Chapter 028

Mia Convinces

Ethan and Jason listened intently as Mia launched into a summary of the police notes she’d managed to read through and understand.

“So anyways,” she said, “that’s the boring stuff you already knew about Lantern’s Pharmacy. By all accounts it’s a normal drug store and ice cream float shop. But just like a speakeasy, they let certain people down into a secret basement that does business in sex trafficking and blood trade.”

“Right,” Ethan said. “And Billy Sadler is connected to that.”

“Yes. That dude’s rap sheet is longer than we have time to go through, but basically he’s a sexual predator and a human blood freak. He's friends with plenty of judges. One named Hadwin usually pushes him through the system with a slap on the wrist or even completely dismisses each case.”

He nodded at the explanation. “Yeah. The Green Fists don’t like Hadwin. They had some choice words about the guy. Probably because he’s paid off.”

“Wait a minute,” Jason cut in. “I had a mission with The Cortez Family when I first started. Never finished it, but I was supposed to deliver a letter from that judge to someone at an old theater on Monroe Avenue. Said the judge wanted extra compensation for getting someone off the hook.”

“From the judge to who?” Ethan asked.

Jason shrugged. “From someone in Cortez connected to Judge Hadwin. Can’t remember the receiver, but the dude was a primogen, whatever that means. It’s the mission I noped out of when I went in the basement and saw that Grimsborough Vampir guarding a doorway. Had no way to fight it. Didn’t know about the anti-griefing system yet. Got scared.”

“Makes sense,” Mia nodded. “There’s a big story the newspaper’s been working on about a brother and sister vampire duo from Spain. They share the last name of Villarreal. The sister’s name is Audia. I don’t know the brother’s first name, but he's the leader. Primogen Villarreal. We don't know much about him.”

“Villarreal, yeah!” Jason said. “That was the dude. I was supposed to give the letter to the Vampir guarding the door I think. Then he would give it to Primogen Villarreal.”

“A primogen is the term I’ve come to understand as coven leader in this game,” she said. “There’s tons of them. Apparently they have their own ranks and everything, and then even the primogens are ruled over by even more powerful vampires.”

Jason sighed. “Damn. It goes way deeper than I thought.”

Ethan grinned. “Plenty for me to kill.”

“Anyways,” Mia continued, “those papers helped me fill in some gaps in one of my missions from the newspaper. Officially, some big shot from The Cortez Family named Barristimo owns Lantern’s Pharmacy. Unofficially, it’s the Villarreal twins who actually run the place.”

Ethan nodded, remembering the round-faced pudgy man in the black trench coat. He was one of the two high level Cortez members he’d seen entering The Bleeker Building.

“I know that guy,” he said, “well… I don’t know him. But I have seen him.”

“Hmmm… not me,” Jason added. “But go on. I want to know why Sadler’s not out of jail yet if he’s so well-regarded by The Cortez Family.”

“I don’t know that much,” Mia said. “It looks like Packley was either still working on that or the papers got damaged, plus it doesn’t help that Sadler gunned down Owney “The Owl” Johnson. It’s a more high profile case than normal so that might be why Judge Hadwin was asking for some type of extra reward. Everything I've read about the judge indicates he's got some kind of nasty blood kink, which is why he's connected to Lantern's Pharmacy and Sadler."

Ethan shook his head. Trying to ignore the visuals of what he'd just learned about Judge Hadwin, he tried thinking of anything but depraved sexual activities. He looked around to make sure no one was listening in.

"Okay, that's gross. But, let's get back on track. Sadler didn't kill Owney…" he whispered. "It was an inside job. Thomas Gallagher did it."

Mia's eyes lit up. Jason reacted similarly, but it was the reporter who suddenly nodded and seemed to have realized something big.

"That makes a ton of sense, actually. In the paperwork there's multiple rumors that all the top leadership in The Green Fists are being picked off by Samuel Donovan, Thomas Gallagher, and some guy they call Rickles."

Ethan thought back on his first conversation with the detective. Mr. Donovan had told him not to worry about the leadership. The man had said: "There's... somebody up top, sure. A big boss keeping all the gears turning smooth. Those kinds of details ain't for small-timers like you to know."

Now he was fairly confident that was one of those answers that was a truth only from a certain perspective. Mr. Donovan hadn't lied, but the detective had conveniently left out the part about himself being that big boss.

"Mr. Donovan is the boss of The Green Fists…" he decided as he said the words, "but he pretends like he's not."

"What?" Jason shook his head. "That's not what he told me. He said he was fifth in charge, with Mr. Gallagher behind him, and then other guys."

Ethan and Mia both shook their heads, but for different reasons.

"Did he say it just like that?"

Jason nodded and then he did his best impression of Mr. Donovan. "I was the fifth in charge for nearly a decade…"

"Exactly… was." Ethan smiled, adding, "the man knows how to talk a good game."

"My god, bro…" Jason looked as though he was thinking back on his own conversation with the detective. "I think you're onto something."

"And," Mia added, "some police reports are interesting. A tenant said they saw Mr. Gallagher go into an apartment unit with another Green Fist mobster, heard struggling, and then came out alone. Then a moving company emptied the apartment unit the next day."

"Classic," Jason said.

Ethan agreed. Using a moving company to transport bodies or parts of bodies sounded like a typical mob way to conceal the transportation of victims. It also made him thankful that Mr. Gallagher hadn't killed him in the scripted opening scene, most likely for that exact reason.

Mia continued. "It gets even wilder. In a different report, an inmate sharing a cell with Sadler claimed that Gallagher and Rickles were taking out their own leaders. He said Sadler was just a fall guy. I didn’t think much about it until now.”

"What?" Ethan asked. "That one's a little out there."

"Yeah, why would a Cortez guy willingly take credit for causing problems between the two gangs?"

She shrugged. "I don't know that yet. I'm just telling you what the report said."

"Okay," Ethan clarified. "We know that Sadler is being blamed for the murder, but him and The Cortez Family being all in on it doesn’t make much sense.”

"I guess not,” Mia shrugged. “But that’s what it looks like.”

He nodded, thinking back on his first encounter with Stalvek Dyomin. The guy was doing a mission that required him to have Billy Sadler arrested.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Stalvek had said, “Ratted out one of my own since no one else in my gang had the balls to do it.”

But if The Cortez Family knew all about the secret deal with The Owl, why have him arrested? Ethan figured he could blame it on poor story design by NexaTechNeuro, or was Samuel Donovan secretly working with the other gangs and everything was a farce? If so, there went Langen's code of honor right down the drain. Either Mr. Donovan was urinating all over their founder's basic rule and lying about it, or something else was at play.

Jason interrupted his thoughts.

"But then why hasn't anyone from The Green Fists killed Sadler yet? Like wouldn't The Owl's son want to get revenge? You know him, right, bro? He goes by the name "The Bat" or something stupid like that?"

Ethan nodded. "Yeah, doesn't make much sense."

“Yeah,” Jason asked Mia again. “Why would they go through all the hassle?”

"I don't know, loser boy. How many times can I tell you that?”

Jason smirked at her.

"Well," Ethan said, trying to keep the intel moving along. "To summarize that part, everyone we've encountered so far is bad and we need to kill them one day."

Mia laughed. "Yes."

"Yeah, bro. I'm liking the way you're thinking there."

"Okay then," Ethan said. "Let's put a pin in that and come back to it when we know more. What about the Second Moon Den? You learn anything about that?"

"Yes," Mia's face lit up with interest again. "This was another bit of information that actually helped me today with one of my newspaper missions. I don't know if you noticed, but I got quite a bit of experience and leveled up.”

Jason nodded. "Yep, congrats."

"Yeah, that's awesome." Ethan said. "We're still lagging behind a bunch of other players, though."

“Well, I maybe kinda might have a solution for that, but let’s do a little more information dumping right quick.”

"Okay, sure."

Mia nodded. "After reading more about them from your papers, I went back to the newspaper and did even more digging in the archives. Before two years ago, there's no mention of the Second Moon Den or the Villarreal twins. Now, they're the largest known coven in The Grims."

Jason said, "So they've come in quick and hot?"

"Sounds like it," Ethan added. "What else do you know?"

Mia shook her head. "Almost nothing. The Villarreal twins run the coven together. Descriptions of Audia Villarreal differ, but she's always some type of glowing dark goddess in the night. Couldn't find any descriptions of the brother, let alone a name. He's a complete mystery to us normal people."

Ethan laughed. "Normal people? We're in a video game full of vampires and ghouls and mobsters."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

"I do," he answered, then looked at Jason. "It's a lot of intel dumped all at once. You good?"

"Yeah, bro! I'm always good!" he said, "even when I have Plague Scurvy!"

Mia grinned. "It's not even half of what didn't get damaged. I still need to read more I think, but anyway, that's what I know right now."

Ethan nodded. In his opinion, she'd done a fantastic job of reading and relaying the information. Of course he couldn't verify the accuracy of it, but who had the time to actually read and think for ones self these days? He had other things to worry about.

"Before you showed up," he changed the subject, "Jason and I were talking about our talents. Which ones did you get?"

Mia suddenly leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and appeared apprehensive. "Why?"

"I was just curious. Since some of the more aggressive players are leveling so quickly and becoming big threats, we talked about sticking together for a while. Might help keep us from being randomly attacked."

She nodded, seemingly contemplating his words.

"Yes. That's a good idea," Mia said after a minute. "I have been thinking along the same lines. My problem is, and I'll be completely honest with you here, but I don't trust very many people. Especially not at first. You seem like nice peeps, and probably the best I'm going to encounter in the game, for sure."

Jason interrupted her. "So you're in, bro? Sweet. Now… I'm shaping up to be the tank I think, since I have Brawler, Recon, Stealth, and Teleport. I should be able to sneak into and out of fights and with the right gear and some new talents I could end up making myself pretty hardy."

Mia considered the guy. When she said nothing for a while, Ethan decided to throw in his own quick recap of himself.

"I'm ranged, as you already know from seeing those daggers. I have Ambidextrous now so I can use both at the same time. Then I have Knives, Negotiator, and Handy. I'm working towards getting away from the handyman talent but that won't be until level ten or fifteen. Like Jason, I'm still relatively unprotected and easy to hit."

Jason smiled. "See, all we need now is someone with intelligence and magic or something. Please… for the love of all that is holy… please tell us you do healing magic or defense against the dark arts stuff."

Ethan looked at his friend and laughed. Mia grinned and unfolded her arms.

"I started with History and Occult…" she said, "which made sense because of me working at the Gulf Horizon Newspaper."

Both of the guys nodded.

"Then, I got Lesions," Mia said, "and before you even ask, I haven't tried it yet. The description says it causes explosive porphyria to both the living and the unliving."

"What's porphyria?" Jason asked.

Ethan shrugged.

"It's a blood condition. Anyway I think the talent makes enemies break out in Lesions that explode all over their bodies. It had a fifteen second cool down at level one, but when I put a second point in it went to fourteen seconds."

The two guys looked at each other, nodding. Ethan waited for Mia to continue but she didn't. The woman leaned back in her chair and folded her arms again.

"So…" Jason said, "that's it?"

Mia smiled but nodded. "Yeah, loser boy. That's my talents."

Jason appeared disappointed. He slouched again, letting his pale skin and tired demeanor get the best of him. It was evident he'd been riding a small high from the Shadebreaker Serum and from all the interesting information.

"Dang, bro…" the guy said. "No offense, but I thought you were going to be like a badass mage witch or something that could help protect or heal us."

She smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you."

The guy shrugged. Ethan understood the feeling but tried not to worry about it. They were all at the mercy of whatever options the system provided them each time they leveled up. It also hadn't helped that they were all dropped into the game without much in the way of understanding the talent pool options.

"Well, okay," Ethan answered. "It certainly explains why you were able to read and know all about the stuff from the papers. We can get into more details at some later time."

"Agreed," she said.

"Now…" he changed the subject again. "Let's get back to what you mentioned earlier. What's this idea you have for gaining levels faster?"

"Oh, yes!" Mia said. "Although I'm not too thrilled about the idea myself now that loser boy thinks I'm weak."

"I don't think you're weak!" Jason defended, "I just expected more. My bad, bro."

She made a disbelieving face back at him. "Whatever."

Ethan let the tension ride out, although it wasn't much to begin with. Their whole back and forth went about the same as when he'd first met Mia.

"So anyways…" he said after a few seconds. "You were saying?"

"Yes. After turning in my last mission, the editor at the newspaper gave me a codeword. I'm supposed to say the codeword to the Grimsborough Vampir guarding the door under the Monroe Theatre. Then, I'm supposed to investigate what I assume is this game's version of a dungeon."

"Oh, snap!" Jason said.

Ethan smirked at the guy's response. "Is that a good or bad response?"

Jason and Mia both laughed.

"Um… a mix of both? Remember, I noped the hell out of there, but I was just level one back then.

“My mission is called Moon Theatre Basement," Mia said, "and I can get us into the dungeon as a group.”

Ethan shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a great idea. I have twenty one hours until I can use another potion, and Jason still has Plague Scurvy.”

Jason agreed. “Yep, I already used my one teleport today and I’m squishy right now. If I’m supposed to tank, I don’t feel confident taking any damage.”

Mia sighed. “I thought you guys were worried about leveling up faster? You sound like a couple of whiny little boys to me.”

While he understood what she meant, Ethan didn’t think she was taking everything into consideration. A calculated risk was one thing, but rushing into the unknown when only half-prepared was just asking for trouble.

And, Ethan figured, his friend Jason had been absolutely correct in his disappointment in her magical abilities. At least so far. If Lesions was the only way she had of dealing damage, it still left him and Jason open to too much damage.

“Does it say how difficult the dungeon is? Or what we might encounter?”

“Just a second,” Mia said. Then after looking through her screens, it sounded like she read verbatim from a description. “Moon Theatre Basement, renamed from Monroe Theatre by the Second Moon Den. Minimum level required to enter as a party of three to five players: five. Minimum to enter solo: eight. Maximum level to enter: fifteen. Can only be entered once per rolling twenty four hours.”

Jason said. “Doesn’t sound too bad to me.”

Ethan didn’t answer his friend, but also didn’t quite agree with him. They were all at level five, at the bottom of the dungeon’s scaling ability.

There was no way it would be easy, and on top of that they had never gamed as a group. Would they clash against one another or work well together?

Their talents had no obvious conflicts except for maybe Jason getting in the way of Ethan's flying daggers. Their main drawbacks appeared to be a lack of defense and healing capabilities.

“The description is long, so I’ll summarize it,” Mia continued. “An eerie theatrical labyrinth under the theatre full of low-level vampires and ghouls in the Second Moon Den. The small acting enclave is just one of their many lairs. Rewards for players include information, experience, and common and uncommon items. Average length to complete is two hours and the difficulty says easy. Cannot enter while in combat. Players begin the dungeon fully revitalized and all timers reset. Experience and items received upon completion.”

Listening to the description, Ethan still had his doubts, right up until the very end. "Revitalized?"

"That's what it says," Mia repeated, "Players begin the dungeon fully revitalized and all timers reset."

He shared a glance with Jason, and the other guy smiled back. "I think I like the way dungeons work in this game."

"Yeah," Ethan nodded. "It does sound tempting."

"I was thinking we should go now," Mia looked out of the windows of the restaurant. "It's starting to get dark and all."

"Now?" he asked.

"Unless you want to keep falling further behind, genius boy!" Mia intensely glared into Ethan's eyes. "I can't go in by myself until level eight. I really want to know what's down there, and… I hate to admit it, but… you seem like a nice guy, and I… I feel like I can trust you."