The Extractor wasn’t hungry for more chemicals, but what he had on his mind today was more money. Paranoid as ever, The Extractor locked and secured his office using industrial grade deadbolts that would secure any sum of money in a safe.

  He puts on a special body-suit that has microscopic electrodes and sensors all over, which makes it fit, feel and act like a second skin. The Extractor is always amazed at how easy it is to trick the human body----------there hasn’t been anything in the multiverse that didn’t feel real.

  The Extractor is one of the few users who is active in the multiverse without safety. He has ended up with cuts, bruises, missing teeth, burn marks and a good number of broken bones.

  The Extractor is the sort of creature who gets off on that sort of stuff: it makes him feel alive more than anything else, just knowing that he’s walking on a razor’s edge.

  The multiverse doesn’t just feel so real that it forces anyone who is in it to ‘will’ the reality into existence---------but what the bodysuit does is that it enhances the experience. It’s the multiverse that’s ‘forced’ upon whoever is in it, and it’s the minds-eye of whoever is in it, which gives the final push.

  - 2 -

  The Extractor looks up from the dead center of a battleground in an arena that seems to have been transported straight out of a science-fiction-movie--------the brutal sort that technology has advanced into some sort of primal savagery.

  The Extractor feels his heart pounding, his blood starts boiling and everything there is---------it’s through a red filter.

  The crowd is huge and they are cheering him on: already warmed up by a few minor events that took place prior, everyone in the audience wants to get a glimpse of The Extractor up close.

  They have all heard about him, and they have all put down a hefty sum to be in this place. No one has heard more than a few impressive rumors or seen a few obliterating clips.

  “I am----” The Extractor starts, and the crowd roars “The Overlord.”

  “What I do here is solely for entertainment purposes,” The Extractor says, and at that an irritated bull runs into the arena. There’s one spotlight on the bull, and one on The Extractor.

  The Extractor is thrown a shield.

  He holds it up---------the bull storms towards him----------.

  --------it doesn’t budge.

  The animal seems disoriented, which The Extractor takes as a cue to take massive action. He jumps on top of it, and starts choking the poor creature.

  It does its best to throw off The Extractor, which doesn’t work.

  Then it starts running towards a wall.

  At full speed.

  The Extractor looks up.

  And then the bull drops dead to the ground.

  “Here is why you don’t try this at home,” The Extractor bellows, and he pulls a small vial from his inside pocket, “What I have here will give you unmitigated strength---------.”

  The Extractor picks up the bull and holds it above his head.

  After that he continues with a muscle-man-pose, which causes the few women who are in the audience to lose their cool.

  Next up is a pack of lions that enters the arena. They seem more agitated than the lone bull, and more capable of doing serious damage.

  “I don’t kill animals,” The Extractor says, “But I will defend myself.”

  The lions don’t play around and go straight in for the kill.

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  Just when both predators are inches away, The Extractor jumps 3 yards up into the air.

  The lions hit each other with their heads.

  The Extractor quickly ties together their tales.

  “Like messing with cats,” he grins, followed by a roar that sends the thrill down the spine of the toughest guys in the arena.

  Finally there is a group of five men with swords.

  “This is interesting,” The Extractor grunts, then turning towards the spectators, “Are they real, or are they projections?”

  The Extractor swiftly moves away from them, and with great agility---------------.

  “What would you do if someone came at you with a sword?”

  holding his arms wide, looking up at the audience, “Would you doubt for even a split second?”

  And it’s at this that one of the swordsmen sneaks up from behind, The Extractor intuitively senses it and jumps to the side. The swordsman must have sensed it for a split second------no doubt, but also that rare intensity that makes people turn their heads.

  The Extractor is thrown his own swords, and from there the first duel doesn’t last more than a minute. The Extractor is swift and doesn’t doubt when it’s needed to go in for the kill.

  The other four swordsmen team up, but soon enough one of them leaves the pack and runs off. And that’s pretty much the end of them. What follows is gory, brutal, violent and short.

  The Extractor seems to enjoy every bit of it, and then he looks to the side: one of them got away, “I’ll leave that one to tell the tale.”

  - 3 -

  The privacy-settings of the multiverse-event prevented any recordings that could be made of what a few thousand folks had just witnessed: a brutal slaughter that should have been outlawed centuries ago.

  There was one thing though that the multiverse couldn’t prevent: the collective memory of what all those strangers had witnessed at a hefty price. Given, there might have been a few avatars among the creatures that The Extractor had slaughtered, but there would have been definite glitches if they had been rendered at such a massive scale.

  What they had all walked into was one of the oldest marketing-schemes in the book: an exclusive event, during which there was a clue as to the ‘big secret’, and then afterwards everyone would figure out on their own what it was.

  And even if they didn’t, there would be a not so subtle reminder in a few days: an email with a picture of the vial that The Extractor had held up. Not even the word, ‘interested’? would be included, and it would sell the liquid like hot chocolate on a cold day.

  And even bigger than that, it had been the sort of event that was so remarkable that good old word of mouth would do most of the legwork when it came to marketing.

  - 4 -

  Sven pulled off the multiverse gear after he had found himself with his heart pounding so hard that it was about to burst out of his chest. It had been one of the rare occasions where his curiosity had truly gotten the best of him: what he had heard were rumors about a futuristic gladiator bloodshed that would be sure to fire up certain engines.

  It had, and more, it had left him grasping for something to hold on to, and immediately it came with this heavy guilt that he had felt straight after having had to do certain things in the battlefield.

  This was hardcore.

  Ultra-hardcore.

  It was real.

  There had been real bloodshed.

  It was also very illegal, which had made him adamant not to discuss any of this with anyone.

  Afterwards he hadn’t so much as touched the gear for the next few weeks, which caused Philippa to question whether everything was alright.

  “Yeah, sure,” Sven says, “Too busy doing other things I guess.”

  “Aha,” Philippa says, thinking it over, “It doesn’t have to do with the fact that I want to go at this all by myself------.”

  “Nooooo, no,” Sven says, putting his arm around her, “It just brought on some bad memories, that’s all.”

  “The pt or the sd?” she says, attempting to soften the blow.

  “Silly how the mind works sometimes,” Sven says, looking over at the backpack that Philippa has been packing for over a week, “You got everything you need?”

  “Yes,” she says, “And for the millionth time: thanks for letting me go at this by myself------.”

  “-----I’d be lying if I say I’m totally okay with this,” Sven says, sitting back, “But I get it that you sometimes need to go after things by yourself.”

  “That’s our Truth,” Phillipa says, “And that’s why we are a team.”

  “As long as you know who to call in case of trouble,” Sven says, drawing the triangle between her forehead and her eyes, “I will come in blazing with smoking guns and a whole battalion at my side.”

  - 5 -

  The Extractor stayed in the multiverse for much longer than any of the spectators. When the entire audience had blipped out leaving tiny flashes of light. The Extractor ordered his assistants to put up a table in the middle of the arena.

  As well as some knives, a sharpening stone and a fired up grill.

  What followed was hard to watch, even for the artificial creatures that served at his side: he cut off pieces from all his victims.

  The Extractor lined them up neatly on the dining table.

  He took his time seasoning the meat.

  Then he went over to the grill and he prepared the meat in about fifteen minutes.

  This was where all the artificial intelligences had automatically shut down, because the last bit was against their most basic programming.

  The Extractor turned out to be more than just a vicious and murderous maniac. He also turned out to be a bonafide cannibal.

  The only real question was: exactly how much of this had escalated into the real world?