I took a week before I could go back to the game. A second in the real world was a minute in the game. That meant over a year passed in-game by the time I went back to the world they were in. I looked at them. Everyone in the clan was happy to see me. However, the clan had fewer members. Some of them had died on missions that I was not on. My favorites were all fine. Maroon, Ryder, Claire, Chad, Sparks, Sunny and Lucy were all fine. All of the AEP units were fine. They had also gone into their rooms for the year as I had instructed them to do. I got caught up on what was going on. All the 13 clans made 3 AEP units and stopped. They were focused on their own affairs in their spheres of influence. After it had been confirmed that 05-001 and 10-001 were dead, the mission was seen as a failure. The clans did not send more of the clan members after the humans in clans anymore. That was good for us. I had missed the resurrection of Magnetic Clan and their AEP units. I was still just in time for reviving Erosion Clan. We gave them shelter and comfort as they got back on their feet.
We were going to get some new allies from the exchange. We were great on that front. Of the 13 main clans, we allied with 6 of them. We also had the non-aggression pact with Void Clan. Our personal grudge against Water and Toxic Clans had not faded. I was not surprised that when they had found Water Clan, it was Paul and Brett beating the drums of war. Speaking of war, Volition Clan was on the warpath while I was logging out. They entered the guild building and got the symbiotes. They were killed by the PEP unit leaders. After that, they left. Volt was upset, but there was not much that they could do about it. The symbiotes were extremely dangerous. I realized they had to be destroyed after what happened with 02. With the death, Cold Clan set a new decree. Anyone that tampers with an AEP unit's reproductive functions was to be killed on sight. There were no exceptions to this. The threat of the AEA units being used against the progenitors was too great to ignore. It was not like we wanted to do that. Lola and her team got Cold Clan to sponsor our gymnasts.
They got famous after the tournament. A repeat performance convinced the clan. With that update, it was time to get back to work. Brett and Paul welcomed me back. I had told them that I was going to enter the game again via text in real life. We were immediately getting ready to attack Water Clan. They had a public pool and water park complex to themselves. It was open to the public and that was how they made all of their money. Since it was open to the public, we were going to go and find their AEP units. We were going to attack them on sight and cause a giant scene. Payback was a dish best served cold. The guild did their hacking and research to brief us on where we might expect them and what would be the best things to destroy. We kept the PEP units out of it. Salt water and the cyborgs did not mix well. I would not put it past them to use saline water to attack us when we were not looking if we engaged a big group of them. That left some PEA units and us human Players. That was all that we needed for a mission right now. It would have to wait for Erosion Clan's return.
