I smiled as I headed northwest, looking for Ruby's tent, and got a lot of appreciative looks from folks on the way. Well, my fancy new colorful armor did.

In the glimpses I caught from shop windows, I had to admit I looked impressive. Dashing, even. My colorful new armor drew the eye, while my Mirror Cloak flapped gently in the breeze behind me. It was nice to see smiles rather than scowls.

The fact that we had a plan made me smile wider. If Burns and Tony could take out the clockwork home base and me and my team could find and defeat the mermaids, we'd have the stage mostly conquered in record time. Then we could focus on leveling at the Training Guild and hunting straggler monsters with Ed and the other folks with broken classes to get them to the next milestone level.

Thinking of Ed, I needed to check on my friend. Hopefully he'd participated in defending the town. Even if he didn't kill a lot of monsters, he could have won some levels through experience sharing.

My thoughts were interrupted by Elizabeth Maberly appearing beside me. Like blinking into view and falling into step without missing a beat. She'd changed out of her skanky Jasmine outfit to a high-quality leather ranger suit, complete with deep hood pulled up over her hair, which was now blond and a lot shorter.

"Hello, Lucas. May I walk with you?"

"No limits on who can walk where, as far as I know. Did you perm a teleport spell?"

"No. I can't waste time running around like a common messenger."

Huh. So she just spent a short-term teleport spell to catch up with me? Seemed like an insane waste of mana crystals.

When I didn't say anything, she continued. "Lucas, as you heard, and no doubt saw upon entering Port Royale, the Expanse was badly damaged by the cannonball attack of that Leviathan."

Was she going to blame me for that after publicly claiming part of the death and destruction was my fault for being late? "Good thing I stopped it, or the next round would have finished the job."

"Yes, thank you for the intervention. You've been gone a couple days, so may not know all that's been going on. The Expanse now plays a central role in my efforts to help as many people advance as possible through the rapid acquisition of VIP points."

"I heard something about that."

"Good. Unfortunately, repairs for the damage will be costly."

"I guess it's a good thing so many people are committed to your plan. I bet you can raise a lot of funds pretty fast."

"Not as much as you would think, actually." When I glanced over, she made a point of looking crestfallen. "Most folks have taken the barter arrangement to access services and entertainment."

I really didn't want to know details.

"Additionally, in order to make the Expanse everything I need it to be in order to win the points we'll need for so many people in so short a time, I need to purchase another upgrade."

"Those can be expensive."

"Indeed, especially when Tony is pushing me to spend so much of the town's resources to upgrade town defenses."

"The club won't be much fun if everyone is dead." Did she even realize she was basically admitting to wanting to spend town resources to upgrade her own club?

She sighed. "Lucas, let me cut to the chase. You have somehow managed to accrue far more mana crystals than anyone else. I am looking for a loan."

"A loan? What kind of interest are you offering?"

She grimaced. "I doubt I can raise the mana crystals to pay you back directly."

"I'm not interested in a barter system to access your services. I don't think the Expanse is my kind of place." Plus, I was part owner of Sam's tavern.

"Too bad. I can guarantee you entertainment like nothing you've ever imagined. In fact," she gave me a flirty look. "Together, we could get so many VIP points, it would blow your mind."

I doubted that. The proposal made me shudder inside. How many people was she already sleeping with? And she wanted to jump into the sack with me, hoping that millions of perverts across the multiverse would pay good crystals to watch us, or even vicariously get into the act. My stomach lurched at the thought.

"You don't have to agree with everyone's choice of paths, Lucas. That's fine, but I thought your philosophy was helping everyone achieve greatness through whichever path they chose?"

On one level, she did have a point, but there had to be a line somewhere. Actually, I had already defined one line. Anyone using coercion to force someone to participate would get Echo through the face. She wasn't suggesting that, but just thinking about what she was dragging so many people into made me want to move the line.

If I tried to think about the transaction from a purely business standpoint, maybe it would be a great move to snag a share of The Expanse if it was getting so popular. I could win a lot of experience like I was doing with Sam's tavern.

Elizabeth had to be earning outrageous amounts of experience between owning the club and now being mayor. Her levels had already jumped to 55. I needed as many experience streams as possible.

Except, I didn't like Elizabeth. She was a selfish, conniving, heartless woman who seemed to revel in all of the worst aspects of humanity.

"How much do you need?"

"Just 3 tier-8 mana crystals," she said in a pleading tone.

I coughed. "Tier-8? That's 300 million mana crystals!"

Of course, I'd just tossed one to Paul, but that was for the defense of the entire town, and I honestly didn't expect him to use it all.

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"A steep price back on Earth, but you defeat bosses almost every day. I bet it's just a pittance for you."

I could afford it easily enough, but did I want to? I hesitated and she added, "With the upgrade, participants in our expanding menu of adult entertainment will gain twice as much experience from each session and vastly increase their chances of winning VIP points."

As much as her words made my skin crawl, could we ignore any way to gain more experience? Actually, I was starting to think maybe we should. Yes, we were fighting for the very survival of Earth, I'd waded through slaughter and blood, but those were monsters.

Like Ruby had said once, losing our humanity in the process wasn't worth it. Ruby had feared I'd become a bloodthirsty monster, or something, but there were other ways to lose one's humanity. What if we won the game and returned to Earth with scores of extremely powerful people with overly developed sex addictions? What a nightmare.

Elizabeth's approach might gain a lot of experience, but just thinking about it made me feel dirty. She was dragging people down into depravity while promising them a chance at redemption. I wasn't sure it would work. But they were adults with their own agency.

As I mulled it all over, she paused and placed a hand on my arm, pulling me to a stop. Instead of flirting again, she sighed and her calm facade cracked, showing real worry in her eyes.

"Lucas, I can see what you're thinking, and honestly, you're right. This entire system is depraved and disgusting."

Now what I'd expected. "So why—"

She interrupted. "Not just everything I'm doing with the Expanse, but the entire game. We're dumped on this planet and forced to fight for our lives with the threat of our entire planet getting wiped out if we fail. We get super powers and cascading piles of loot to help cover up the insanity a bit, but it's just a veneer over rot."

I nodded. "Sure. Even when we defeat Marisara, we'll get back to Earth with a whole lot of PTSD to deal with."

Her lips twitched into a wry smile. "You're one of the lucky ones, Lucas. You compartmentalize it all better than most. You focus on fighting and leveling and surviving and just embrace our new reality."

"I don't see a good alternative if I want to live."

"Exactly." She leaned a bit closer. "Lucas, you spend a lot of time out of town so you don't see how badly a lot of people are coping. Not everyone can shift gears and just deal with our current reality. The weak ones, mentally or emotionally weak even more than physically weak, have already died. You don't see how many more of our people are on the cusp of totally falling apart. We cannot afford to lose them, but they're falling behind and will not keep up."

As I considered that, she powered on. "Lucas, you and Tony and Burns and the other elites can fight monsters. That's great because we can't count on a lot of other people to do it, but I don't want to just let them die because they're not cut out for this insane world."

"None of us are cut out for it. We just need to adapt."

"That may be true, but a lot of folks are struggling to adapt. I got a sponsor early and they warned me about some of what was about to happen with viewers and VIP points. They helped me position myself where I am."

"So they told you to launch a coup?"

"Lucas, I'm playing a grand game, but it's just another role. I don't really need the points, but so many of our people do. I needed control to give my plan a chance to work. These people need a diversion from reality and they bloody well need a way to win some points. This is the only way I can offer them hope, so I'm going all in, but I need a little help."

The impassioned plea was quite moving. Back on Earth, it might even win her one of those silly awards movie stars always seemed to be giving each other. I couldn't remember what they were called. And yet, she'd just admitted she was playing a part. Which part was real, her persona as coup-launching diva, or her attempt to position herself as the savior of the poor useless masses who could only survive through debauchery? Or neither?

I had no clue. The new aspect of her motivation seemed important, but she was clearly skilled at manipulating people to get what she wanted.

"I'll think about it."

"Lucas, time is of the essence."

"I know that better than anyone. Don't push me, Elizabeth. I appreciate everything you've just confided. Really, I do, but I'm tired, and I need to take a break and think about it."

"Don't take too long. The fate of many rest in your hands."

Then she disappeared. Wasted another teleport scroll. That woman was twisted. How much did each of those scrolls cost? Even if it was a temporary spell with a bunch of uses, that had to have cost her a ton.

Feeling a lot less happy than I had before our little chat, I marched on and finally found my team. Ruby banished her Base Camp tent and I dumped my castle out of the Ultimate Glamp potion bottle. Seeing it pop into existence brought back my good mood, as did Jeeves when he opened the door with a bow and welcomed us inside with hot towels for our faces.

Andy and Lana were on wall duty, but everyone else piled inside with me. Even before we gathered around the pool table in my trophy room, Ruby exclaimed, "All right Lucas, tell. Where did you get that armor?"

"And do they have a his and hers matching set available?" Steve added with a wink.

"I'd take it," Ruby said, eyes roving over my armor in a way that made Steve grin. No doubt, he'd tease her about that all night.

"Team armor sounds good," Tomas said.

Jane smiled. "Good idea. I'll work on something with Ruby."

"Why not include the rest of us?" Steve asked.

"Because most guys suck at design and color coordination."

"Yeah, that's fair," he said with a shrug, and suddenly his outfit changed to bright green pants with yellow polka-dots, along with a shirt striped with clashing neon colors.

"Why would you ever get something like that?" Ruby laughed.

"Sometimes clones need to go into interesting locations."

Smiling, I answered Ruby's original question. "This armor is some of the gear I got from crafters in town for sharing a bunch of materials, especially those pallets of metals. Tony made this himself." I thumped a chest panel.

"His power armor is totally boss," Jane said.

"Yeah, I saw it from a distance. The armor on my legs came from other crafters, and I got something for each of you too."

"Loot sharing!" Steve chortled, rubbing his hands together gleefully. Luckily, Susan wasn't around. I had forgotten she'd be moving in with Steve, and I didn't have a gift for her.

Tomas laughed when he got the magical multi-tool and immediately started tinkering with it. Jane gave me a quick kiss on the cheek after examining the necklace that boosted mind and psychic abilities. For Steve, I dumped the 3 breastplates onto the pool table and gestured.

"Choose your pick."

While he examined the armor, I handed the small case with the stat-boosting rings to Ruby. When she opened it, her eyes widened, then she laughed with delight. "Lucas, you really like giving me rings. Last time it was just one, although that one is still my favorite. This time you had to give me 5?"

Steve exclaimed, "You didn't."

I flushed as red as Ruby's hair. "You know it's not like that. The buffs are great. I can't help it that they're made like rings."

"Or you have a subconscious inability to give Ruby anything that doesn't fit on her ring finger," Jane teased.

I sighed. I'd walked right into that one, and I hadn't even seen it coming. "Fine, here's another thing for you, Jane, and something that's not a ring for Ruby."

I gave Jane the white ring with the sunburst effect, then extracted the fancy helmet.

Steve nodded mockingly. "Sure, a motorcycle helmet so you can share more intimate rides together. Just happens to be colored like roses."

"Oh, shut up, or you won't get any armor."

"Actually, can I have all 3 of them?"

I scowled. "After all that?"

He shrugged. "It's what I do, and if you can't prepare better to deal with the fall-out of continuing to give Ruby rings and diamonds all the time, that's on you, buddy."

I had no plans to use the armor. "Fine. They're yours."

"I love having rich friends," Steve said.

I explained the properties of the rings and the helmet to Ruby since she lacked Identify. She smiled and tried on the helmet. Even though it had been designed for me, it fit pretty well when she tucked her hair up.

"It'll come in handy dealing with the rain at night. And Lucas, I love the rings. The buffs are small, but every point helps."

"That's what I figured." She was getting strong enough that 5 points in each base stat wouldn't do a lot, but they'd do something.

"Thanks, Lucas," Tomas said as he pulled a pool cue from the rack on the wall. "Time to see if all that fancy armor can help you not suck so bad at pool."

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