Why were people so stupid? In the weeks since the apocalypse started, Zoe had forgotten how much the stupidity of others filled her daily life. In line at the grocery store, in traffic, in her office where people wanted miracles performed. Breast implants don’t fix your life, they just make your breasts bigger.

Zoe reached through her technique. Five hearts linked to hers, and she grabbed a hold of the sniper. Even though it ate up a bunch of her Skein, she slammed his heart rate down to zero. Her Insight-boosted hearing picked up the clatter of a rifle on concrete as he collapsed.

The man with the flaming armor looked around with increasing despair. Orange and yellow flared around his body armor as he fed his technique.

“Shoot her!” he yelled. “Kill her.”

Anton sauntered forward with his hands in his pockets.

“Man, you don’t know how to weigh up a fight,” he looked at the spear bearers. “She could kill all of you right now. Your sniper is breathing his last breath right now, and the rest of you will follow unless you stand down.”

Zoe kept her position, her bone club slung over one shoulder, as the spear bearers looked amongst themselves. With the barricade behind them and Zoe in front, they were stuck. Their panicked expressions reflected across her mirrored chest as they resolved their turmoil.

She didn’t have to wait long.

Two guards cast down their spears — the two who earlier fell into her grip — and with that she released her hold on the sniper. She didn’t need to kill him, and he gasped for air as his heart slowly beat inside his chest one more. Theoretically, she had enough Skein to kill them all where they stood — provided their resting heart rates were low enough — but she didn’t want to burn through it all for something so ghoulish. The last two spear bearers stared at her for a moment, before they placed their spears on the ground.

The one with the stone-cold expression was the last to release his weapon, but he nodded at Zoe with something like respect.

“If you’re this powerful, maybe you can help us —”

“No!”

The flaming guard pushed himself upright. His armor burned white, the flames leaping high into the air, and Zoe stepped back from the heat. He grinned.

“You’re not the only one with power. Do you think you can steal our town from under the Salt Sister? I defend Newtopia in her name!”

A phoenix of sky blue and ice-white flames formed from his inferno. He swung his spear toward her in a devastating arc. The spearhead keened through the air. The vibration shook Zoe’s soul as she stood and waited.

This wasn’t the smartest strategy, but she wanted to make an impression, and there was the edge of discovery in that sound…

Her body path resonated as the blow landed true.

The spear struck her in the heart and bounced off. Flames blasted out, and scorched across her mirrored skin, blackening the mirror, and she felt it underneath. It seemed she wasn’t as adept at blocking energy-based attacks as she hoped.

But the force of the blow was another thing.

It reflected in a concussive wave that struck the burning man’s stomach. His armor snuffed out as he shot backward into the truck loaded with rubble. He slammed into the door and left it dented as he slumped to the ground.

Zoe waited an appropriate moment for everyone to stare in awe before she canceled [Self Reflects the World].

“Who’s in charge?” she asked.

The spear bearer with the no longer so stone-cold expression coughed.

“Um, he was. I guess,” he looked at his companions, who hurriedly looked away. “I guess I am.”

“Wrong,” Anton said with a shake of his hand. “She’s the boss now.”

“What?”

“What’s your name, friend?”

“Woody.”

“Well, Woody, my boss let your best man take himself out by attacking her. Now, if we’re simply talking violence, we have you beat, but that’s not all we want. Is it boss?”

Zoe couldn’t help enjoying this.

“Nope.”

“Exactly,” Anton turned back to the spear bearers who were each trying to hide behind the other. “We don’t want violence. We never lifted a finger, not one of us. You all saw that, now, we want you to guide us into your settlement and show us to some accommodation —”

“The polyp,” Zoe reminded Anton. After all, they were on a deadline.

“Of course, show us to the polyp and make sure nobody else tries to get in our way. Can you do that?”

Woody nodded, but he paused as he looked at Jack.

“Um, people know him. They might be upset.”

She turned to Jack.

“Did you kill anyone?”

“No. It was Roman who killed the guards while we escaped.”

She listened to her technique. Jack’s heart rate remained steady as he spoke. She nodded.

“Good enough for me.”

Zoe walked past Woody, who flinched, before remembering his cool guy routine.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking on your unconscious friend. What’s his name?”

“That’s Alex.”

Zoe gave Alex a quick inspection.

“He’s fine, just unconscious, and it feels like he burned through a lot of Skein. He really shouldn’t do that,” she gave the others a hard look. “None of you should ever do that. I saw the outcome; it turns you into a walking ashtray. What are your names?”

“Woody,” he pointed at himself, then at the man beside him, “Dave,” then back at the others already within Zoe’s technique. “This is Sarah and Fleshripper.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Zoe studied the two meek spear bearers. They both wore outfits that might have been police uniforms, though now they held metal plates.

One was a slender woman in her late twenties. The other was stouter and younger. His eyes were wide with excitement.

“Fleshripper?” Zoe asked.

“Of course!” he said. “This is the apocalypse, right? And it’s clearly a LITrpg since we have stats and a system. I’m not sure yet about classes, but people tell me body paths are sort of the same. Isn’t it awesome! And you’re so cool, how did you do that mirror thing? Is that a technique, it’s so powerful! And that club,” he stepped forward and reached out toward the club, before hesitating, reaching out, and pulling back as he seemed to realize what he was doing. “Where did you find a level 100 monster? Did you kill it? Oh my god, I have so many —”

Sarah elbowed him.

“Shut up,” she said.

He nodded, but his eyes didn’t stop beaming at Zoe.

Anton turned to her with a smirk.

“And so your fanbase begins, but what now, boss?”

“Is that sniper ok?”

One of Anton’s eyes sailed up to the roof, and Anton nodded.

“He’s catching his breath.”

“Good,” she turned to Forest. “Why do you have guards and a barricade? None of this is enough to stop the mantis. These two,” she pointed at Sarah and Fleshripper, “don’t even have body paths. And your leader is only level 20. I’ve fought mantis that could tear you to pieces. What are you doing here?”

Woody looked sick. Sarah looked away, Dave looked at his feet, and even Fleshripper’s manic expression faded.

“You aren’t the only people who’ve been stuck out in the woods. We bring them in and…” he wrung his hands. “What do you want?”

“I need to complete the polyp quest.”

“But will you help us?”

“What do you mean?”

Woody stepped closer. His voice quavering as he whispered.

“Sister Salt has struck a deal with the mantis. We don’t like it, but it’s the only way we can survive. Unless —”

“Unless you can kill them all,” Fleshripper interjected. “We need you to save us. Please.”

Zoe stared at them.

“What deal?” but she already knew, and a hollow sickness grew in her stomach at the realization as she pointed at a motel room. “Does this have anything to do with the three people you have hidden inside there?”

Woody blinked, taken aback.

“How do you? Uh, yes. Yes, the deal is that we round up humans and… gift them to the mantis. It’s the sacrifice of a few for the good of the many. That’s how Sister Salt justifies it,” a look of hatred crossed his face. “It didn’t take long for the monsters to take control when the safe zone fell.”

Zoe’s heart pounded.

Black rage pumped through her veins. She had no time for the hollow sickness. For despair. She had no time for anything. Her friend was lost in hell. A guillotine hung over everyone’s neck unless she could complete the polyp quest. And now this town, the one she had looked forward to for so long, was feeding people to the mantis. What use hiding from the reaper’s scythe if this was the cost?

Snow billowed around her as her Willpower flared.

“Bring them out.”

Her cold words struck Woody like a whip. He hurried toward the room, grabbing Dave with him. One of Anton’s eyes followed them as he walked up to Zoe.

“What are we getting involved in?” he asked her in a whisper.

She looked at him.

“People shouldn’t sell people to bugs. I’m going to stop that.”

“When did you become so selfless?”

Scarred lips curled as she fought down the urge to squeeze his heart. No. That wasn’t who she was. Not yet. Never. But the option remained like a loaded gun in reach…

“I’m pissed off, Anton,” she said. “A lot of things are pissing me off. Are you still with me?”

He took her measure and nodded.

“Till the end of the earth, boss,” he grinned. “And even further.”

His expression paled as his eye entered the room.

“It’s bad.”

“How bad?”

Anton said nothing, but he didn’t need to. Dave and Woody walked toward her with sheepish expressions. Behind them, walked a young teenage girl with short red hair and tear streaks down her face. A child clutched each of her hands. The combined age of all three of them couldn’t have been thirty.

Zoe’s heart thundered.

She walked over to the girl, inspecting the rope burns around her wrist.

“You’re safe now,” she murmured. “Did they hurt you?”

The girl could only stare at her before slowly shaking her head.

Zoe faced the spear-bearing cowards.

“What was the plan?”

Woody swallowed but stood upright. He was the only one who could look at her.

“The mantis ambassador comes soon. We give them the prisoners, and in return, they grant our safety for three days.”

“How many humans have you sold?” His resolve wavered as her gaze burned into him. “How many?”

“These three would make eleven.”

“And none of you tried to stop this?”

“We don’t have a choice!” Dave interjected. “Nobody can stand up to Sister Salt and her pet monster! We aren’t strong. We’re just doing what we can to…”

He trailed off as Zoe’s chain slithered out of her sleeve and draped along the ground. Four pairs of eyes fixed on the Black Star weapon as it moved of its own accord.

“I don’t want to kill you all,” Zoe said. “You’re weak, and you need defending. But maybe you’re too weak. Maybe you’re not deserving of the chance to get strong.”

Her chain flexed and kicked on the ground as her temper raged against her fraying restraint

[Ding!]

Her chain stilled as the Black Star system exerted its control.

[Why are you being mean?]

“They sold people,” Zoe whispered, her voice tight with rage. “Sold them to monsters.”

[You let Jack live]

The childish whisper trickled through her burning rage like ice water. She seized the momentary clarity.

Jack lived because of her choices. She saw something in him worth saving. Was it simply because she hadn’t seen him feed others to the demon?

[Ding!]

[I’m sleepy. Do you have an answer?]

Did she have an answer? Why did one soul matter more than another?

She felt the Black Star’s control slipping from her chain. It wouldn’t, couldn’t, stop her from killing them all.

Her eyes flicked to Anton, but before she could speak, his eye floated beside her ear.

“You can’t ask me,” he whispered soft enough only she could what. “You must show conviction.”

All eyes were on her, as her rage flared up, and died.

Leaving something cold.

“Kneel.”

Woody blinked.

“What?”

“All of you, kneel.”

Fleshripper dropped to his knees, and, slowly, the others followed. She could wrap her chain around their necks and rip off their heads one by one…

“You know Jack and the crowd he ran with. I let him live. I am letting you live.”

“We aren’t the same!” Dave shouted.

Zoe turned to him.

“Oh?” her Willpower squeezed him. “You’re not hiding behind something stronger than yourself?” his eyes bulged. “Letting your weakness dictate your actions?” His face grew red as he sputtered. “Sacrificing others for your own sake? Tell me, Dave,” she leaned down until their faces were inches apart. Veins throbbed on his temple. “What makes one soul worth more than another?”

“Zoe,” Anton said softly. “We have a problem?”

“What?”

She turned and followed his gaze.

A mantis’s head rose above the trees. It strode out, claws tucked before it, with the grace of a floating snowflake. Larger, bulkier, than any mantis Zoe saw so far. Pale blue armor reflected swirling pink light as it advanced. Ice bristled and spiked with every step it took.

“Oh my god,” Woody moaned. “It’s the ambassador! We’re not supposed to be outside. It’ll take us all!”