“That was weird,” I said when Finnegan was out of earshot. I shook my head. “Thanks for the offer though. I don’t suppose it will still stand in a few days?”

She stared at me fixedly.

“What?”

“That was a trap. You realize that, right?”

“What? No. He’s weaker than me. He doesn’t even have any fighting cards.”

“You’re joking, right? That was an obvious trap. He was going to ambush you. His story had more holes than a fishing net.”

“Seemed reasonable enough.”

“Oh yes, this magic area where we can get all the cards we dream of,” she mocked. “Please. If cards were that ready at hand, even Gold-rankers would go after them. And no one here is Gold. I don’t know if you know, but the gateways are locked to Steel rank and below during the grace period.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Cards and arcana are extraordinarily rare. Fragment Masters aren’t valuable for nothing. Outside of towers and the like, getting them is practically unheard of.”

“I got one. A card, that is. From a corrupted.” I shrugged. “And two arcana from a monster on the beach yesterday.”

“Then you got ridiculously lucky.”

“Vyrania would agree. She’s pointed that out more than a few times.”

Sarixia glanced at the hotel. “And lucky I was here to save you, and that my vacation was interrupted by inconsiderate monsters and another burning follower of Discord.”

I frowned. “It doesn’t make sense though. Why would he want to ambush me? It’s not like he can steal my cards. Can he?”

“No, especially not with him being only Copper.”

“Then I don’t have anything he wants.”

“Exactly. So what do you do with someone who doesn’t have anything you want?”

“Um, nothing?”

“You kill them.”

“I think your world is probably a lot more violent than mine.”

She shook her head regrettably. “Just don’t go out there with him alone, yeah?”

“So you’re still volunteering.”

She sighed, looking in the direction of the beach. I could just make out large shapes clashing. With her being Steel, she could likely see everything perfectly clearly. “I guess my vacation’s ruined for the moment. Might as well go out and explore.” She looked at me. “Let’s go out now.” Her mood was suddenly excited.

Having a Steel with me would be great, especially while the Hero Board contest was paused. “I appreciate the offer. Can it wait a few hours? I want to stop by my store.”

She shrugged, not seeming very excited anymore. “I’ll come with you. Might as well check out your store. And someone has to save you from ambushes.”

I frowned at her belts as we walked back to my shop. “Did you happen to chop a monster’s head off recently?”

“Maybe? Don’t recall specifically.”

“A giant one that was like knocking down buildings and chasing some people from the ocean.”

“Uh, no, I definitely didn’t do that.”

“Why do you sound like you’re lying?”

“Do I?”

“Yes.”

She shrugged. “No idea. But I have no reason to lie about beheading monsters. Not my usual forte, but I’m not opposed to a little decapitation now and again.”

“Why’d you choose belts? That must take a long time to put on.”

“They’re from my Iron talisman. The original card only let me empower my pets. Now they give me different abilities based on my pets, in addition to the original effect.” The duck-mouse from before appeared in her hand. She stopped walking and set it down and it strode a few feet away. One of the belts glowed slightly and unwrapped itself from her, then snapped between her and the creature, and suddenly the two of them had swapped places.

“Whoa, that was amazing,” I said.

She walked back and picked up the duck-mouse.

“So it lets you swap places with your pets?”

“In a way. The ability itself is from Little, but he attracts a lot of attention and is a bit… unruly. Soward here is far more discreet.”

Soward mooed in agreement, then disappeared from her hand.

“Did your duck-mouse just moo?”

“Of course not.”

I looked at the spot over her shoulder the belt had flown from, now with an obvious gap. “Do they regenerate?”

“My pets? Some of them.”

“The belts.”

“After a bit. Some take longer than others. Even the quicker replenishing ones still take a decent amount of time. In a difficult fight I usually end up blowing through all of them. Not that I’ve had one of those any time recently.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“All of them? Like, you use them all up and they’re gone.”

“Yes.”

“So you’re just casually fighting without your belts?”

“They’re not my only abilities.”

“I mean, are you wearing like, armor, under them?”

She frowned. “No. Armor under armor? That would be strange. Why?”

I sighed. “Never mind. Your world is so weird.”

‌

∎ ∎ ∎

I pushed open the door to my shop to find multiple surprises awaiting me.

The most obvious being that I had a door again in the first place. It even had a store name embossed on it.

This was highly suspicious, as firstly, my old door hadn’t had one, and secondly, this one read Surf&Turk.

Inside smelled of fresh coffee and pastries and set my stomach growling, and revealed even more to be surprised at.

The counter and cash register had been replaced with ones that looked suspiciously like the ones from Surf&Turk, and the table Jadriel had smashed had been removed and replaced with one that I definitely recognized as being from that restaurant.

Someone had certainly been doing some scavenging.

Though with the Currency Vault, we didn’t really need the cash register anymore.

The few remaining electric bikes that I’d left inside had been moved outside to make more room at the front of the store, and all of the bookcases pushed up against one wall to create several short rows like in a library, which left the entire front now dedicated to tables, all of which were empty save for one.

I wasn’t sure I liked the open floorplan compared to the cozy nooks the bookcases created, but there was no arguing there was space for more customers now, and the entire interior was brighter. Though that may have simply been due to the front window being clean for the first time ever.

Sarixia took in the store and gave a slight nod that looked like approval. Then she headed to the counter to look at the goods on offer, which appeared to be a variety of pastries.

“I said no smoking,” I scolded the store’s sole customer. If you could even call him that.

Bob brought his coffee to his mouth, staring at me over it. In front of him on the table sat a graphic novel in its native Korean. It was just one of his many oddities. I’m pretty sure he only looked at the pictures. He set his coffee down, smacked his lips, let out a sigh of contentment, then took a drag on his vape.

I shook my head, unable to do anything but laugh. It seemed so inconsequential now. Plus, once I reached Iron, I wouldn’t have lungs to worry about. Maybe before that, if I focused on replacing those first.

“Emma says hi.”

He picked up his pastry—a mug-like thing covered in vibrant yellow frosting—biting into it while gazing at me appraisingly. “Suppose you’ll do,” he said as he chewed. “Bit too pretty for me tastes, but I ain’t the one lookin at ya.”

“I’m not pretty.”

He grunted dismissively. “Better than that spy she’s working for.”

“Finnegan? Have the two of them—”

“Noah!” Koren exclaimed, coming out from the store’s kitchen with a tray piled high with pastries all shaped like different breeds of mugs. If it weren’t for his Iron-rank strength, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to support it. Especially since the ‘tray’ was just a wooden tabletop. Also from Surf&Turk. “And you brought a friend!” He smiled at Sarixia. “Sari, splendid of you to join us. You must try one.” He easily balanced the tabletop on one hand, then grabbed and tossed a pastry from it to her so quickly I didn’t register it until after she’d caught it—which she did with ease.

“These don’t look official,” she said in a tone I couldn’t interpret.

“This is your doing then?” I gestured at the pastries then the store in general.

“Alas,” he said, “I can only claim responsibility for the mug-treats. Vy handled the design. You like it?”

“It’s… open.”

“It was too stuffy in here before,” Bob added.

I gestured at the pastries. “What’s with those?”

“You don’t like mug-treats?” Koren asked.

“I mean, why are they shaped like mugs?”

“Please tell me your civ has mug-treats.”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“A true travesty.” He grabbed another mug-treat and tossed it to me, much more slowly. “You must try it.”

“Thanks,” I muttered. “Where’s Vyrania?”

“Not sure. Upstairs? Or out reclaiming more supplies.”

“Yeah, I noticed the new decor. I’m pretty sure that’s called stealing.”

“Is it? How peculiar.” With one swift motion he slid the pastries off the tabletop and into the new display case.

It was kind of impressive.

“I don’t remember hiring you,” I told him. “Either of you.”

“Looks like the system disagrees. And the system is always right.”

“That sounds like propaganda if I’ve ever heard it.”

Bob raised his coffee and tilted it in my direction. “Struth.”

“See for yourself,” Koren said, heading back to the kitchen. “I have more mug-treats to prep.”

I did, pulling up the deed to my store.

Deed to Whitehall’s BBC: Books, Bikes, and Coffee

Level 4 Superstore

Type: Independent

Owner: Noah Whitehall

Employees: Noah Whitehall, Koren Al-Sagoyn

Volunteers: Bob Huxley, Emma Huxley, Vyrania Trel

He was right. I had offered to hire him, but it seemed like more should be required. Like my explicit permission. It was bad enough I seemed to have little control over the tower.

I wondered how he was getting paid.

I looked at the mug-shaped pastry Koren had given me. It looked… unfamiliar, to say the least. But I assumed it was made with my ingredients. And it smelled wonderful. The outside was crisp and bubbled, the interior filled with a pale blue substance that looked like frosting. “That’s a lot of frosting,” I muttered.

But when I took a bite I discovered it was just the right amount. It was light and fluffy and sweet but not too sweet and melded perfectly with the crunchy, savory exterior.

I saw Sarixia was already eating hers as she browsed the bookshelves.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Bob as I sat down at the table across from him, munching my mug pastry. He’d already polished his off, yellow frosting on his nose and chin.

“Well with me boat destroyed, I don’t have many options, now do I?”

“You slept here?” I finished off the rest of my pastry with one large bite. Copper rank or not, I was starving.

“Not here here, per se.”

“He slept upstairs,” Vyrania said, coming down said stairs. “It’s actually nice up there now it’s cleaned up.” She looked at Sarixia, nodded. “Sari.”

“Trel.”

I looked back and forth between them, sensing some weird tension. “You cleaned upstairs as well? You really didn’t have to.”

“On the contrary, it’s our job.”

“You’re only listed as a volunteer.”

She gave a slight smile. “The system knows me too well. My sense of adventure can’t be tamed.”

“Not the only thing,” Sarixia muttered under her breath.

“I could use that sense now,” I said. “I need to train, get stronger, practice using my cards.”

“And not walk into traps,” Sarixia put in.

“Traps?” Vyrania asked. “The spiders?”

“Spiders?” Sarixia said.

“The courthouse—” I began, but a message appeared before I could go on. The once enthusiastic voice now sounded downtrodden.

Hello. It’s me, System 3121-111.

It’s come to my attention there has been some misunderstanding about the [Hero Board] contest. Perhaps due to my use of the word “murder”.

Allow me to clarify. I was using that word… poetically. Death is not required. You must simply duel someone in the top 10, and the winner takes the spot of the loser.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Additionally, anyone in the top 10 must accept any reasonable duel, and, due to the Treaty of Exclusionary Principles, it is now limited to the top 100 on the [Hero Board]. Which means only those already in the top 100 can challenge those in the top 10 to a duel.

I hope this clarifies matters.

Regards, your favorite system, System 3121-111.