Snippet #1525290

"I have no use for them, they don't have the answers I need and I most certainly don't want to meet up with them. First things first, learning some basics. I don't know how to use my weapon let alone how to fight with someone like you, assuming that we are both going to fight in a hostile encounter... Now I ask again, can you gather any data on a nearby Challenge Gate?"

"Affirmative. There is a Gate not too far from our current position. In... that direction." Cybrax pointed to their left, which was in the direction of the sound of rushing water from earlier. He then got up to follow Juste in the indicated direction, towards a Challenge Gate. Although the probability of finding it would be roughly 63.8%, give or take a couple of decimal places, he decided to omit this little detail and keep moving.

Approximately twelve minutes of walking later, Cybrax could see the Challenge Gate in plain view, on a river bank. The Gate was a circle of boulders, each one with runes carved into them, as if they were used for rituals of some sort. He didn't let this fool him; there were no religious organisations within the Nonsense Game. Then again, there could be. You never knew...

"This is a Challenge Gate," Cybrax explained to his User "There are many of these scattered throughout the Game. This one is not very... challenging, since it is near the starting zone. It is little more than a single arena with some targets to decimate." He scanned the area around him, detecting no threats. Even though there were no enemies allowed here, what was there to stop a User and their Companion from attacking them? Well, there was the risk of suffering The Orchestrator's wrath as a consequence of breaking the rules, of course...

Expecting Juste to follow, Cybrax stepped into the circle. The forest seemed to melt away, replaced by something that resembled the Colusseum, albeit much smaller. The arena was littered with training dummies, some of which were even shambling around like they'd been possessed.

Raising his weapon, Cybrax calmly opened fire on a small group of the moving targets. Each crimson-coloured bolt of energy incinerated them one by one. When all of the group were nothing but an abnormally large pile of ash, blowing away in the slight breeze, he decided to await his User's next command.