One more hour came and went like a warm, numbing blur.

I didn't do anything particularly productive, just ate some good Egyptian emperor grape, drank ridiculously wine that was sadly not made by virgins stepping barefoot on grapes, stretched, and occasionally let out small groans of satisfaction like some half-awake cat.

I'm a low-maintenance pet at this point, but eh, free stuff.

The floor of the underground safehouse was cool, so I often find my hand hanging down and rubbing against it while my head rested on Ann's thighs, and for once I didn't mind the faint Asianesque incense smell of this god awful place.

I grunted, curling a little closer, my arms crossed over my stomach.

"Comfortable?" she asked.

"Yeah," I murmured. "Very much so."

"Good girl." She chuckled, soft and short, which flustered me a bit, "I didn't think you were the type to enjoy downtime."

"I'm not," I said, halfway between honesty and denial. "But as I said, my bones feel like pudding… I'm better now, of course, but who wouldn't want to laze around a woman's thigh?"

We didn't talk much after that, that was probably the entire thing we said in the entire hour, just the silence that tasted like stale air mixed with metal dust and dried spices from the food box nearby. I closed off my eyes for maybe a minute or twenty, the background noises became.

I checked my wristwatch when I opened them again… Seven evening already, so I sat upright, shaking my hair.

"You're up." Ann said, also opening up her eyes from a minute of rest.

"Yah… Time to log off," I said, stretching my arms above my head and yawning, "Uahhhhhhh~ You know… I'm still kinda annoyed."

"Annoyed?" Ann tilted her head, her expression unreadable but expectant.

"Yeah." I leaned back on my palms. "That patchnote thingy, if I had known I can cum, I would have asked for two beautiful naked women to suck both sides of my titties."

"Hoh…" Her lips curved slightly, not into a smirk but close. "You wanted the experience, huh?"

"No no no not like… I don't want to be penetrated, I'm dwarfish, it will rearrange in there like IKEA furniture," I muttered, standing up and brushing imaginary dust from my thighs. "I just… like to know, it's a matter of principle… Ignore me."

I started putting my armor back on piece by piece to be prepare to leave. I gotta get to somewhere else that was not this underground brothel before logging out… So boots first, then gauntlets, then the chest plate that still had sand in every crevice.

That was when Ann spoke again, her tone shifted from the smartass teasing to something more deliberate.

"You could always come back," she said, "if I ever need help again in the future… would you come back?"

"Nope, no no no no no no no no no no. Hell no." I paused halfway through fastening my belt. "You just leaked real name to a person in Lion's Parade, and even though we've made amends, I still got beef with a lot of them. If one day my full name is on the forum I'm going to track you down and kick your butt."

"Pfft…" Ann covered her mouth, but a sound still leak.

"Yeah… If I'm being honest, I'm dry as fuck at the thought of revisiting this place, I don't vibe with your Bastet thingy, not the desert or Klakku in general,." I sighed. "This whole region feels anti-civilization to me, no trees, no decent looking bathrooms… Is that racist to say? Anyways, everything smells, everyone is dirty and tanned… Nope."

"I see…" She chuckled faintly at that, but didn't reply right away. Instead, she looked thoughtful, her eyes flickering faintly in the dim light as if calculating something, "What if I gave you a reason to come back?"

"You have nothing on me, I paid off my debt, you pocketed Sarah's 5000 gold coin, that's more than enough to cover the materials to build 500 of our secret teleportation machines."

"I am not talking about debts, Cory, I'm merely talking about… Mutual benefits." she said, leaning back in her chair. "What if I let you in on some little secrets?"

"..." I froze mid-motion with my chestplate armor dangling, and turned to face her, "Secrets?"

Ann gave me a calm, confident smile, the kind of smile that never meant anything good, and usual means she has the juice on someone… I knew for a fact that the infamous Giantess had truly returned.

"I'll let you know one of three secrets you're interested in as payment when I need to call you for a job, no strings beyond that…"

"You know what I'm interested in?" I blinked. "…You're bargaining information now?"

"Information has more value than gold here… You should know that better than anyone else, Cory Jay Smith."

That kind of solidified it, and I wiped my sweats… When I realized that we've spent the same amount of time in game, but she had a whole restaurant built with an underground brothel, plus a cabin in the woods… While I barely have 1000 gold coins in my inventory.

My stomach twisted, not out of fear, but a kind of uneasy curiosity, because whenever someone like Ann Murphray said "secrets," you had to wonder whether it was worth the trauma that came with knowing.

"…Fine," I said slowly. "What kind of 'secrets' are we talking about?"

I was not serious when I asked that, thinking these secrets might be something I didn't really care about anymore like "Why is Hailie paralyzed, is it birth or accident" or "Who is the kid that pickpocketed me."

"Hm~" Her smile widened just slightly, almost playful. "I'll give you three options. You can choose which one to hear if you take a future job."

"Go on…"

"One," she began, "I can tell you what really happened in that dungeon where the fight broke out between Olga, Hailie, and the seven other New Destiny members that led to the guild court trial."

I froze, my grip on the armor strap tightened until the leather creaked.

"What…?

She didn't answer the question and continued, voice low and steady.

"Two: I can tell you who contracted Lady_Valerie to make a hit on Pearl at the orc farming site on RinaWenswood livestream. You know, the one where Hailie was killed."

The air left my lungs before I realized I'd stopped breathing and my mouth went dry.

I… I can't imagine what the third one even is," I muttered, my voice raspier than I meant it to be.

"Three," Ann rested her chin on her hand, studying me with an almost catlike amusement. "Who is Tanya on the All Time Top 50 leaderboard."

"Ann…" I stared at her. "You're insane."

"Probably," she said. "But I'm also a businesswoman."

"You know all of this?" I asked, stepping closer, my tone sharp. "You actually know these things? How?"

"That," she said, "Would boil down to years of connections, Cory."

For a long moment I just didn't move. I just stood there with my armor half on, half off, staring at her like she was some kind of tortured genius character in fiction.

I should've pretended none of this happened. But instead, I slowly sat back down, this time across from her instead of next to and lying on her thighs.

The table between us felt smaller than it was before, but I was probably just got tunnel visioned.

I looked at Ann's face, still habouring that faint, unreadable smile, and said nothing.

She tilted her head slightly, her fingers drumming on the tabletop.

"So, Cory, my dear girl" she said, "which secret would you want first, if you ever came back?"

"You're willing to tell me now?" I asked.

She nodded.

"What if I just never return the favor? You know, listen to it then dip."

When I said that, I was expecting either words of affirmation, something about You wouldn't do that or I would make you return the favor.

Yet, Ann just smiled, so I diverted my eyes from her like a coward, mouth half-opened.

"I choose…"

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