LONG READ TRIP (18+)

Chapter 1 Beginning.

It was the year 2021 in the Pets’ metaverse, and the life of many pets resembled Paradise. Everyone was doing what they loved. Nicky Rush and his beloved Mary Loo made plans for Life, they got married today in secret, and planned to spend the next month exclusively together, away from all the worries that surrounded them lately. They took a nice walk in the park that was near their home. In the park that day there was a basketball competition. Liem noticed the couple, asked for a time out, and ran up to Nicky to say hello and ask him for advice. Next week should be a big game and many of the Pets were betting on the outcome of the event. Liem was one of the best, but he couldn’t bet on his team, so he asked Nicky to bet on his team to win. Nicky was a gambler and also he knew that he was doing a favor for Liem, in return he would to pay back his debt. Nicky smiled back at Liem and told him to go back to the set. Liem shook his paw and wished him and Mary a good day and returned to the field.

Nicky and Mary passed by a coffee shop and decided to stop by and get a latte. They were met by a barista at the coffee shop. Nicky said to him, “Always in his place”. The barista said, “Always the best coffee.” The barista said hello to Mary and asked her, “The usual raspberry latte?” She said, “Sure,” and smiled back at him. Nicky winked at the barista and took the two coffees and he and Mary continued their way to the beach. On the way they met Dardos kicking a can and with his head down he was thinking about today and life in general. He didn’t understand why he can’t be like grown up pets and do what he likes, instead he has to go to tutors and study subjects that in his heart he hates. Dardos was Nicky’s youngest son and Nicky tried his best to give him the knowledge and skills he lacked as a child. When asked “how was your day son?”, he just looked at his father with a sad look on his face and went home. Nicky asked Mary, but what am I doing wrong? She said he should spend more time with his son.

Sitting by the ocean and finishing his Latte — Nicky was thinking about the fights that were to take place next week at the main stadium.The final fight was to be with his favorite fighter Strong Mike who had a 16–0 winning streak and topped the Universe Fight Club table. Next to him was Mary, who was just admiring the view and was happy that she and Nicky were finally married.

On their way back home they passed by the Butchers Shop where they played poker in the evenings, Krasi the master bluffer, the ever lucky Dukop and the ever-losing Koklok. By the way, they weren’t the only players at the table that night. Stoned Joe and Grehem lost everything they had and left without pants, they are always driven by the desire to win back, but their attempts always ended in failure.

Already approaching the house, Nicky ran into Musoli, who by this time has mastered the technique of pulling out the purse when confronted by the victim. He only apologized and went on at a faster pace. Nicky’s instincts told him to check his pockets and he found the wallet stolen, he turned around and shouted at Musoli to freeze. But he fled into the courtyard and ran for his life. He couldn’t be caught. “Here’s a piece of shit”, Nicky said, and Mary started to calm him down. They went into the house where everything was furnished in a minimalist style with lots of different knick-knacks to make their home cozy and to remind them of the places they had been to together.

Having slept all night Nicky woke up alone in bed, Mary was already preparing breakfast for him, he knew it by the aromas coming from the kitchen. Getting out of bed he checked stock quotes on his phone, and once again made sure that the bearish trend continued. At this moment he received a call from his old friend Kirya. Kirya had stolen another car and he needed to hide it for a while until things calmed down. Nicky offered to put it in his garage where he grew marijuana for his own consumption. Kirya knew he could always count on his friend and was already standing in Nicky’s yard. They put a tarp over the car, rolled up a joint, and reminisced a bit about their youth. Nicky invited Kirya to stay for breakfast. The day started out great but during breakfast Nicky got another call from Du. He was his lawyer. Jumping up abruptly, hungry for his breakfast, Nicky ran to fix some more shit that Teacher had gotten him into. His older son who was always messing around with bullies — Jimmy chang, PoWR and the girl Kelly, who he really likes. This time they are detained by Zoom — a policeman Nicky hates, because they have hated each other since high school. The reason for the arrest was the disruption of a fashion show by the famous fashion designer Fivi. During the event, they pelted the girls with tomatoes and ruined everyone’s dresses. The lawyer negotiated a compensation of 10 ETH with the victim, to which Fivi, being acquainted with Nicky, agreed. But Zoom, being a police officer, couldn’t help but use his position and reprimand her. After picking up his son from the police station Nicky didn’t say anything to his son, the tension was felt in the silence and he was ashamed.

That same morning…

Nikolya loaded up his car with over 1200 ETH. While making a stop to buy his morning coffee he habitually left the keys in the ignition. At that moment, after yesterday’s unsuccessful theft, Kirya was walking by and saw the car in which there was no one, he immediately got behind the wheel and hit the gas pedal to the floor. Before Nikolya could even blink the car was stolen on his watch. He threw away the coffee he had just bought to get his phone and call his boss.

Phone conversation.

-Boss, we’ve got some bad news, the goods have been stolen.

-What were you thinking? You have until tonight to find it!

-Got it, boss.

Next call was to Chris Tes.

-Partner, you overslept again and I had to do everything alone!

-What time is it?

-It’s 9:00! We’re screwed. Our product was stolen.

-Communication breakdown.

Chris Tes was always on his own and he leaked the information to the thieves Lionell and Dope Erni who were supposed to intercept the load at the gas station and later give a 25% share to Chris Tes. But things did not go according to the plan. Since Kirya himself did not expect to be ahead of them. By the way, he didn’t know what was in the trunk either. Lionell and Dope Erni stood at the gas station arguing with each other. One blamed the other for mixing up the gas station, the other blamed for mixing up the time. At this point Chris Tes calls Lionell and asks for his cut, the response he gets is that they haven’t intercepted anything and are still waiting for the car. Chris Tes was shocked by what he heard. He was the only one who understood that someone else had intercepted the shipment.

Collector Stone Island was the customer of the shipment and he was ready to pay a lot of money for it. But after he found out that the cargo was lost, he was furious. He was convinced that Tom Sachs had intercepted the shipment. They were forever arguing with each other who had cooler artifacts and whose collection is considered more valuable. Their only hobby was to fight each other and their eternal clarification of who of them was cooler. Stone Island took the phone and immediately called Tom Sachs, threatening to take revenge and asking for what he had stolen. Tom said that he was not involved in the case and now that he knows about it, he too enters the game and will connect all the resources to find and seize the artifact.

The Day Before That.

Every full moon, the Pets have a Fiesta. They dress up in a Santa Claus costume and go out all night long. On this day, it is customary to set aside all their business and relax. Many Pets make a wish on this day and believe that it should come true within a month. The day before the holiday, lots are drawn and whoever gets it will organize the party. This month it fell on Santa Croz. His job was to host the event, entertain the crowd and come up with different contests. Santa Croz was preparing all day and was a little nervous, because he had the honor to be in charge of the event that all the pets have been waiting for a month.

That night Bird Marie received a call from Stone Island on her phone. He told her that he wanted her to sneak into the Museum of Metaverse and steal one of the most important artifacts. For this he would pay her 500 ETH and he had already sent the money to her wallet. Stone Island made his choice for a reason, as Bird Marie always completes her tasks and works alone. After this call she dialed her friend Mia Banger who could fake any piece. In a few minutes Bird Marie was already in the Workshop where Mia worked. They looked up on the Internet to see what a Piece of Artifact looked like and Mia started to do her job. An hour later the piece was ready. Bird Marie secretly snuck into the museum while all the pets were celebrating the fiesta and switched the original with a copy. That same evening, at the request of Stone Island, she was to quietly meet with Nikolya in the crowd to pass him the artifact. It was done and Bird Marie disappeared into the crowd, and Nikolya went home to get up early in the morning to take the load to the customer.

A couple of days later someone started to spread the news that the artifact had been stolen, the museum’s administration had hired a team of detectives. Ashton Moon and Pinkums began to investigate the case. After sending the artifact for examination they found that it is a quality fake. It remains to be understood who needed it? And most importantly, where is the original artifact now?

The first place they went to was the Shaman’s Guild.

The main Shaman was Garyvee , He was the keeper of the second part of the Artifact, without which the stolen part was useless. When they arrived on site the Shamans did the karma cleansing rituals for Cosmica, Rakshasa and Daritos.

These three were members of the White Party Group, which was known for its principles concerning not only external purity, but also spiritual purity, and also the pets never broke the law and always did everything transparently and honestly. Their trademark was the white T-shirt.

When the detectives got to the ritual, they saw Garyvee instructing and teaching the newcomers Jambazi and Miagi how to perform a karma cleansing ritual. Upon seeing the detectives, Garyvee left his students to speak with them.

This was not an Interrogation, the Detectives only wanted to know the truth about the Artifact. Garyvee promised his descendants not to disclose this information and told the detectives that this is just a legend his ancestors believed in and nothing more.

After receiving the information, the detectives left the Shaman’s Guild and went to the illusionists. These pets were collectors and disseminators of rumors and all that was said on the streets. And the most talkative of them all was Leviathan. Outside his house the detectives agreed that they would play a game of good cop and bad cop. This model works best with talkers. And so having distributed the roles they went up to the address where Leviathan lived, breaking down the door they found that he was not at home. They began to search the room, but unfortunately they did not find anything there.

The fight was less than a week away.

Gruzo, Colz, Harry Woo and Banjey planned to raid the bookmaker’s office to clean out the cash register. These four considered themselves undervalued and wanted to show their gang that they could act independently.

Banjey, being the most cunning of the four, had already thought about how to launder the money and contacted Brandon to come up with a scheme together. Brandon would provide them with counterfeit bills, and the four would swap the real bills for fake ones during a raid on bookies e during the fight. The plan was to distract the guards and put on a show on the spot: arguing with each other, while one of them does the most important thing. Distracting the employees of the betting shop by talking loudly, they should not notice the switch, and a minute before the guards arrive at the place they must run away.

The plan had to be flawless, and the pets had to think everything through, because every second is at stake. Banjey enlisted the help of the T-shirt Club. They were the most erudite pets with a mathematical turn of mind. Having tracked down where Peter lived, they waited for him outside his house late at night. Peter was walking down the street unsuspectingly, when four masked pets threw a bag over his head and threw him into the trunk of a car. Colz presses the gas pedal and they disappear into the night.

An hour later they were on the outskirts in an abandoned hangar, where the pets were preparing their plan. Peter was very frightened and kept repeating that he would do anything for them to leave him alone. Harry Woo took the bag off Peter’s head and said now you have seen our faces and if you tell anybody about this….. Peter interrupted him and said he would be quiet and he wanted to help them.

Banjey started talking about their plan. Peter listened carefully to their plan and immediately got to work. He got them an evacuation plan for the building, which he had found on the Internet. After calculating the time and the shortest route there was only one detail. They needed someone in the bookmaker’s office. In the morning Peter went there to apply for a job and had an interview. The manager was already waiting for him in his office, drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. After answering all his questions Peter received the uniform and was hired. There he met the students Musmula and Joden, who also recently got a job to pay their student loan from the bank. Peter began to write down in his notebook the habits of these two: how much time they spend drinking coffee, how many times a day they go to the bathroom, and so on.

One Week Later

(Invasion Day).

All day long the fans queued at the stadium as all the pets loved a spectacular fight. Animators Unitoy, Chivizi and Raya handed out flyers for the events and used a loudspeaker to urge people not to crowd the stadium, directing the crowd in equal streams so that there would be no congestion in the queue. Once inside, the roof of the stadium was open and the seats had a great view of the starry sky. Nicky knew the security guards for this event very well. Alim and Nagh let him and Mary through without having to wait in line. The audience was seated and the event was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The investors — Jack Ma and David Berg were sitting in the front rows and were already counting the profits they would make that night.

The first fight was Adrik vs. Lomes. Both are very promising newcomers and they both put on a very entertaining fight, but in the second round, Lomes takes Adrik by lock choke. Lomes gets the win. Second Devil Roy vs. Mendel. It lasted until the end and was a bit tedious. The audience got bored and the judges decided to call it a draw. At this point, Banjey and his team were already in the stadium, just waiting for the right moment to rob the bookies. They were waiting for the fight of the night, where Strong Mike was to defend his title. His opponent was Sigels, determined to win.

And here is the announcement of the long-awaited fight of the evening, the fighters are getting ready to go, and Banjey and his pals took advantage of the moment when everyone was distracted and proceeded to carry out their plan. At some point the ground beneath the stadium shook, it was like a jolt from an earthquake — in the night sky something very brightly lit up, blinding all the spectators, many of whom were very scared, panic began and a portal in the sky opened, from which the Avatars came out completely different to the pets, they were 2–3 times bigger than the pets. In a panic everyone ran away. Banjey saw the panic among the pets, but his gang forced him to abandon this venture and run away. In the blink of an eye the stadium was empty.

Chapter 2 (Who is Mr. Zoos?)

Mr.Zoos was a naughty child who did not like animals, but he loved them very much. When he was a child his mother gave him a dog, but it ran away, and he was very nervous about it. But the story that changed his life happened to him when he was in the zoo for the first time. He was trying to feed a horse, but the horse bit him and he cried. From that moment on he wanted all the animals to be in cages. Obsessed with this idea, he became a villain. Time passed and Mr.Zoos hatched a plan of revenge. Studying computer science and hacking into all sorts of sites he created a project to trap animals. The program with avatars who are programmed to catch animals and put them in a cage. So one day he made a mistake in the code and the following happened. The computer began to glitch and Mr.Zoos had a portal to the universe of pets. Through his computer he controlled one of these avatars. The others did it automatically and were a bit primitive, but that didn’t stop the avatars from doing their task.

The avatars start to occupy the streets and buildings, Mr.Zoos controls his avatar and finds a police station, which has a database of all the pets. He prints posters for each pet and promises not to touch those pets who have information about the whereabouts of other pets. And he finds the support of racketeers who have started to put up posters around the city and give up their congeners. A little later, some of the smugglers and swindlers join them in the propaganda.

At this time Nicky organizes a secret meeting for those pets who are dissatisfied with the new regime. Together they form a resistance squad and discuss what to do next.

Garyvee decides to tell a secret he has been keeping for a long time. There is a legend that you can go to another world and try to live there, but many didn’t like the idea and said they would rather stay and fight for their home. But Nicky was willing to risk it. He asked “What would it take?” Garyvee told him that the missing piece of artifact was in the museum that had recently been robbed and it was replaced with a fake one. They had to get the original. They also needed a ship on which they could swim to the edge of the metaclassical universe, and by solving the riddle and casting spells they would be transported to another world. The riddle went like this (Another World Where You Can’t See Yourself).

The Builders present at the meeting offered their help. Master Marley and the other builders: Lake, Stan, and Cigun promised to build a ship in a week, in which they could all sail. Captain Road agreed to be the captain. It remained a question where the missing piece of artifact currently is. At that moment Hunter said that now they needed a cool name and suggested the name Syndicate. Coach possessing the skill of Kung-Fu and his students (Hodl, Shak, Host, Suso, Zech) promised to fight till the end to gain time. Present at the meeting Mia Banger revealed that she was faking an artifact for Bird Marie. The task was to find Bird Marie, who lost her face after this affair.

For days Nicky and Mary searched for Bird Marie but never found her. It was risky to walk on the streets, but they had no other option. The Avatars were getting smarter and were catching pets faster with each day. But that day a miracle happened to them, as they stood at the crossroads and noticed the avatars! The only place they could wait at was at Stone Island’s, who lived a couple of blocks away. They didn’t even realize how fast the time had passed, since their pulse rate and adrenaline was through the roof. Stone Island saw Nicky and Mary through the window and immediately opened the door to let them in. He was drunk and terrified of what was happening. Nicky, knowing his business, asked about the artifact. Stone Island said that he entrusted the case to that jerk Chris Tes who was supposed to deliver the artifact a week ago. But somebody stole his car. Nicky collapsed in his chair realizing that they were on the right track, but the task was never completed.

It was late and at this time the activity of avatars was minimal, but it was still necessary to be alert. On the streets there were posters of pets and on one of them Nicky saw Mary Loo and at this point he began to get very nervous and started to have a little doubt about his plan, it scared him. On the way they met Sting who was walking calmly down the street, as if nothing had happened. When he saw Nicky he told him that some pets had taken the side of the Avatars and that they had promised not to hurt them. But he also confessed that the Avatars treat their pets as if they are circus puppets and no one likes them. Nicky asked if Chris Tes was among them. Sting said that he had been caught and was in a cage at the police station. At this point the avatars passed by and Nicky and Mary disappeared into the dark alley.

At this time Mr.Zoos was at the police station and made fun of his pets in every way, giving them commands to sit, lie down, voice — it gave him great pleasure. All night long his avatars were delivering new pets. The syndicate was weakening by the minute, and the army of avatars was getting smarter and smarter.

There were still a couple of days before the ship would be ready and the Syndicate still had no artifact in hand and the thought that the other pets had gone over to the side of the invaders horrified the others. Those who were still at liberty gathered at the market, where only Dorry Fish was present and smelled like fish, and heard from her that she did not even know what had happened. All these days coming home nobody touched her. Does that mean that avatars don’t like the smell of fish? At that moment Nicky had a genius idea, which he shared with the others. It was necessary to rescue the pets from the captivity of the avatars who were locked in the police station. But how to get there without being seen. Covered in fish and armed with it, Nicky suggested we risk a fight by distracting the avatars and then get away. Not many signed up for this, but they needed the information Chris Tes had. In the evening Mr.Zoos looked out the window of the police station and saw scouts Yamk, Camibus, Los Angel, Doge Dan, Link Mar and Cuna walking on the streets looking for someone to sell cookies to, thinking they were easy prey he went with the avatars to capture them. But it was a trap…

When the avatars went outside with Mr.Zoos in the lead, they approached one of the scouts and he asked them if they wanted to buy a cookie. Mr.Zoos laughed and at that moment the pets with two fish like swords in their paws attacked them. After the blows the avatars began to crumble into pixels, at this moment Recept, Covi and Mailo broke into the building and freed their own. Mr.Zoos fled with the rest of his avatars. Many of the pets were happy to win but Nicky knew that just never happens. In the crowd Nicky saw Chris Tes trying to get away so he rushed after him. Catching up with him, Nicky asked where the car and the artifact that he was supposed to give him was. But people like Chris Tes never gave up secrets and Nicky beat him up badly. Seeing this the crowd dragged him away, because Nicky was furious. The pets were cheering and the town was being liberated from its occupiers without them knowing it. A party was planned for tonight, the occasion was the defeat of the aliens, who had tried to take over their world.

Mr. Zoos licked his wounds, corrected errors in the code, making his army of avatars virtually invincible. So now when one is killied, it no longer falls apart into pixels, but divides into two new avatars. Already in the evening, while everyone was celebrating, Mr.Zoos returned with new strength and after seeing his pets cheering for the victory he was raging. This time the surprise effect was on Mr.Zoo’s side. The pets tried to fight him, but this time they saw that killing one avatar made two of them, and their army only grew stronger. The pets ran in different directions and their party turned into a new wave of nightmare for many of them.

All week Marley and the others have been building the ship they were destined to sail on. Dr. Ya-Ya invented a pill for the pets which he called ERC-1155. The pills were to help avoid the defect of teleportation. The Cooks — Apple, Apolos and Kody made cookies for all the pets for the trip. The pets from the T-shirt Club (Vi, Vito, Blur, Kulno, Pink Uzi and Snoopy Sam) studied the legend and worked with the travelers (Jerry, Malo, Meizu and Ibra) on the route their ship would take.

On the day of departure.

Mr.Zoos changed his former approach and this time he was more aggressive than before. Breaking into houses and kidnapping pets, he did so ruthlessly. Word spread fast and we had to act faster. Nicky never found the missing artifact and the thought of it tormented him. While packing up the ship, the phone suddenly rang. It was Kirya who asked Nicky to take some weed with him for the journey. At that moment Nicky had an epiphany. Chris Tes had lost the artifact because his car had been stolen and the stolen car was now parked in his garage. Nicky rushed to the garage to check the car and when he opened the trunk he saw a suitcase. Opening the suitcase he finally found what he was looking for. There wasn’t much time, but the whole family was packed and ready to go to the dock, where the ship was waiting for them. As Nicky started the engine he heard someone kick the door to his house, it was the avatars. Nicky pressed the gas pedal and flew out of the garage, breaking through the gate and rushing towards his target. The streets were chaotic and the avatars were brutal and past methods of fighting them didn’t work. Upon reaching their destination his family rushed to the ship, where over 2,000 pets were already waiting for them and had managed to escape. Others were less fortunate! As Nicky set sail from the pier, he watched his city burn, and he vowed to put it right.

Drifting on the ocean for days or weeks they tried to solve the riddle — Another world where you can’t see yourself! What could it mean? Supplies were running out, and the only pets who kept a modicum of optimism were Zagi, QI, Starks, DOC, Luza and Shaman. They suggested we have a traditional fiesta and party all night. There was no choice but to die with music. Late at night on a full moon Kirya came up to Nicky and offered him to smoke a joint and think about something good and remember their youth. They had a smoke and while Nicky was looking at the water he noticed that he does not see himself in the reflection of the water. Another world where you can’t see yourself. They ran to tell the captain and Garyvee that they had understood the mystery and that the answer also seemed quite logical to them. Garyvee went to the bow of the ship and three times uttered the phrase — Asta lafuego la mis to jasam. The clouds in the sky began to gather longer and the weather began to deteriorate. A very strong wind drew them into the vortex which was a few hundred meters in front of them. The captain shouted to turn the ship around, but Nicky told him no, let it follow its course. The captain said are you crazy? We’re all going to die! Nicky punched the captain and ran at the helm, steering the ship into the abyss.

Waking up to a bright sunny day, the pets spotted seagulls in the sky. This world was not like their own. It was very hot and everyone was very hungry. The divers (Amo, Hamai, BonAqua) took the liberty to go down and explore the seabed. After a while they came aboard with a catch of fish similar to the Dorry Fish from the market. After a good lunch, one of the pets saw land and told the captain about it. After the teleportation, each pet had a terrible headache. As they neared land, the pets didn’t expect to be met by Opensea police and taken to jail for illegal border crossing charges. While in jail, pets began to develop Super Powers!

On the second day of their stay, they fully felt their new power and escaped. Now only the thought of finding the culprit of it all moved them. At this time in their metaverse, the wanted posters on each pet began to come to life, revealing their new super power, Mr.Zoos became tense after noticing this.

To be continued…