The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Alastair Nova recognized the notice once it flashed in the top left of his heads-up display.

*Server reboot in 30:00. Click here for server patch details.*

Alastair dismissed the notice by not paying attention to it. Server notices could truly be dismissed - only ignored.

He had expected the reboot and was frantically completing the asteroid mining operation. Assuming no distractions, such as ore raiders, he expected he'd need another couple of minutes to finish the operation, then a few minutes to ensure the resources were adequately attached to his ship, and then time to travel back to his port. Fortunately, his wife and mining partner had an interface to their primary radar integrated into her display which should give them adequate warning. Even if they needed to detach from the operation for combat, there should be enough time to latch the asteroid to their rig and fast-travel back to base.

"How are we looking on the radar, Beans?" he asked.

"You know I don't like that nickname. But we look clear, for the moment. Are you going to be able to wrap up in time?"

Flor "Don't call me Beans." Basuro had the same notice in her display, blinking down.

"Should be able to. I'm thinking we even have time to quickly solve the lock as long as you say there aren't any distractions," said Alastair. "We should also be able to fast travel without concern."

"Fine, fine. This sector was cleared a while back, so there shouldn't be an issue with either the quick-solve or the fast travel. What's your countdown to finishing mining?"

Alastair looked at the indicator in his display. "Three...two...one. I'll start getting the lock ready. Still clear?"

"All the things currently on the radar are the same things we've tracked since we landed on this rock, except a couple of ships that have passed out of range. No new contacts."

"Right-eo, Capitan." Captain wasn't exactly the right word, in this case. Technically, she was the ship's Master, since it was a mining and not a combat vessel. However, they had recently upgraded a few of their defensive systems after a particularly lucrative haul of H3.

He reached into a compartment on the exterior of the ship and removed the first of three self-locking screws that would attach by chain. Then, gentle thrust and some in-game physics would allow their small ship to separate from the rock and begin the tugging process.

As Alastair manipulated the screw into place, Flor asked, "You sure you don't want to handle one of the three?"

He didn't hesitate before answering. "FInishing these three screws, even with the quick-solve penalty, should raise me a level in Drill Locking." He glanced at the server reboot count-down that now read 28:30 on his display. "And we still have plenty of time. Permission to proceed, Capitan?"

"First mate, you may proceed," she responded.

Alastair opened the screw locking mechanism interface. A three-dimensional puzzle appeared between his hands. {It appeared in his display as a blacksmith's puzzle, in which he would need to manipulate the pieces in a certain way and rotate items until the disparate pieces combined as a single unit.}

He had always hated this type of puzzle, even though he was adequate at solving it. He'd had to become so to pursue the asteroid mining career trajectory in Holst’s Solar Explorer. The other trajectories had similar skill requirements, but he had been optimistically fooled and intrigued by the simple interface of the test puzzle that had occurred in the character creation process. He had solved a Rubix cube before {once, using an online tutorial}. A couple of years into playing HSE, it was too lucrative to give up the career and start something new.

Even though he'd recently considered quitting the game entirely. However, it was a great way to spend time with Flor, especially when she had to travel for work.

"Proceeding, Capitan." He pushed the quick-solve indicator on the interface. A message popped up on his display.

Quick-Solve this puzzle? Yes/No.

You will experience a time loss of 30 seconds and receive 15% less experience.

Alastair pressed ‘Yes’ and his display flashed then grayed out, just as would happen if he had hyper-focused on a problem right before him and the rest of the world disappeared around it. He'd heard others refer to it as similar to the real-world concept of flow.

His subjective time didn't appear to pass by the time the display flashed again. The world came back into view. The puzzle interface showed the locking screw was appropriately constructed and attached to the asteroid.

Success! You have completed a Level-5 Locking Screw.

+213 exp. to locking puzzles (250 -15% penalty for Quick-Solve).

Alastair looked again at the countdown timer in his display. "First lock complete, Capitan. I read 27:50 on the server display. Please confirm?" Even though unnecessary, he felt it was prudent to ensure that his display read correctly. {Server reboot times wouldn't vary between players on the same server, but sometimes a quick-solve took longer or shorter based on some random factor, and the server countdown timer was an easier reference than the sector timer.}

"Confirmed, 27:50. Any issues?" said Flor.

"None. If the radar is clear, I’m continuing with lock numero dos."

"Radar is clear. Proceed."

Alastair repeated the process, then again.

Success! You have completed a Level-5 Locking Screw.

++213 exp. to locking puzzles (250 -15% penalty for Quick-Solve).

Congratulations! You have reached Level 16 in Drill Locking!

"Woot! Level gained. Timer count at 25:55. Confirm?"

"Confirmed. Let's get out of here. It'll take me a few minutes to engage and interface the asteroid-tugging puzzle. I'm close to Level 15, so unless it looks unusually tricky, I'll complete it manually."

Flor was already heading toward the shuttle entrance. Alastair shut his interface, took a happy breath, and looked out at the expanse of space beyond him. Not a bad job! At Level 16, he could engage in Level-6 Locking puzzles without penalty, which increased the pulling capacity and allowed them to mine larger rocks. Once Flor got to Tugging Level 16, they could head into a couple of new zones and access new equipment and maybe branch out to something else.

Maybe I'll delay quitting for a bit. He'd need to bridge the topic with Flor, anyway. She might be amenable to finding a different game despite the sunk cost into Holst’s.

He hopped back into the ship, closing the airlock. The bridge was a mere few steps away - it wasn't a large ship by any means, especially compared to some of the inter-system combat and adventuring vessels. The path to play on those usually required an investment in time and real-world money that neither he nor Flor could or wanted to spend.

Flor had already completed the startup sequence - at her level, the puzzle allowed her to bypass the Tier One sequence without a quick solve and associated loss of subjective time. It was easy enough to complete the same puzzle in about five seconds - for the size of their vessel. Larger ships typically had more complicated starting mechanisms to deterring users from buying more than their experience could handle.

Alastair removed his helmet as the air pressure equalized, then looked at the display. 24:55. If she engaged the tugging system before 20 minutes hit on the timer, they would likely have time to fast travel home. Otherwise, they would start heading in that direction and, once they cleared into a safe space, would be able to log out well before the system reboot. They could log out now, but there wasn't a guarantee that the asteroid would still be attached to the ship the next time they logged back in. The loss of the Level 5 locks and fuel cost would be wasted, and therefore, this would have turned into an expensive trip with little to show except the new level.

"First Mate, take the radar and ensure we're clear. I'm about to engage the tugging system."

"Radar shows black, yellow, gray, and white. Nothing with an interesting CPA, " he said, referring that no space objects he currently tracked were heading on a straight line path that would pass within a specific range of their ship or closest point of approach. {In this case, that meant hundreds of kilometers, although the system would adjust the yellow CPA line further out once Flor completed the tugging puzzle. It would also send out a beacon letting those in the area know that an asteroid was under tow, so they should remain clear.}

Occasionally the radar also let ore raiders know there was a possible high-payoff target that was likely easy pickings based on the lack of standard ship maneuverability and speed. So, Alastair would be particularly mindful of any object that turned their direction once she completed the puzzle.

"Engaging. Ooh, doesn't look overly complex..." said Flor as the ship brought up the puzzle interface. {She would be locked out of party chat until she completed or left the puzzle interface, but there was a moment of overlap that allowed for a final statement before the chat cut off.}

Alastair took a moment to stare at her, her Master's helmet removed but still in a protective suit. Her multicolored hair, reminiscent of a field of flowers, was disheveled due to the helmet, which he always appreciated. She could keep it colored that way in the game, probably because she couldn't in real life. Otherwise, she maintained a pretty close replica of her real-life shape, as did he. 24:12 counting down.

That had been a conscious decision. Since they were used to the game to maintain contact while she traveled, they wanted reminders of what their actual spouse looked like. But they weren't against a bit of adornment. Minor adornments, such as fields of flowers for hair. Neither of them went for overly fancy anything.

She should be engaging with the towing system interface right now, ensuring proper distance, speed, course, and the other major and minor parts. All told, the towing puzzles were a bit more complex than the Locking style puzzles, usually with a couple to a few subsets to create a challenge of spatial awareness that not just anyone could work quickly. Still, he kept one eye to the clock and another to the radar. The radar remained clear. The clock ticked to 23:25.

His mental maths, if her puzzle wasn't too complex, meant she should finish before 22:00. That would give them a two-minute buffer to fast-travel.

He spared an eye from the radar to pull up his badge interface to look at the Level 16 Drill Badge. Of course, he had seen it before, but only the replicas on the internet, not the full three-dimensional version. As did all the badges allowing for sixth-tier engagement, Level 16 was a leap over the Level 15 badge.

The Level 16 badge also allowed bypassing Tier-Two locking puzzles without using quick-solve, similar to how Flor had been able to start the Tier One ship engines without engaging the puzzle. She had to manually or quick-skip the ship until she hit Level 8 in starting. {The maths behind the progression was well known to those who looked into it, but as any other game Alastair had played, it was after he had invested several months into it that he realized he likely hadn’t optimized for the game. All characters could engage Tier One activities, and if they had the proclivity to solve the puzzle, they could accomplish the task. Accomplishing the task earned experience in that puzzle type, which allowed for access to higher tiers of the same puzzle type. Each doubling of the skill level increased the tier of challenge. Higher tiers could be engaged but usually came with significant penalties or time restrictions that were reduced or removed with an appropriate skill level. A truly brilliant puzzle solver could likely complete a puzzle several tiers ahead of their skill level, yet there were typically barriers between those challenges that prevented lower skill players from arriving at them. Barriers such as the immense distance of time and space and coordination.}

Alastair looked at the count down again. 21:59. Flor must be close, even though she had pushed through his personal safe time barrier. She’s smart. She’ll get it any moment. Or quick-solve.

He glanced at the radar again. Still clear. A few of the more distant unidentified white dots had disappeared off the globe back toward friendly territory, which perhaps indicated the other miners had finished their tasks and were getting ready for reboot. Perhaps most of those had already logged off and we’re fast-traveling, even though they still appeared in the game. {It wasn’t as if time didn’t pass during fast travel, just that the subjective time for the player seemed to disappear. The game matched it up, somehow, so that two ships traveling at the same speed next to each other from point A to point B would take the same amount of time. If one of those ships fast-traveled, the game would assume crew safety; the characters traveling in it would be able to dissociate however they so choose for that time - bathroom breaks or whatever, but in game communication between the ships would be unavailable. Arguably, it didn’t make sense. But, the game engineers had figured it out and implemented it, and who was Alastair to deny their hard work.}

21:01. She really should be done by now. Alastair considered tapping her shoulder - physical touch would make it through her interface but might disrupt her - but decided she’d make it. At least, he thought she would. But still, the counter counted down, disturbing his comfort barrier. What’ll we do if she doesn’t make it out before 20:00? We’ll still make it back to safety, but what’s our real cutoff for abandoning this rock? 18? I need to do some maths…

He started to do some calculations on the system map. With extra mass of x and tow length of y and speed z, we’ll be able to travel distance d in time t. So, with the rock, we have until almost 19. That’s less than I expected. As the timer clicked from 20:00 into the 19:00s, he did the maths for speed if they abandoned the rock. As low as 15, likely. That means I need to pull her out of there by 16. Again, abandoning the mined rock was not something he wanted to do. It would mean at least a several day setback. Maybe that would be the argument to start abandoning the game and find a different one.

At 19:30, Flor came out of the interface. She looked disoriented, shook her head, glanced at the display, then at Alastair, her eyes wide. He nodded. “Yep, let’s get hopping,” he said. “Seems like success? We’re tugging, increasing speed as expected, almost at full chain length. And we’re off.” The tug system display showed a desirable output. It kept track of the position of the asteroid and the ship and the distance of the chain between them.

Flor returned to the Master’s/Pilot’s chair. She took a deep breath. “Yes, hop away. How’s the radar?”

A few additional contacts buzzed into the globe as a light blue indication of the towing beacon signal pulsed from their position at the center. But as they traveled, the globe started to form a cone of movement. None of the contacts overcome by the towing beacon changed course, so he considered they were likely safe. Engaging an ore raider right now would significantly complicate their safe return.

“Looks clear. No indication of any vessels course change in our direction. I call it clear.”

Flor breathed a sigh of relief, then said, “Are we past the Fast Travel window?”

“Safely, yes,” he said.

“Want to do it anyway?”

“Kinda, but I also want to know we’ll get this load to safe space.”

“That puzzle took a bit more out of me than expected. I’d really like to get out of my rig and back into reality, sooner than later, if possible.”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“I’ll tell you once we’re home. Engaging Fast Travel to Home.” She flicked a switch on the console in front of her and the ship began to fade around them.