Despite Mike looking like crap, he was in good spirits. He didn’t want to talk about his tutorial experience much, but I am sure he would come around to it, and I am sure it was no worse than mine. Since the impromptu fashion parade was over, we settled into a more relaxed gathering. Mike had managed to get some weird alcoholic drinks from the shop during his tutorial. I wish I had thought of that. Maybe he had not broken his as much as I had.

We planned a little party. Luke, bless him, shouted some Uber Eats again, so we all had some weird system drinks and fresh fish and chips. The fish was divine, locally caught and very fresh. It was a relaxing time. As we sat talking, eating and drinking, we all wanted to know what class Mike had. I guess we could have identified him, but as I was learning, that was considered very rude, so we didn’t. To be honest, I had not even considered it. This was something else I needed to get used to.

Eventually, he told us he was a Noble Administrator.

He lied to us outright and told us he had stacked his stats and had followed the typical ratio suggested, in Spirit, Mind, then Body. I knew him well enough to realise he had totally forgotten that and was just making crap up and was too embarrassed to admit it.

I called him out on his BS, but he remained tight-lipped.

I’d bet money he had stacked his charisma, perception, karma, wisdom, intelligence, focus, and body in that order. Julie was ecstatic with the potential of his class, and it would be of great use to Earth Inc. Any settlement could use him, especially with some of his class skills. Nearly every aspect of running a settlement would be improved; claiming land, enhancing land, and resource management. His class was upgradeable, but he was unfortunately only Tier 2 now and Level 2 in his class. That seemed a bit low. I thought you had to be Level 10 to complete the tutorial.

Even when pressed, he didn’t want to talk about his experience and seemed distracted and a bit agitated. On the bright side, he said he could claim land and manage land, having earned quite a few bonuses and options for a settlement from his class, but he needed to be attached to an organisation, he was not a ruler, more a steward.

Luke, Mike and I stayed up late talking and making plans. Given that it was Monday, we had a lot to do. There were some reality checks and dealing with life before the crap hit the fan. Fuck, I needed to resign from my job. I needed to talk to Mum! Crap, that would be hard. Mike had plans to leave his old life in an organised manner. I guess that is why he was an administrator.

Mike kept looking at me, and there were a few awkward moments until Mike got drunk enough. He just asked, "Did you get some work done because Damn" gesturing at my body.

I slapped him, not too hard, in a friendly way, "You know I would never. This is all-natural, and thanks," I winked at him. All natural if you didn't count the alien blue goo of nanites that had altered me.

Luke was not impressed. I think he was still a little shy about our relationship but unsure where we stood. Mike got all mopey about all the beautiful women around him, so I teased him about Julie and how we had caught him perving. That shut him up quickly. Overall, it was nice; Luke and I were getting comfortable in each other's company, and I could sneak a few kisses and cuddles, but neither of us was up for full public displays of affection. I don’t think Mike appreciated it, and he left for bed reasonably early.

By the time Mike went to bed, we had not worked out what we would do or how Mike and I would tell our parents or extract ourselves from life for the next couple of weeks. My mum would be interesting to deal with, but Mike lived with his dad, and he could be a bit rough and unbending. I didn’t envy that at all. Luckily, both our parents worked, so we could message them, pretending we were going straight to jobs and we would see them later. Or something. I was such a terrible planner. I much preferred face-to-face and working things out. I could admit I was not the most sophisticated planner. Mum would go ballistic when she found out I was lying.

I was going to sneak home, get some clothes and, more importantly, my accessories and boots all together and then come back here. I’d talk to my mum eventually, but only if she were home. I loved her dearly, but she would be a pain until I was more settled. She would feel guilty for not being around, not noticing and all that. We could go a week without seeing each other, depending on her shifts and my schedule. As it stood, I’d have to lie to her, and she would not even know and then get upset when she found out. She was a worrier.

Mike planned to avoid his dad, but I knew he wanted to tell him. I hoped he got brave enough to do it, not that I'd ever call him a coward.

In the morning, before we headed back to Cairns for the day, Julie reminded us that we needed to keep a low profile and not use our skills where we could be seen. We didn't want to get caught up with any legal issues. It was exciting and a bit freeing. We all promised, but I knew I would use some skills regardless. We were all going to head to Cairns, tie up loose ends and then come back. Luke and Mike would drive around, but I had other plans. I spent a few minutes locking a location in my bedroom for my teleport spell. I would not be spending time in traffic if I could help it. Luke and I caught what we were now calling Mike’s Uber back to Cairns, where he dropped us off at my house and said our goodbyes, planning on meeting back at home in Port Douglas in the evening.

Mike was going to drive around and take Luke with him after picking Phillip up, who was arriving on a bus later today. We were on a reasonably tight schedule, or I’d guess you would call it a mission, due to the developments with Jamie and Amy.

I got home relatively quickly and avoided being seen by the neighbours. I knew that using my stealth skills outside our energy pocket would eventually drain me, but I was OK, I’d rather avoid them. It would be a pain to deal with Mum if a neighbour mentioned that I had been home when I said I would be at work. She was already freaking out a bit with me being away for so long without me adding more fuel to her worry.

It took me longer than I expected to get all my clothes together. I knew I had a few, but when I looked at them all, I had a ridiculous number of outfits. I had never had to deal with packing or making choices before. It didn’t help that I needed to ensure they all still fit. Once I started trying them on, I realised how much my body had changed. I had some serious development, like I had had super expensive mastopexy. I was more prominent and firmer in the chest and significantly taller. Slightly wider hips and thicker thighs, toned with muscles, that is. It was a little shocking when I finally saw myself in a full-length mirror. It was also impressive.

I spent some time strutting and practising in case I had to do another impromptu fashion parade. In the end, I had three piles, no longer fitting, fitting but no longer looking good and keeping. The keeping pile was depressingly small.

Then I got to mixing and matching all my accessories. I couldn’t wear any of my old bras, which was annoying as a good bra was expensive, and I had some super sexy ones too. I would say I had gone from a C to a D cup or even larger. My old bras were too small and tight, but at least I didn’t really need them with my new figure, as my new body was gravity-defying! It was pretty liberating. I almost laughed at the burn-the-bra imagery I got when I saw the pile of them. At the same time, it was a bit sad because I had some gorgeous lingerie. Most of the T-shirts I had were now too tight. They were still nice and would suit if I was rocking a Daisy Duke look. A bit too tight and eye-popping for general wear. Guys would stare, and as much as I liked attention, there was a time and a place for that. I don’t think I was ready for that kind of look. Although next to Julie, I would not get too much attention. So I only put four shirts into my inventory. All my Levis still fit, now skin tight, which was good news, but a bit annoying to put them on. It was hard to find the perfect sizes for different looks. I had a pair of custom 501s in 90s style. Three pairs went in. I was sad that all my distressed jeans were in the not-keeping pile.

I didn’t grab any activewear. I was off that now, as I was only going to use more nano-weave under-armour instead. It was better in all respects. I made up for that sacrifice as nearly all my shoes went in, even the ones that almost broke my feet to put on. Now that I could heal blisters and sprains pretty quickly with potions and skills, if worst came to worst. A little pain was nothing for an extra curve in the calf. Imagine being decked out in some red knee-high Steve Maddens. Sure, they might pinch the toes a bit, but when you cast a Lightning bolt, that is what I was talking about. Not that I could cast a Lightning Bolt yet.

Spells and Style, or Spells’n’Style, maybe that would be the name of my post-integration fashion label. They were the only knee-highs I packed. They had some sentimental value. I remembered saving for months to get them; the rest of the shoes were more sensible. The 7-inch heels were not, so I didn’t take them until I realised that high heels were so easy with my new agility. Yep, I could run in heels. I laughed when I noticed I’d put all my shoes in my inventory. I should have just gone with my first instinct.

I was really starting to enjoy this, and I had Solace as a patient novice in fashion to talk to. She was patient and asked some pretty interesting questions, some of which made me laugh. Why was I so focused on how I looked? How many shoes did I need? What was the difference between the two white T-shirts? I guess not having physical representation she would be at a loss to understand looking good. Since she did not have a physical form, it was interesting to get her perceptions. She was both naive and wise at the same time. She knew nearly everything but had huge cultural gaps. Why were 501 jeans important? She had no idea what I meant when I replied, "Because I could fit the legend."

She also kept track of the numbers for me, which is how I knew that I packed all my leggings, 34 sets, even though I didn’t think I would wear them. Once again, under-armour was far superior to leggings in every way. Still, they were stacked neatly in my inventory, and I had been collecting them for several years. They were all different patterns and quite expensive. Maybe I could do something with them when I worked out how to use my Clothier skill.

I only had four handbags that matched my formal dresses. Then I realised I was not going to use any of the other handbags with other outfits anymore now that I had an inventory, so only a few special ones went in—all my earrings, rings and makeup. I wasn’t a bit makeup fan, and after seeing Julie and Jean rocking without any, I was going to make an effort to use less, so I only took a little. I’d have to get into makeup art to learn how to do it properly. I asked Solace if she could track YouTube channels for makeup for future reference. After enhancement, my skin improved, so I didn’t really need as much. Solace informed me that part of gaining race tiers removed imperfections in your DNA. The nanites scrubbed it clean. They lengthened our telomers, whatever they were, improving our response to age and other cellular damage.

I culled a lot of makeup for most of my outfits, one for each colour. I sighed and decided that now was not the best time to make life-altering decisions, so I put a couple more colours in. My perfume was the same. I had a big think about it and decided that it might not be for the best, imaging sneaking around while in stealth, then the people you are sneaking from smell some Chanel. So even though some of the bottles were worth their weight in gold, I left most behind. I packed those super expensive ones. Then again, I was not a sneaking class, so why waste them, especially since they stacked neatly in my inventory? I needed to get a skill or spell for makeup and perfume, like the Insta-do.

After a while, I figured out that while individual items didn’t stack, similar bags or boxes did. I ran around the house and piled up all those green recyclable shopping bags that make you look like a hobo if you carry clothes around in them. I put clothes in them so they would stack in my inventory. Shoe boxes were stacked, regardless of size, so that was nice, and I didn’t quite have two stacks between shoe boxes and green bags. Most were shoes. It took me well past lunchtime to get it all together.

Solace: I can see why you are desperate for extra slots to hold your outfits. We may be creating them for quite some time.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

All good. At least we know it is working.

I also snagged my music collection, some DVDs and a bunch of magazines. Finally, I was ready to teleport back.

Can you stream from my Netflix, Disney and Amazon accounts?

Solace: Yes. I can also download from apple music and Spotify. This gives me access to over 72.5% of all music and movies. I will work on culturally diverse options as well. Sprite and I will work on saving your earth's culture and people.

Sounds good. Do you need anything?

Solace: Not at this moment. I can plan for Earth Inc. to absorb some of our cultural preservation efforts. It might become quite an enterprise. Did you know that there were over 200 different languages used in Australia alone? The system makes them irrelevant for communication, but their cultural significance is immense. This will be repeated all over the world. In the areas where the Karass hold sway, the indigenous culture will be erased.

Shit, let me know if we can do something about that. It is time to get out of here.

Phidyora’s Minor Teleport.

I supplied the mana, and Solace did the calculations. One day I would be able to do it myself, if my mind stat got high enough.

As I cast the spell and the magic took hold, I felt slightly cold, numb and somewhat nauseous, but it wasn’t anything too drastic, and hopefully, it would get better with practice and use. The massive dump of mana was euphoric and left me feeling buzzing, more alive and ready to cast more spells.

Then we were back at the Port Douglas Apartment.

It was still early afternoon, and Mike was not back yet, but Julie was still there. Amy was busy doing weird hackery stuff with Eddy. So, Julie and I had a late lunch together. She was pretty impressed with my stat gains. When I spoke about Mike and his class, Julie continued to be excited, saying that he could potentially speed up the Earth Inc. operations dramatically.

I was trying to figure out her angle on helping Earth, but as long as she was helping, I wasn’t going to complain. She seemed to be profit and credit-driven. As long as she helped and didn’t go psychotic, I’d remain part of it and help. I told her I was in for the fight or whatever we were doing and was planning on kicking butt and looking great.

She smiled at me.

At the moment, we were in a weird limbo. People were training and waiting for the others to come out of their System Enhancements and Tutorials. Jane, Rahsaan, and Phillip would use the last of our nanites. Julie hoped that when the Legion First Cohort arrived, they could supply a couple more for any others we needed. They were expected to arrive tomorrow or the next day.

Julie asked me my plans, and when I verbalised them out loud, they sounded so girly, apart from the bit about slinging fireballs and lightning at chaos beasts. I would learn to make magic clothes and items and eventually cook; I’d specialise in being a signature barista or barkeep, a purveyor of magical brews. I was still all over the place with what I wanted to do.

I was surprised when she reminded me Earth Inc. officially employed me. Even though I was a Director, she offered me another job. I would work as her assistant at first, and then after some time, I would manage artisans and magic users as they joined our settlement. She would mentor me into the Empire and the System, like interning before I took over. Her justification was that I was powerful and, regardless of my talent or interests, I needed some guidance and experience.

If I were going to be the second most powerful Earth Human, I would give any future settlement some legitimacy, but I needed the experience to back up my power. I needed to take control of my life rather than just running around with no plan. Shit, I was not normally this unfocused. There was something wrong with me today because I squeeed and gave her a huge jumpy hug.

She took it as a yes. Once I managed to calm myself, I asked if we could do something about Mike’s family, his Dad and brother, my mother, and possibly Luke’s lawyer friend. I was starting to realise that things would change, and if we could, family and friends were important, and we could not save everyone as much as we would like to.

We were in a weird space, If we went public with our knowledge, no one would believe us. By the time we convinced people, we would be locked away for investigation, interrogation and vivisection. By the time we got it all sorted, the counter would reach zero, integration would start, and all bets would be off, then it would be too late. We were already behind the curve, and the good guys, the politicians or Earth Humans, were not known to play nice with the unknown. Our history was full of examples where fear and paranoia drove decisions.

Julie asked about our families. I knew Mike’s dad was a part-time mechanic and drove trucks. My mother worked as a clerk and was super busy and super organised. Even though Luke was not close to his lawyer friend, I knew that Luke felt some obligation to them. He and his wife had done the right thing by him even when they could have milked him dry. Julie was sure there would be work for them all, and eventually, they could be enhanced and join our settlement. At integration time, everyone on the planet would start the automatic enhancement process, from Tier 0 to Tier 1, with some getting the basic tutorial completed over 24 hours. The process could take 1 week to 1 month, depending on energy levels, luck and some other system fuckery.

The sad news was that some would not survive for various reasons: stupidity, failure to adapt or just general human nature. With planning, we could enhance a few to the more expensive Tier 2 to help us. The Tier 2 enhancement kits were expensive and rare, but they would give us as a race a better chance to survive. They were like a concentrated energy and nanite soup. These were like saving all your credits for your life to give to your children or Saudi prince kind of expensive, and people were more likely to survive than just natural evolution.

Julie planned to look after as many people as long as everyone had some contract with Earth Inc, or were sworn into the Empire. They had to be part of whatever we were doing, and we would have no room for people who wanted to do their own thing or to be dickheads. If they wanted to be part of it, that was fine with me, but if they tried to stop us, well, let's hope I didn’t have to face that dark part of myself.

It was not like the system or the Karass were going to give them any choice, Integrate or die. Julie showed me some footage of the previous Karass-led integrations or invasions. I was shocked at their brutality and how they enhanced people. There were no tutorials or choices. You either fought or served, regardless of your wishes. Their mortality rate for an invaded world was unacceptable, and the conditions for those who did, one word: wrong. People were treated like cattle and farmed for their energy or skill usage. The main exports from a slave planet were warriors or low-level drudges doing menial tasks. Imagine being forced to use a skill, like creating ice, and being forced to use it thousands of times a day until you fell over with energy deprivation. Just so the Karass elite could have cool drinks. Then, do it again as soon as you recover. The less fortunate were taken to their arena for entertainment and, if they survived, were promoted as fodder in their expansion deep into other regions or to fight in Chaos space and Void-claimed territory.

That put a big damper on my afternoon.

When Mike finally returned, he was a little depressed. He had a squeaky-wheeled suitcase that contained all his clothes and belongings. He looked really embarrassed when I reminded him about his inventory. A Tier 2 inventory was large and could easily hold quite a few suitcases. I didn’t laugh at him.

Once we settled, we sat around and talked over some plans, still going nowhere, really. We needed a remote base to operate out of, an area with large regions of unclaimed land. Mike perked up. I am sure he was looking forward to using some of his skills to help our expansion. We could not use the settlement stone until integration, so we spent the afternoon looking for options. Port Douglas and Cairns were too populated for a new tiny settlement. It's not that we didn’t want people, but we would not cope with the influx of citizens or incursions, and too many people, despite us wanting to save them, would complicate things dramatically. If we had a safe haven in the middle of a city, it would be open warfare, we would spend more time managing local political issues among factions that would spring up that we would miss the opportunity to create a solid base to oppose the Karass.

Our AIs found an abandoned township that we could operate out of with little oversight for a while. In central west Queensland, there was a small town, one pub and five buildings called Min Min. It was steeped in legends about strange lights, the Min Min Lights. The semi-abandoned town of Min Min, with an official population of 0 people and 20000 cattle, bumped to about 30 when the locals wandered into town. It was perfect. It was a fantastic opportunity.

Julie operated at lightspeed with her AI and access to the Internet and broadband network. Soon, Earth Inc. had the majority lease on the cattle station that encompassed the entire area. She had a feral grin on her face as she negotiated. It was terrifying to see. I don't know where she got the money from, but it was quite a bit, and I was sure she was being shady.

With that sorted, we spent a relatively peaceful afternoon finalising our plans. It was decided that as soon as my new bike arrived, we would drive south to Townsville, then hire or probably buy a 4WD to go west. Officially Earth Inc had obtained permission to develop the large cattle station and had been given a 99-year lease for 1.2 million hectares of land. We also had to employ quite a few people, with the majority being local. The main reason it had gone through was that she had promised to pay all the back rates and taxes, which were quite extensive, as well as agreeing to a reduced subsidy down to nothing over the next decade.

In an afternoon, Juile had negotiated all this and had also an agreement for cultural and land preservation. She was OK with this as The Empire had a long history of preserving integrated culture, and a meeting was set up to demonstrate the technology we would be using. It didn’t escape my attention that many of the meetings' dates were post-integration. There was an expectation that the abandoned five-building settlement would be updated to reflect the region's history and character, since it was all heritage listed there could not be too many cosmetic changes. The old hotel there was already going to form the skeleton of the future town.

I asked Julie about the settlement stone.

She smiled and told me it was the fastest way to get a System-sanctioned settlement going. Still, as an Earth Human, we needed to understand what it signified. A system settlement was a contract with the System to stabilise energy around an area. It provided benefits to the population in return for a general agreement of personal growth. A settlement was responsible for stabilising energy and reducing Void and Chaos incursions in its area of influence. The benefits included bonuses to skills, resources, energy and protection from local attacks. Without a stone, it was a slog to get the population and energy requirements for the Empire System to recognise the area officially. It required land ownership, leadership and a majority vote from the local population for a Tier 3 or higher individual. It is impossible to establish quickly in a newly integrated world without help.

We were also flying under the radar, hiding our activities from local authorities for as long as possible. We would deal with any fallout post-integration. There were some contingencies for when they came calling, with Mike taking the lead on organising those. He had a background in planning and business organisation and loved all that sort of planning and research. Weird, I know.

From our perspective, as long as the cattle kept coming and we paid people, we thought we would be fine. The biggest thing going for us was the location. It was so remote. This was also the biggest hurdle for future growth, but that was above my pay grade. We spent a pleasant afternoon coming up with names, with an instant veto on the utterly idiotic ‘Miketown’ and "Cowtown". We settled on keeping the original name of Min Min.

While we were relaxed and waiting, Luke kept training. His intensity was unnerving. He would spend two hours running and lifting weights, about 1/2 an hour talking to us, and then back at it. I was a bit jealous of all the things I was looking forward to was somewhere I could practice my magic in style. Spamming fireballs around Cairns and Port Douglas was a little too attention-grabbing. I also really needed to get to the Mages Guild. Julie had no idea how to get to it or even where it was, so I was out of luck there, but once we got our settlement over a certain threshold, we could apply to open a chapter here.

I had hoped I would have been able to get in contact with them somehow for some magical training. I had paid my fees, so I expected something from them. I’d see if Solace could help out.

Hey Solace, how can I contact the Mages Guild? I want to visit them, get some training, sell that Greatstaff, and get some credits.

Solace: Would you like me to enquire for you and see if I can find a buyer for the staff?

Sure, it would be cool to go somewhere else, like Luke had in his tutorial, although I’d like it a bit lower-key. I think the staff is valuable, so you were talking about investing or something earlier, so that could make good seed money. Maybe if I make some magical clothes, I could sell them too, especially if they look good. Training, Credits, Crafting.

I needed to be less scattered. I kept making all these lists and ignoring them.

Solace: I will use your staff as collateral for some investments. Your Portable Clothiers Workstation is more than capable of being used to create high-quality magical clothing. I suggest you also invest in a Cobblers Station since you seem unusually obsessed with shoes. Comfortable and Stylish Magical Boots or tech-assisted boots are rare and, as you complain, are not up to your high fashion expectations.

I am not obsessed, really, Solace, ok, maybe a little. It’s not like it hurts anyone. Fine, I’ll get one. Thanks for that, now I want to make something.

Solace: You do have the station. There is nothing stopping you.

God, I am an idiot sometimes.