Even though Ames had warned me, the announcement took me off guard when it came the next day.

I was helping our farm team capture a rare spawn on an island about two miles from ours. A giant platypus, 40 feet tall, had spawned in the middle of a small lake inside an extinct volcanic crater. The beast's poison-spurred feet were a real menace. We were only able to apply debuffs and slows to one limb of the creature at a time and had to wear it down slowly. But when it finally hit zero HP, we got a bounty of soul coins and about an acre and a half of plush fur that could be used in crafting.

The poison spurs were carefully removed by one of Dwight's assistants and set aside. They had learned how to imbue crafted artifacts with various properties, including poison resistance or the ability to deal poison, by using raw materials like these. I was just congratulating Lara and Lakshmi on handling themselves well when the system announcer spoke.

With a voice like thunder shaking the skies, the announcement appeared in everyone's vision.

[We have now begun the first special event. All teams participating in this phase two map will send a delegation to the island of Hispana within the next six hours. All combat miners are expected to attend and teams may bring a number of non-combat miners equal to the number of combat miners times a node score multiplier.

Once you have arrived, the non-combat miners will be granted special opportunities while the combat miners pit themselves against other teams.

Note: the special event rule set will apply. As of this moment, no creep will spawn on any node until the special event is resolved. All nodes are put into untouchable status. No team is able to mount an assault on any other team's outpost.

Any team which does not participate in this event will have their node put back into unclaimed status. Nodes cannot be reclaimed until after the conclusion of the event.]

The announcer stopped as abruptly as he had spoken. I had about a million questions. But it seemed pretty obvious what our first step was. "We need to get back to our island ASAP," I told my team. "Grab whatever you can and let's get to the boat."

Grandpa was already in the coalition chat sending messages to Juana, Mama Grace, Dwight, me, everyone. He named ten of us for a council of war to be held on the other boat just as soon as I got back.

I wasn't actually the last to reach the boat.Mama Grace and Arjun arrived a few moments later.

Grandpa looked around at all of us. "We knew there were special events likely to happen. Sounds like it's time for one of them. I'm kind of excited to see what it is," he said. "Seeing as our node is safe while we're gone, there's no reason not to bring everyone as they suggest."

Our node, being a delta, had a node multiplier factor of two. That meant we would be able to bring all 14 of our combat miners and a total of 28 non-combat miners.

"I know the message specifically said crafters, but I think we ought to bring some of the best of the farm group," I said. Frank was already on the boat. I turned to him. "If we asked you for a team of five, could you come up with one?"

"Give me a couple minutes," he said.

Grandpa nodded agreement. "I think you're right. It's best to be prepared for different eventualities. Dwight, Arjun, that means you've got 23 slots to work with. We want your best."

"I'm coming," Juana said firmly.

Her mother shook her head. "If you go haring off there, who's going to be in charge here?"

"No one needs to be in charge," Juana said. "There's not going to be any kind of attacks. That means we can just do whatever for as long as this event goes on. I need to be there because it sounds like there's going to be representatives of all of the other teams. This is a good chance for me to make some connections. Besides," she continued, "Team Twofeather needs someone to keep them out of trouble."

That got a laugh out of almost everyone. "All right, so be it," Grandpa said. "I don't have to pick and choose between my combat team. We're all going. No need for anyone to stay back and defend."

I was going to need to take Grandpa aside and let him know what Colonel Ames had said sooner or later. But until we knew what was going on, there wasn't much we could plan for.

Veda sent us a message. I see the team event has begun.

Any advice for us? I asked.

No. Just do your best and hopefully that'll be enough. You shouldn't need to take any kind of special gear. Most outside artifacts, like those miner respawn points, are banned. Just yourselves and the gear you're wearing. Your crafters should have good opportunity to exchange recipes and possibly sell their wares. I would advise loading up on as much gear for sale as you possibly can.

I relayed the message to Dwight and Mama Grace.

"Who are we going to be selling to?" Dwight asked. "Other miners?"

"She didn’t say."

Mama said, "Well, it just so happens I've been keeping a stash of boxed lunches just for this sort of opportunity. I heard a rumor from someone that it could be a good money-making opportunity sooner or later. I'll transfer those over to Juana's inventory before we leave."

"Then let's get going," Grandpa said. "Dwight, Arjun, get me that list of crafters as quickly as possible. I want us lifting anchor in two hours."

***

The island of Hispana was 400 leagues away. At our top speed of 20 knots, that would have taken a whole day. Fortunately, the system granted our boat a speedy buff that increased its speed by tenfold. So, we sat back for about four hours and enjoyed a cruise.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

We zoomed past islands like we were on a jet ski. I'd ridden jet skis more than a few times on reservoirs around the West. There'd been one memorable high school spring break where me and a bunch of friends went over to Page and rented a houseboat for the week. We'd had to bribe one of my friend's older brothers to front the rental for us since no one in their right minds would rent a houseboat to a bunch of 17-year-olds. Then we'd gotten our hands on a bunch of cheap beer and weed and proceeded to do idiotic things on jet skis. I came back with a hangover, a hell of a sunburn, and a bunch of near misses that I never told anyone, especially not Grandpa, about.

"So, how many other teams are we expecting?" I asked. I tried to remember how many we'd said there were on the map. "Something like 250?"

Juana nodded. "Close enough. We're estimating between 8 and 12 combat miners per team. Call it 10 to make the math easy. So, that'll be 2,500 other fighters. Most of them are going to be aliens."

I knew that much. While there were still plenty of us humans here in Phase 2, most of them were serving as farmers and crafters, adjutant to an alien conglomeration.

"Arjun says he expects there to be perhaps 350 human minors at this event," Juana continued.

"As many as that?"

"Several whole teams were hired by some of the smaller conglomerations, similar in size to Veda's outfit, I think."

That made sense to me. "Have you already got their contact information?" Arjun was able to pass on contact information to certain other miner classes. Juana was one of them. Her Procurer class came with a few interesting benefits. Enhanced communication skills were one of them.

"He's sending me everyone he knows for sure is here. I'm supposed to try to meet as many of the others as I can and get their contact information. We're still collecting contact info. Arjun's really starting to tear his hair out over this one. He says he can't figure out where all the rest of us are. He's coming down to the dregs on those he doesn't know, and there's still millions of us missing. He and some of the others who are building up the database are coming up with some pretty elaborate conspiracy theories."

Juana shook her head and gave me a wry smile. "They're starting to worry me. The one about the aliens replacing humans by killing them and then wearing their skins as a disguise, that really bothers me. I'm pretty sure it's nonsense, though."

"Yeah, it's a total crock of bull," I said. I censored my expletive at the last minute, although Juana never complained about my crude language. "I don't think that's it at all. I heard a theory myself I like better," I added quickly, not sure how much of Ames information to divulge. "It says that among all of these different portals, one or maybe two open to a level that doesn't suck. Somewhere you don't have to fight. Somewhere you can just stay and have your needs taken care of. Sooner or later, people are going to discover that and, well, just move in."

"I like that idea better than I like the skin-changing aliens," Juana said thoughtfully.

"Suppose you found a portal like that right now," I said, "after everything we've been through. Would you take it? Would you go through?"

Juana tugged on her braid thoughtfully, her eyes going distant. "I don't know that I would," she said. "It's funny. I feel needed here. Valued. I—"

She looked away, her cheeks tinging pink with embarrassment. "You know, back on Earth, I really wanted to go to law school. I had this idea of myself as a community advocate. It was kind of an impossible dream. We couldn't even afford more than community college for me and Rosa. But I thought maybe if I worked hard enough and saved up money from my notary jobs, I could at least finish a bachelor's degree. And then there might be scholarships or something that would make it possible. Anyway, I'm saying I wanted to make a difference." She laughed at herself. "Only I’m not really that selfless, I always try to help and end up telling people how they’re screwing up their lives and how to help it. I’d have ended up as a divorce lawyer for sure."

"You’re too hard on yourself," I said.

She acknowledge my comment with a little nod. "And here I am. I'm making a difference for so many people. You, your grandfather, your sister, everyone else on our coalition. I'm helping us build a chance at a better future, one where we can get back what we've lost. How could I throw that away to go live inside a glorified television show?"

I felt suddenly awkward. Sooner or later, I was going to have to tell Juana the truth, that none of us were ever going to be going home. That the best we might hope for was a life inside a lotus eater paradise. But not right now.

"I should go talk to Grandpa about a couple things before we get to this island," I said.

"Sure." She looked away, and I realized that I had just been an idiot.

"I didn't mean to insult you or anything, Juana. I think your idea, going to law school and all, I think that was really great. I never really thought too much about what I was going to do when I got out of the Army myself, even though college could have been an option. I hadn't even made up my mind whether I was going to stay in and try for more training to become an actual logistics officer and not just a grunt. So I think it's pretty cool you had ambition."

A ghost of a smile flicked across her face. "Go talk to your Grandpa, Shad," she told me.

Grandpa was sitting on a bench at the back of the boat, looking out behind us at the wake we were turning up. I wasn't surprised that there was no one around him. Grandpa had an awfully foreboding-looking face when he was thinking about things, and people tended to just stay away.

I sat down next to him. "Ames knew this was coming," I said. "I saw him the night of the luau."

"’Course he did," Grandpa said without looking up from the water.

"He says we have to reach Stage 2 of this event, whatever that means. I assume we'll learn once we get there."

"’Course he does," Grandpa reached into his inventory and pulled out a can of beer. I wondered how long he'd had that. He cracked it and sipped it, slowly watching as the ship sailed on. "This just doesn't make any sense," he said abruptly.

"What?"

"All of this," he gestured around. "The first phase is okay. We were gaining powers, we were leveling up. Fine. And earning those coins, sure. All so that we could come and compete here and earn more coins. Great. And then there's a phase beyond that, and somehow that phase, which I assume will involve even more coins, is going to determine the fate of Earth. Of who's going own this reality engine, whatever that means. And so we're all jumping through these little hoops designed by some aliens half a galaxy away. Why do it this way, anyway? They've been exploiting these here reality engines for millennia, and this is the best they can do? A giant video game full of random ideas and images from Earth history?"

Oh boy. Grandpa was definitely in a rare mood. "I don't know about that," I said. "There's got to be a reason for it. And I don't think that they're going to tell us why."

"Well, it sounds like Ames has a bit of an idea. Somebody's feeding him information. We don't know yet if they're friend or foe to us. So we've got to take everything he says with a grain of salt. Especially seeing as he won't even meet me," Grandpa said.

He finished his beer and then tossed it over the side into the water. I was shocked at the littering for a second before remembering that none of this was real. The reality engine would just repurpose all of this at some point. There hadn't been an ocean and islands and pirate skeletons here before we entered, and there wouldn't be when we left.

Grandpa was right. All of us felt hollow. "I think it's because we've had too much time in between attacks, and because our lives aren't on the line," I said. "It's giving us time to think, and now we're seeing the unreality of this."

"Yeah," Grandpa stared moodily at the water.

"And I think we're starting to get a guilty conscience because of how we're using all of our friends." I dropped my voice low. "I was just talking with Juana. She still doesn't know that we're never going home. I feel like I should tell her, but at the same time, I really don't want to."

"That's exactly it," Grandpa said. "We've got all these people that we've convinced to help us work toward a better future for humanity, a better seat at the table, and they don't even know that their own future's been decided for them."

"We'll tell them," I said firmly. "After this event. We need everybody's head in the game. If Ames is right, this is important."

"Agreed," Grandpa said. He stood up, shading his eyes with his hand, and looked toward the front. "And I think we might be coming up on our destination. Let's go take a look."