Chapter 7: Freedom of a Different Kind

  Null slowly rose from his bed. He forgot the refreshing feeling of such a blissfully ignorant rest afforded by childhood. Technically, he was an adolescent now. Maybe a tween? Who knows with this early puberty business. He rolled out of bed and activated [wireframe], today was the day he’d put his newly evolved ability to the test.

  He brought into virtual existence his training pistol. He concentrated on it, feeling a new depth that had not previously existed.

  [You have selected an item to shift into your reality. Please confirm, you’d like to commit this item to your library. High mana cost]

  He selected ‘confirm’ and the world spun.

  [Warning, insufficient mana, contributed mana banked, remaining mana: 65 of 100]

  Well, that was unpleasant. He thought, rubbing at his temple in a feeble attempt to stave off the blossoming headache.

  He needed more mana if this was going to be a core feature of his build. He put in another 5 of his level points to bring his total [mana] stat to [90]. He pushed one point into [Wisdom (+1)] to speed up his mana regeneration. He activated [Walking Hibernate] and felt the flow of mana increase. Soon he had just over 65 points in his pool. He retried the action.

  [You have successfully added an unidentified item to your library. Please standby]

  Null felt around, nothing. He looked around, nothing. A buzzing filled the room. He spun, looking for the offending insect, but the noise appeared to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. A sharp prick at his inner left wrist caused him to yank his hand into the air.

  [Warning, excessive movement will delay the encoding process and result in inferior finished quality. Please remain still]

  “What?” Null almost shouted. Glimpsing at his wrist as a small line of indigo traced the form of his pistol. “You have to be kidding me! A tattoo?” he stared in amazement as the image engraved itself on his skin- of course in one of the most painful areas one could receive fresh ink.

  Well, I guess they allow kids to get tattooed in this world, he thought as he settled onto his bed, arm held out to- to whoever as the shading commenced.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The design was definitely familiar, but with artistic embellishments one would expect from body art. Null thought back to the evolution description. He’d need to be careful with what he shifted- he only had so much skin and he wasn’t exactly the face tatt type.

  Do I even have a choice? He pondered as the thumb-sized tattoo finished up.

  [Addition to library complete. Select this item to withdraw from your library.]

  Null focused on the tattoo. Almost as if it were a file to be pulled and opened, he… dragged it into reality. He felt a much smaller, but still noticeable draw on his mana. Ink flowed from his wrist to his hand and billowed like smoke out of his palm. His old faithful training pistol materialized. Instinctively, he manipulated the slide, the optic, and dropped the magazine.

  Great, I can summon almost anything and I choose a freaking .22? He chuckled.

  He examined the magazine. It was empty.

  Well that is not cool. He thought

  [Item recognized as a weapon. Ammunition for ranged weapons must be created separately.]

  He dove back into the [wireframe] and dreamed up a box of .22. This time it cost significantly less

  [Warning. This type of ammunition appears to be fungible. Defragmenting]

  The buzzing restarted. This time, an indigo band around his bicep began to trace itself, tiny little bullets began to appear in a neat band around his arm.

  [ library addition active. Would you like to automatically load your weapon?]

  Null thought ‘yes’ and the band slowly depleted one bullet at a time until the indigo smoke worked its way into his palm and eventually into the magazine.

  Now a magical autoloader makes it all worth it.

  “Null, it's time to go to meditation class!” his mother chimed from the hallway.

  With a thought, he dismissed the weapon, the ink dispersing and flowing back to its position on his wrist. He noticed that the bullets did not return.

  More testing is definitely needed.

  With this simple vestige from his old life, this was the first time Null felt truly ok in this new world. It represented a return to something familiar, but also freedom, of a different type, but freedom nonetheless. He cut another wicked grin as he called up an image in his mind; a muscle-bound ware…creature armed to the gills with all sorts of weaponry.

  Are railguns a thing? If so, I'm totally doing it. He thought with one last chuckle as he left his room.

  “Coming mom!”