Barriers

Eva’s heart thumped steadily as she ran into the busy emergency lifeboat chamber. Once there, she instinctively stepped to the side out of the way to catch her breath, but found that she really didn’t need to. Although her breathing was heavy and labored, she was actually far from tired.

Not only that, but she could physically see her stamina bar recharge through her DI’s internal display. Her breathing eased as it rose up, then went back to normal once it topped out. At which point, the stamina bar vanished.

“That’s ridiculously nice,” she breathed out. “Could I maybe improve that?”

Of course, her DI replied. All people are able to increase both their maximum stamina pool, as well as increase their regeneration rates.

“And how do I do that?”

Through the act of exerting effort. The more you do, the more you gain. Obviously.

“Well that makes sense, I guess.”

As she chatted quietly with her own DI, she watched the lifeboat chamber all around her. 

The room itself was a semi-circular design that followed the curved, minimalist design as the rest of the station. Much like the room where she regenerated out of, it looked as though it was formed out of a single piece.

She came in through the apex of the curved wall, and looked towards the straight wall on the opposite side. There, five emergency portals were spaced out evenly all along it. Each one led straight into a multi-seat lifeboat beyond.

More importantly, there were dozens of people lined up or gathered around those portals, all of whom were waiting for their turn to get into the lifeboats. Most were wearing futuristic clothing, certainly nothing like the type she was familiar with. A few wore skin tight medical pressure suits just like she did, so it was easy for her to assume that they were freshly regenerated as well.

There were also station crew posted at each of the portals, and they helped usher in the panicked passengers one by one into the boats themselves.

One set of crewmembers filled up one of the lifeboats with a dozen people before they sealed up the portal. There was some kind of blast from the other side, the vibrations and force of which everyone could feel.

Although none of them could see it, the lifeboat blasted away from them with incredible velocity until those vibrations ebbed away. Then some great mechanism clicked and clacked behind the portal right afterwards. After a few moments, it opened up and revealed a fresh lifeboat on the other side.

The crew members stationed at its portal immediately began to usher people into it, even as another shell shook the station on impact.

Before Eva could get in line herself, a sudden uproar close to the middle lifeboat erupted. One of them desperately wanted to get into that specific lifeboat, but another, much larger man pushed him out of the way. The two launched into an argument which very nearly came to blows.

Thankfully a handful of crew de-escalated the situation and calmed them down. At least to some degree.

They led the disgruntled man away towards a different lifeboat, and left the gatekeeper to his own devices.

Eva was immediately irritated at seeing all that happen. As though people had a right to bully others like that. It was especially infuriating considering it was an emergency. People all around were literally panicking as they tried to flee for their lives, yet this jackass was in their way.

Not only that, but because he kept people out, the lifeboat itself wasn’t getting filled and cycled out. She peered into it and saw that there were a number of seats still open inside.

She felt a fire light up inside her, and found herself compelled to go get into that middle lifeboat. And as expected, just as she walked up towards it, the neanderthal-like bruiser got in her way. He was like a gorilla: barrel-chested with rippling muscles. One of his biceps appeared to be as big as her own head.

He held up a large, meaty palm right in front of her.

“Sorry sweetheart,” he said gruffly. “This boat’s spoken for. So get spaced.”

“I’m not your sweetheart,” she retorted. “And I go where I want.”

She quickly moved around him in an attempt to slip past, but he easily got back in her way. For a guy his size, he certainly moved fast. 

He placed one of his large hands on her shoulder, and kept her from physically moving forward.

“Don’t think you get it, miss pissypants,” he said. “This behind me is Nightmare’s boat. And the only people who can get on it are who Nightmare says can get on it. And that definitely ain’t you. So you ain’t gettin’ on, no matter what you want.”

The bruiser then gave her a firm shove, which pushed her back a number of steps.

In her old life, Eva would have simply accepted the situation and moved on. Physical strength meant personal power there, and this mountain of a man seemed like the personification of it. After all, it was safer to avoid these kinds of situations rather than fighting back and getting seriously hurt.

But that flame in her wouldn’t go away. In fact, it flared up when she heard that this was one of Nightmare’s goons.

Nightmare was the callsign of one of the many griefers who played Bellum Aeterna. He and his wholly demented gang of griefers very often harassed and killed other players, wherever they went. 

They never helped anyone, or even engaged in actual, proper PVP. They just went around and randomly ganged up on people just to get them angry. All because it brought them great enjoyment to do so.

Even Eva had been a victim of Nightmare and his goons. Although she was a very small-time streamer, they still stream-sniped her in the middle of a very long and involved solo mission. They harassed her and killed her over and over again, which ultimately caused her to fail said mission.

She remembered just how angry and deeply frustrated she was at the time, simply because of how much time it took to get to that point, to even get that mission in the first place. Losing it meant having to do all of it all over, from scratch. 

As she stood there, it dawned on her that this was a grudge that she had never once let go.

“First things first,” she said. “No-one pushes me around.”

“You’re lucky all I did was push,” the bruiser retorted. “I coulda just pounded you flat if I wanted.”

“Yeah? Why don’t you give it a shot, then? I wanna see what happens to you if you do…”

Eva’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. A wild thrill coursed through her body as she faced off against this behemoth. Never in a million years would she have done anything like this in the past. But this was an all-new life, and that fire inside just wouldn’t go away.

The bruiser opposite her was a simple man who loved the simple things in life. Nothing gave him more pleasure than to indulge in violence, and shove his strength in other people’s faces. It was the whole reason why he joined up with Nightmare in the first place.

He grinned widely as he rushed towards Eva with one of his meaty fists reared back and ready to rock. He imagined driving it into her face and seeing her blood smeared all over his knuckles.

He wanted to throw her to the ground and gloat.

Doing things like that in the game was one thing. But here, in this new galaxy, he could actually feel bones break under his fists. And he was looking forward to finally doing so for the first time in his life.

The bruiser poured every ounce of strength he could into his entire body and thrust his fist forward. But to his absolute surprise, Eva stepped forward and to the side in the blink of an eye.

She ducked down ever so slightly, just under his barreling fist, and grabbed both his wrist and his lapel. And using his momentum, she spun in place and threw him over her shoulder with every ounce of strength that she could muster.

Before anyone could even blink, she threw him neck-first into the ground, which resulted in a loud and satisfying CRUNCH.

The rest of his body slumped into a heap on the floor, even as everyone around them gasped out of shock and awe. Many were still processing that a fight had just happened, much less that it was already over. They fully expected him to absolutely clobber her into the ground, but she had turned the tables instead.

Even Eva was completely shocked with what she had done. She had only taken a handful of judo lessons after all, and only really knew a few basic moves. Her performing one of those throws close to impeccably was already more than surprising.

More than that, she realized she had the strength to actually do the throw.

She was of course far weaker in her old life, and could hardly do a shoulder throw without using up all of energy to do so. She fully expected to throw him to the ground, then maybe pin his arm behind his back. But she didn’t expect him to simply crumple after a single move.

Eva looked down at her body and for the first time realized she was actually taut and athletic, more than she had ever been her entire life. Which made some sense - her own player avatar in the game was also similarly built.

She curled her hand into a fist, and felt a strength radiating from within her. It was something she had never felt before in her life. It was a sense of courage and confidence that previously eluded her.

And now, she actually had it for real.

“Looks like I’ve got a seat open,” said a male voice behind her. “I guess you can have it if you want. Sit right next to me, and we can get to know each other more.”

Eva spun around almost instantly, and saw a smug but relatively attractive young guy just outside the middle lifeboat.

He was wearing a medical pressure suit as well, except he somehow found a pair of futuristic sunglasses, and was sporting it boastfully. He was wearing a half-cocked grin that was filled with sheer arrogance, and she felt absolutely compelled to wipe it off.

“Why would I wanna sit next to you?” she asked. Though she already knew the answer.

“‘Coz I’m Nightmare,” the guy replied. “And this is my lifeboat. You are?”

“Not interested.”

“Don’t be like that. A babe like you could use a man like me to keep you nice and safe.”

The station rocked again from another shell impact, which shook everyone around them back into action. They absolutely needed to get the hell out of there. But those two continued to stare each other down.

He with unbridled lust, she with unending derision.

The moment he said the word ‘babe’, she felt as though numerous slugs were crawling across her skin all at the same time. She valiantly fought back the urge to vomit, and instead turned around and gave him a cold shoulder in response.

A predatory grin spread across his face as hers turned dark and filled with disgust.

Then, she walked away.