We’re getting close to the endgame now!
If you haven’t been reading along, God Mode is turning into an incredible near-future sci-fi action thriller. You can start it right from Chapter One by clicking here.
If not for God Mode, this entire plan would be a bust.
First, the cost of taking an actual, physical flight to Africa was outrageous. Even with the infinite funds of the Stack behind him, Brate felt like cringing at the total. It was more crypto than he’d made in his entire life. It would be the equivalent of several of his previous lifetimes, really. Physical travel wasn’t something anyone did these days. It was left to the excessively rich. And he was still getting used to being excessively rich.
But beyond just the expense, there was the challenge of even being allowed to travel to Doroba.
The African Free State was a highly protected sector, under the watchful gaze of the United World Government. Every nation on Earth had a stake in keeping the AFS preserved and protected. There was a thriving but endangered population of wildlife there, for a start. But also, Brate now knew, there was the UWG headquarters. Travel to the region was discouraged. It was just short of forbidden.
But it did happen. And with Terry’s guidance, Brate was able to navigate all the hoops so he could get the clearance he needed to make the journey.
Stack readily helped him generate all the phony credentials he needed. This made Brate extra nervous, because forging identification documents was a high crime. The UWG was very keen on everyone being exactly who they said they were. And if you were caught with a phony identity, it could mean expulsion from the Stack, at the very least, or you could find yourself disappeared, no trace left. Brate had known plenty of hackers in the klatch who basically ceased to exist after running some kind of ID scam. He’d been toeing that line with the patch, but he’d been very cautious about crossing the line altogether.
His plane was an automated private model—the sort of thing that rich people bought and then allowed to be leased out as needed. This particular model flew to the very edge of the Earth’s atmosphere, which allowed it to cut the travel time down to just a few hours.
When the plane landed, Brate looked like a different human being entirely from the one who had boarded. During the flight he’d shed his street clothes and donned a very expensive suit. He put on a watch that cost enough to buy lifetime access for every Stat he’d grown up with. And that watch served a bigger purpose than telling him the time or telling the world how rich he was. It was a mobile link that let him stay connected to the Stack no matter where he was on Earth.
He was also wearing a pair of glasses that doubled as a stealth wearable interface.
“Ok, so far so good,” Terry said in his ear. “How you doing?”
“Well, I feel like my heart wants to get out and walk next to me,” Brate said.
Terry chuckled. “That will pass. Just keep things steady. Move like you’re used to this.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Brate said.
“You’ve played immersive games,” Terry said. “Pretend like you’re doing that now. You’re moving around in the Stack, wearing a Stack-generated avatar, trying to complete a mission without getting killed.”
“When you’re killed in an RPG you can just respawn later,” Brate groused. “If I die here I’m just regular dead.”
“Good thing to keep in mind,” Terry replied.
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