Regu watched the surface of the lake for several minutes after his new client dove in to loot the Lionape that had given him all his experience points. Satisfied that the young man would be able to loot the monster, he pulled out his VR phone and called the person on the top of his favorites list.

A hologram of the Integrated Universe Communications Company logo appeared and spun lazily while he waited to be connected. It was unlikely that holographic video chat was enabled yet, so this would likely be a voice call only.

He didn’t have to wait long until an angry female voice blasted from the phone. “Where the hell are you? And why can’t I see you?”

“It’s good to hear you, too, Malinda,” Regu replied in his most charming voice. “And you can’t see me because I’m on a planet that doesn’t have an active hologram interface yet.”

“What?!” she demanded. “Are you on a nonintegrated planet?”

“Not exactly.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before continuing. “I’m on the newly integrated world.”

“Are you insane?!”

Regu heard something shatter on the other end of the line, and he wondered which of his expensive crystal vases had met an untimely end. “They’ll cancel your contract if they catch you scouting the new world before the competition begins.”

“I’m not scouting,” he assured her. “I already have a client.”

“What? How?”

Regu shook his head, still in disbelief himself. “Some kid was caught in a Category 3 zone and wound up killing a Level 26 monster.”

“That’s impressive. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”

“Pfff! It’s not as impressive as you’d think.” Regu shook his head. “The beast that was chasing him fell in a lake and drowned. The damn thing apparently couldn’t swim. Even with the experience reduction since he didn’t actually deal any damage to the monster, it was still enough to jump him all the way to Level 10, and voilà, here I am.”

There was another silence, and Regu could picture Malinda frantically pacing around, trying to think through what she needed to do next. “Well, this is a good thing, right?” she finally said. “No one has ever leveled this fast, and it’s unlikely anyone else on the planet will make Level 10 for a couple weeks. You have a huge head start, now!”

She wasn’t wrong, at least on the head start. The fastest he had ever seen anyone earn Elite status was ten days. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared to start,” Regu admitted with a sigh. “The only thing I have in my official transfer container is the IU New Planet Integration Manual.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Oh,” Malinda replied. “That’s not good.”

“No, it’s not,” Regu agreed. “Normally by Level 10, someone would have a nice selection of armor and weapons. This kid’s got nothing. And I don’t have anything to help him out.”

“Is there anything I can send?”

“Unfortunately, no,” he replied. “The only thing you can send is official IU gear that’s approved for Trainers. And nothing on that list qualifies as weapons or armor, which is what we need.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

Regu didn’t know if there was anything he could do. “I need to petition the council and try to get an exemption so I can bring in some of the things I would have put in my transfer container if I’d had the time to properly prepare.”

Malinda was clearly in “get things done” mode now. “Okay. I will set up a hearing. How soon do you want to meet with them?”

“Well, that brings me to another problem.” Regu grimaced, dreading the lecture his assistant was likely to give. “I sort of lost my personal transporter.”

“How in the stars did you—” Malinda started, then stopped. She knew her boss all too well.

“Let me guess. You gave it to one of your lady friends at the club and never got it back.”

Regu put on his best smile, though his assistant couldn’t see it, hoping his voice sounded charming enough. “I was just showing a lovely young lady one of the most amazing pieces of technology in existence,” he explained. “I was expanding her horizons. How was I supposed to know I was gonna get zapped right out of the club in the middle of the party?”

He could picture Malinda rolling her eyes so hard that they almost popped out of her head.

“Alright, what’s her name, and how do I find her?”

He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Um, her name is Aethisia. I met her last night and didn’t get her contact information.”

“Aethisia?!” Regu could hear the scorn in his assistant’s voice. “That’s a—”

“Yes, that’s a Nymph name.”

“What were you thinking?! Never mind. You clearly weren’t. How many times have I told you not to . . .”

It wasn’t the first lecture he’d ever received from Malinda. Far from it. He had expected it, though, so he just remained silent until she ran out of steam.

“It was a party, and I was just making conversation. It’s not like I took her home with me.”

Though that was exactly what he had been planning to do.

Malinda sighed loudly. “It doesn’t matter. Your waitress friend Ty’Reesha should be able to help me find her. I’m assuming she will know who this temptress is.”

“She will,” he said. “She saw us together . . . Uh, I mean she saw us talking.”

It wasn’t hard to picture the scowl on Malinda’s face. “Alright, I will track her down and get your personal transporter back to you. After that, I will set up a hearing with the Integration Council.”

“Thank you,” Regu said, truly grateful. “I would be lost without you. Literally.”

“Yes, you would be,” she agreed. “I will send you a message as soon as I get your transporter back. In the meantime, I will make sure you’re getting all the public integration updates.”

Regu had spent millions of credits creating an AI program to sift through all the data from the gambling houses and the public data released daily by the Integration Team. It would provide him with critical information as he guided Jeremiah toward world domination.

“Thanks, and don’t forget the gambling feeds,” he said. “We’ll also need to commission some investigative research, but I need to formulate a plan first.”

“Alright,” Malinda said. “You keep that young man alive, and I will take care of everything on this end.”

Regu smiled as the holographic IU logo faded away and the call ended. This wasn’t how he had envisioned things going, but he had to play the cards he was dealt, and things really weren’t all that bad, anyway.

Who knows? This might turn out to be a tremendous advantage!