Kitana hadn’t actually killed anyone in real life, but too scared to ask if she had. “By the way, how do you know Icewolf?”

“Icewolf?" Kitana tilted her head slightly. "Oh, right, your sponsor. I met him the day we started the Tutorial. My sponsor, one of my previous sword instructors, was in one of the other capsules, unable to logout at the time. At least, that’s what Icewolf told me.”

“Oh, okay.” Alan felt a bit disappointed; maybe there wasn’t some conspiracy. “Well, want to pair up for this battle? I’d feel better if I had someone covering my back at melee range, and I can handle anything that’s farther away.”

“Very well.”

Alan went back into the bunker, lying down on a cot.

Hey, Eve, why doesn't everyone have an AI? Like why doesn't the government hand out personalized AIs for all its trainees or something like that?

Having a personalized AI you are able to interface with in the Game severely limits your ability to develop psionic talents and requires a specialized capsule. Additionally, based upon my analysis of current data, I am operating at a much more advanced, proficient level than most other AI. I am unsure of why that is the case.

Okay, so the ability of Eve seemed to surpass anything anyone else had, but what was that the result of? The specialized gaming capsule? Icewolf had said there was a captain that had wanted to sell the capsule on this particular planet, but why? Who benefited from having a capsule capable of increasing the abilities of an AI on earth? Wait… Alan checked his status window.

Eve, according to the data you acquired, why are the Administrators considered a faction? As the Administrators of the Game, shouldn’t they be completely neutral?

Negative, the Administrators act similarly to a typical NPC faction in an RPG game, with a capital city, government and even guild associated with them. Not only are they the only known AI controlled faction, they are also the largest, most powerful faction. Their main objectives seem to be to simply administrate the Game, maintain balance, and enforce rules. The vast majority of space is actually considered to be unlawful, chaotic territory, while the major cities and planets are civilized, primarily based upon their Administrator presence. The information I downloaded includes little about them, though. Perhaps we should speak with the Administrator here?