The Hunter's Guide to Monsters

"So," smiled the more outgoing deliveryman as he and his companion dragged the delivery cart into Eli's apartment. "Where do we set up this thing?"

Eli paused.

He'd thought he would return home early enough that he could clean out a space.

He smiled at the delivery guys blandly. "You don't mind if you help ready a room, don't you?"

The quieter one looked about to protest, but the other cut him off. "Sure, no problem. We're supposed to assist in installation anyway."

"Great." He motioned them to follow to his bedroom. "I just need the bedframe re-sized smaller."

The bedframe was from Sikea Company, and the parts could be rearranged like one of those transformer puzzle toys. Eli grabbed the mattress and pillows to put into the other bedroom for the moment.

When he returned, the two men already were halfway to remaking his single bed into something the size of a big couch. He helped them lift and move the parts properly.

"We'll be blocking the power supply if we leave it like this."

"Just move it against the other wall. No, this way."

*Cough* *Cough*

"…I'll get the vacuum brush cleaners."

It took three passes of the robotic cleaners before the dust was cleared. In the end, they had to move the other furniture around in various ways before coming to a good arrangement.

The bio-cradle came with a small generator, rated for ten days of power, and a blackbox.

The cradle and paraphernalia took up more space than Eli first thought.

"The data storage can handle 1440 hours of video at SXHD quality, but you can buy more." The quieter of the two stated as they attached the headgear to the ports inside the cradle. "I think the headset only has 60 hours."

"Not that a lot of people use that level of quality," said the other. "Uploading on a busy day is tragic. There's already a video-editing program with the basic interface, but I suggest outsourcing that if you haven't done any vid work before. If you upload to RedVisor, even at 100% real, HD13 is the best. Keep your originals and backups at SXHD though."

"You keep talking your nonsense at people," huffed his friend, who turned to Eli. "Don't mind him. Just play how you want to."

"No, it was helpful," Eli waved the apology off. "I didn't know RedVisor could take that kind of vidquality."

"Most players upload HD10, which is fine for 2-3D 360 degree viewing, but much of the detail is lost when you replay in VR. Which is the point."

Eli nodded in understanding. "They don't want their secrets getting out?"

"Exactly. HD13 gives better playback in VR but also loses some of that detail people keep worrying about. Who wants to copy them? Redlands has infinite playstyle combinations, the idiots. I'd like explorers to use higher quality vids more, but the skrags keep sending me their originals in HD11 max, can you believe it."

"You're a vid-editor?"

The quiet one smirked. "Now you see his angle."

"I don't think my videos would be popular," Eli shrugged. "So I don't need a vid-editor."

"I guessed," the outgoing one said, nodded at the headset. "That's the Lazybones, right? In glorious MarkIX no less. You're planning on craft in Redlands. My sister has the same, but a MarkVIII. She'd never have bought a cradle for her crafting though."

Not entirely crafting. But Eli wasn't telling them that. "I don't like war," he said instead.

"Who does? Your money your choice, friend." The man straightened from the ports on the bio-cradle. "I think that's it. First testing then."

"Are you planning on using nutrient solutions, by the way?" the quiet one asked.

"I am," Eli replied as he sat down on the bio-cradle.

The outer shell looked like a smooth nautilus, supported by a wide sturdy base. And when fully seated, he briefly imagined he was in a baby pram. Eli inwardly laughed at the thought. He settled his limbs into the arm and leg rests.

"Oral or intravenous?"

"The second." There had been problems with oral VR nutrient solutions in the future, but Eli didn't know what specifically. Something about interaction with stomach acids that made the solution gassy?

The quiet one nodded and turned to rummage in his bag. He came out with a package that looked vaguely medical.

"What's that?"

"Training wheels," the outgoing one grinned as he adjusted the bio-cradle to Eli's dimensions.

The other rolled his eyes. "Medical tattoos. They use them to mark important body parts, in first aid instruction and medical schools. You're going to use an intravenous cuff; we're just marking the position."

Eli felt a little confused. "I just fasten it right before the elbow, what's there to mark?"

"You'd be surprised how many people don't know where that is." The quiet one said dryly. "Now, arm?"

Eli extended his arm, watched as the man wrapped a piece of sticky paper around his forearm and slowly pulled a strip of plastic until the whole piece of paper turned green.

Upon removal, a runway in sky-blue and lime-green wrapped around Eli's forearm. He peered at the pretty swirling designs at the edges, reminiscent of the sea.

"Just position the cuff between the lines."

"It'll take a month to fade, so better if it's pretty, eh? You can buy the strips in any pharmacy if you need more." The outgoing one tapped on his tablet. "How's the cradle?"

"Comfortable." Eli wiggled in place. Super-comfortable even.

"I'll turn on the massage feature, low power," the other said, then pushed a mechanical dial. The man saw him staring dubiously. "There were problems with digital controls some years ago. It's patched, so don't worry there's digital control on the panel. The manual controls are just secondary, in case the digital panel has problems. If it does, feel free to call the company."

Eli relaxed with a contented hum as the cradle started gently vibrating, and he could feel the cushions under him start pressing on his back, legs, and arms, in a pattern that the ads said was scientifically proven to be stress-reducing.

"It works? No pinching, discomfort, or sudden stabbing?"

Eli lifted a brow lazily, leaning more against the cradle cushions. "That happens?"

"Let's move to medium powered massage before I answer that."

The increased hum of the cradle and the firmer movements almost lulled Eli to sleep. "No pinching or stabbing."

"High-powered then. Brace yourself."

"Why? Whoa!"

The outgoing one laughed. "Good, right?"

Eli glowered at him. High-powered massage was not conducive to sleep. He relaxed again.

"The data is all within acceptable parameters," the quiet one noted.

The cradle shut off.

"We test each unit before delivery, of course," the other said, as he tapped on his tablet. "But testing again is always best. If you have maintenance concerns, we have a three-year service warranty. Next test is the integration with the headgear."

Eli reached up to pull the headset down, turned it on.

"You should see a blue BaggaInstuments logo on the left. Just let the program run. Aaaand, connection. It looks good from this end."

Eli nodded, headgear moving with him. "Green here, too."

"And that's it! All done, Mr. Crewan."

"It's Eli." He moved the headset up again.

"I'm Deiks and this is Han." The outgoing one smiled. "You should have an addition to your inventory, if all went right. A vid-eye pet owl, I think. Will record all your exploits automatically, from three points of view. Limited edition, for this model only."

"The only reason I don't stop most of his spiel," added Han.

"It's relevant!" Deiks winked smugly. "If it's not there, just send a message through the site."

"I thought I could cut videos from the system records?" Eli boosted himself off the bio-cradle, watched as the two started disengaging their monitors from the setup.

"You could, but those recordings are centered on you. A dedicated vid-eye program gives you more angles. The more dedicated gamers use two or more vid-eyes to record." Deiks sighed. "Do you know how tedious it is to watch the same thing multiple times from weird angles, then splice a good action vid together? And people have the gall to argue about the cost."

The quiet one, Han, looked at Eli, stowing tools into his bag. "I know he looks more dedicated to a hobby than his job, but he's actually good at his job."

Eli laughed. "I have water and snacks in the kitchen."

The two declined the snacks but took the water. Eli signed the delivery and service completion form on Deiks' tablet and sent them off.

He took out his phone, paged to the notification of delivery, which was now marked as 'Delivery Completed!' and tapped four stars out of five for the service.

He paused, then added a tip for the deliverymen.

They did help him arrange the bedroom after all.

He gulped down his own bottle of water as he studied the frozen foodpaks available for him tonight. Beef noodle soup, masala chicken, swiss steak.

They were all one-star Michelin-rated packages. He hadn't noticed earlier.

His lips curved, a smile of self-ridicule.

One year from now, all of that luxury would be replaced by cheap noodles, packaged soup, tofu, and potato-cheese steamed buns.

He opened the foodpak of swiss steak, mixed in a couple packages of wide noodles, and tossed everything in the wave oven.

The oven revitalized the frozen food, gently coaxing it back to life, until it was nearly comparable to fresh-made top level chef-made cuisine. It was one of the many conveniences he'd missed in Zushkenar. Their food storage and preservation techniques were not quite as advanced.

Tender fat-marbled steak strips in thick savory vegetable sauce, plus the noodles. He slurped up a forkful.

Ah, delicious.

When was the last time he'd eaten premium grade Earth beef?

He didn't remember.

But it was different from the meat of even the fattiest Zushkenari monster meat.

He closed his eyes and ate slowly, let the food fully settle, fortifying.

Weeping graves, was he being sentimental?

He forked up another mouthful.

No.

There was nothing sentimental about this.

He was going to get someone to breed wagyu cattle in Zushkenar somehow, just wait.

After eating, he tossed the recyclable foodpak containers into the trash and went to his room.

The blinking indicators of the still active bio-cradle shone in the center of the dark space, the lights of the city visible from the balcony enough to illuminate the room.

Eli was used to bright nights.

He shucked off the jacket he'd been wearing, faintly smelling of incense. It dropped to the floor, crumpled.

The cushions of the bio-cradle were both soft and firm, even more comfortable now.

He lowered the headgear, letting it cradle his temples.

Time to enter Redlands again.