Chapter 44 - Taking a tour (1/2)

Gray and Xyra watched as the many new players started to leave their incubation pods. Xyra kept her head down mostly and didn't make eye contact with the other players if she could help it. Gray noticed most of the new players were a little confused at first as games usually just let you dive right in, but here they couldn't even leave the facility they just woke up in.

The initial batch were getting acclimated and were looking for their friends, Alterra Corporation let players pick up to 7 players they wished to spawn with for the mass release where as the initial 800 players from the Diamond-Tier were completely random.

The players started to mingle and naturally a lot of the male gamers were trying to flirt with the female gamers, but most female gamers were used to this so it didn't phase them too much. Several groups began to form naturally as the gamers all found their friends.

Eventually Major Valen decided they had a enough time and shouted "Ok, listen up!" He continued after the chatter started to die down. "Everyone has a number on a slip of paper in your pocket on the pilot suit next to your incubation pod! That is your team for orientation! If you want to trade or change teams, talk to the team captains, the twelve Diamond-Tier players in front of you with the lists of players! The teams go from Team 1 on my right to Team 6 on my far left! Consider this a tutorial mission, find your team, and you can get started as soon as you're completed with the mission!"

As soon as Major Valen finished his speech the new players started to return to their incubation pods to look for the pilot jumpsuit that was left for each one of them. Most of the female players had noticed it right away and had already put it on once they realized they were basically in a swimsuit upon leaving the pod.

Gray figured their will be confusion so he walked over to a white board, grabbed a marker and wrote the number 6 on the back of his clipboard and held it up over his head. The few players that had already found Gray and Xyra were a little confused when they saw Gray raising a number over his own head.

"Team Nine? I thought this was Team Six..." said one of the male players while laughing.

Gray looked up and noticed that he was holding the clipboard upside down making the 6 look like a 9 and quickly flipped it back around. "I... was just testing everyone, yep, that's it... just a test" said Gray sheepishly.

Even Xyra smiled and let out a slight giggle at this. Gray was happy to see that she still wasn't completely absorbed in herself so he decided he would play a fool if it would help her loosen up.

As the teams started to divvy up, Gray noticed that Stacia and Yurika's team was made up completely of girls... It seems that a lot of the girls all signed up together, which made a lot of the other guy players ask for permission to leave their current team and join Stacia and Yurika's team. After every single transfer request was rejected by Stacia and Yurika, the teams started to leave the medical facility.

"Hmmm, we all can't go to the same places at the same time as the other teams, so we should coordinate with the other team leaders to arrange ourselves." Gray thought to himself.

Gray sent a message to the 11 other Diamond-Tier players at the base saying he wished to meet up and discuss where each team would go during the orientation. Everyone except Xyra replied since she was standing next to Gray.

Once the 12 Diamond-Tier players gather, Gray said "Ok, let's try and stay out of each other's way while we do this. Let's do this...".

Gray pulled out the marker he took earlier and made a list of six places he thought they should all visit.

1. Armory

2. Cafeteria

3. Mech Bays

4. Mission Board

5. Player Quarters

6. Simulator Pods

"Go in this order but everyone start with their team number... so Team 4 will start at the Mission Board and finish at the Mech Bays." said Gray