Chapter 567: Expectation Management

Mason ate full plates of boar meat until people started giving him disturbed looks. Then he acted like he was full, taking a quick look until he found Streak stuffed and passed out on his back in the corner of the cave, legs in the air.

“I see you’ll be useful on watch tonight,” he said, patting his friend’s bloated stomach. The wolf made a whining/talking sound in his sleep, and Mason left him alone. He told Chinua he and his people could all sleep, then sat at the entrance staring into the night.

Demi joined him, pulling out a big bedroll and a pillow from her storage space.

“I’ll sleep beside you,” she said with a happy grin. Then she looked around as if for peeping Toms before crawling into her bedroll and stripping down to a white system shirt and panties. She tossed her pants in Mason’s face. He gave her a glare.

“You’re distracting me.”

She shrugged and wormed her way right up to him, reaching out to hold his hand as she closed her eyes.

“Nothings going to attack the mighty Mason. Or I could put up some spore traps. Then you could crawl in with me and get some sleep.”

“When I do, I won’t be sleeping.”

Demi grinned with her eyes closed, squeezing his hand. Then she perked up and stared.

“You are not

banging

me,” she whispered the word and looked around again, “here in the open, with all those strangers

right

in there listening.”

“I can sense them. They aren’t that close,” he said. Decision made, he unzipped the sleeping bag and vanished his vestments with a thought, fully naked in a blink. Demi was so shocked she didn’t seem to know how to react as he spread her legs and kissed her deep and slow.

But it wasn’t long before she was kissing him back and relaxing under him. He slipped her underwear aside and took her slow and gentle, quiet and intimate. The softness of her body soothed him, the warmth and wetness that took him in with eager pleasure.

She wrapped herself around him and whispered that she loved him, that she was his. He stared into her eyes as he filled her, covering her mouth to keep her from screaming with the release and the intensity of intertwining Blessings of Gaia.

She was basically asleep before he pulled out, and he rolled her over and kissed her eyes and forehead, zipping her in before summoning his vestments and standing alone.

Streak joined him a little later with a kind of ‘I’m here, I’m here’ before flopping over. Mason grinned and scratched his face and neck, finally settling with an arm draped over his friend.

Pretty soon he was picturing his fight with Jeong in the Neutral Zone. The speed and strength and confidence of the man, the rage and hate in his eyes.

But it hadn’t saved him. Mason had been fast enough, and strong enough. He’d gotten more powerful as the fight wore on until it wasn’t even close, breaking that golden shield with enough blows from Exploiting Strike.

The only dangers he could see was getting caught off guard too early, getting knocked unconscious and unable to fight back as Jeong managed to end it. Or else getting overwhelmed by the sheer volume of players and powers—Jeong’s people helping him enough to keep Mason from getting away.

But he wasn’t sure how many of Jeong’s people

would

actually help him, even if they could. Most of them would be cowards and sycophants, ready to jump ship to save their own skins as soon as things looked bad. Maybe all Mason had to do was show up and challenge him. The rats would flee, and Jeong would have no choice but to fight or run.

If he ran, Mason took everything in one fell swoop. He’d claim the settlement and demolish his house and system of government, possibly pulling it apart physically to move most of the settlements to his Nexus in the west.

If he fought, Mason would kill him and do the same thing anyway. The only variable was how much stronger Jeong had become since their battle. But he struggled to see how it could be enough. Mason hadn’t been idle. He’d completed more objectives and finished a raid, got a divine title and his new Marilith blades and the ‘gravity’ boots.

The only thing that gave him pause was the fact that Jeong

knew

he’d been beaten. He also had to know Mason was coming, which meant he would spend every waking moment preparing.

Except what could he really do? How much

more

could Jeong have done?

The speculation didn’t help, so Mason did his best to shut off his brain and enjoy the night and the sounds of the dying fire. The quiet breaths of his lover lying beside him. The steady heartbeat of the wolf at his side.

First, he had to save these people. Then he’d gather his ‘army’ and prepare. There was nothing else to consider or do, except maybe get a message to Blake to join them. The thought clenched his jaw, because even now he truly didn’t know if his brother would help him.

All those years together, all those years as family and best friends, and now when it mattered most, when he needed Blake as he’d never needed him, he just didn’t know if he’d come.

It made him sad, and maybe older. But Mason was no stranger to abandonment. Nor was he afraid to face reality and adapt. It was why he’d survived in the old world, and why he expected to survive the new.

**

“Hello, Erik.”

Blake stepped into the university-like office of ‘The Swede’—the head of the Imperial Arcane Order. He closed the door and sat in the plush, leather guest chair and smiled politely. The man sat up from a stack of papers and stared with no recognition.

“My office hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from one to two. I don’t recognize you from any of my workshops.”

“Oh, sorry.” Blake dropped his Adaptive Veil. “Your security isn’t bad. But you really shouldn’t have windows without bars. Once I was inside people assumed I belonged here. I solved the problem by living in a dungeon.”

To his credit, the former scientist and impressive mage didn’t show any fear. They’d met in the Neutral Zone, where the man invited him to his Order (probably in an attempt to make a rift between him and Mason). They’d also dueled in the game. It’d been ‘fake’, of course, but Blake still ‘killed’ the man in an even match.

Now here they were in real life. Alone.

Erik blinked and set down his pen, eyes moving back and forth. Blake could practically see the gears turning in the man’s brain.

“Let me speed things up,” Blake said, smiling. “I’ve been in your unpleasant little city now for a few days. Seeing the sights. Reading the minds. Let’s speak plainly—your emperor is a monster. I’m sure you know that. Maybe you’re even the non-judgmental type. But sooner or later that monster is going to eat you. I suggest we make a deal.”

Erik gave no reaction for quite some time.

“You’ve caught me off guard,” he finally said.

“I prefer it that way.”

The Swede’s fingers tapped on the desk, over and over like a clock, his eyes back and forth like a typewriter.

“You could trick me,” he said. “You could betray me to win favor with the emperor.”

Blake took a breath and shrugged. He knew he held all the cards. Erik was too smart to think a competent, independent man like him would last long with a man like Jeong. The moment he discovered something contrary about the ‘new world’, or said something that didn’t align with Jeong’s plans, he would die. And maybe before that, just for being too smart and/or competent. Tyrants didn’t like threats.

“My brother is coming to kill him, Erik.” Blake took a chocolate from a bowl on the arch-wizard’s desk. “The only questions that remain are when he arrives, and if he succeeds.”

“The second question is a very large one. And I have heard rumors you and Mason had a falling out. I watched your duel in the Neutral Zone. It didn’t seem very…brotherly.”

“Listen to signal, my friend, not to noise. We’re as aligned as ever. And you saw him beat Jeong in the arena.” He held up a hand, expecting Erik to point out that violence wasn’t like math, and things might be different next time. “I’ve come to…raise the odds in his favor. But I need your help.”

“Forgive me,” Erik leaned back in his chair. “It would seem my best course of action is to do nothing. Either your brother succeeds, and Jeong is removed. If he fails, nothing changes. Why should I risk anything?”

Blake sat back too, and stopped his partitions from working on other things. He needed all his brain power here. He’d thought he had the measure of this man—that he wasn’t a Nazi scientist type. More like a good but practical man caught in a difficult circumstance. Surely he despised Jeong and wanted him gone.

Was he a coward? That was possible. Blake could decrease his ask, which he hadn’t yet made anyway. Or maybe this was negotiation. Maybe Erik wanted guarantees, position.

Or maybe he doubted Blake’s competence to actually

do

anything. He couldn’t know for sure. He decided to take a risk and divulge some information, then ask for the smallest risk to the man as possible.

“I’ve been learning all about ‘Jeong Zoms’,” he said with a smile, referring to some kind of diminished servants that were used to fuel one of Jeong’s most powerful abilities. “The

things

bribed civilians will say. I’ve found many of them. But I know Jeong keeps most somewhere safe. I’m guessing somewhere in this palace. Probably surrounded by those undead guards.”

The Swede stared long and hard, but said nothing.

“All I really need is knowledge,” Blake said. “I need to know where they are, and how to get to them, if there’s some special…”

“And what would you do to them,” Erik said, his voice calm, monotone.

It was a good question. Killing them would obviously be the safest choice. Blake had found one already and probed his mind, testing power use. He was somewhat amazed to discover, despite being civilians, the ‘Jeong Zoms’ had no ‘system’ protection whatsoever.

He supposed it made sense. By accepting Jeong’s deal, whatever it was, they were joining the world of violence—directly boosting a player’s strength. It apparently meant accepting the risk as a legitimate target. No doubt it would

warn

Jeong. But if he was busy…

“I can break the connection with psionic magic,” he lied. He hadn’t found any obvious way. The civilians could be convinced to end the bargain, he was sure. So a mental compulsion might work. But he expected that would warn Jeong, too. It therefore could only happen while the man was otherwise engaged. And would he have the mana to affect so many anyway?

Erik again stared, and stared. But Blake was an excellent liar. The Swede seemed to gain a decade as he let out a breath.

“You’ll only have one chance. If your brother fails, Jeong will come back and torture you until you give my name.” The wizard took a small, green vial from a drawer in his desk. “I’ll help you. But only if you agree to drink this if Mason fails.”

Blake looked at the vial and raised a brow.

“You just so happen to have lethal poison in your work drawer?”

The Swede said nothing. Blake sighed and lifted the vial with Telekinesis. He let Navi float out and identify it, ignoring the covetous eyes of his fellow arcane caster.

“Mana Ruin poison, Master. Injested. Particularly deadly to casters.”

“Delightful.” Blake pocketed it with no intention of drinking it under any circumstance. “We have a deal. Can you show me personally to the rest of these civilians? Explain the security? I’d also accept some kind of map.”

Erik snorted, then went through his desk until he removed what looked like a blue cube.

“You and the emperor think much the same,” he said, giving Blake a wry look. “He ‘solved’ his security concerns, too. His zombies are in a dungeon at the heart of the palace. No one I can find has been inside. I have no idea what it looks like, or how the civilians live in it. So not only will you have to get in, navigate whatever traps he’s made, and somehow find them. You’ll have to time it perfectly for the vital moment. And somehow do it before Jeong discovers you and kills you. This cube opens a lock to get inside. That’s all I know.”

Blake felt a thrill of excitement. Well, maybe fear. But there was at least a

little

excitement. He smiled politely at the Swede, and reached for the cube. The man handed it over, then clenched his jaw, as if making some decision. He met Blake’s eyes.

“There’s one more thing you should know.”