"Phase two?" Sage jumped up from her seat, scattering a plate of fruit and cookies all over the floor. "I thought it was still at least months away."

Something Veda had told us about phase two way back at the start of this whole adventure was bugging me. I shook my head. "No, no way. You said phase two couldn't start until we had lost enough of Earth's miners to make room for the outworlders. You said something like 50%. That would mean we had less than four million humans left here, and I know that's not the case. I'm not in touch with everyone, but we've been talking. We have a good picture of what's going on."

My coalition had a secret weapon, in fact. One of our members, Arjun, had a class, [Mycroft] that let him compile vast quantities of information. He also had a skill that let him trade that information with other similar miners through the system. The last I had spoken to him, he had a million and a half miners' information, skills, and affiliations in his personal database. I had no idea how one mind could hold all that, but I assumed the system was helping him out somehow.

"I would know if we were taking losses like that," I insisted.

"You're right." Veda dipped her head. "In fact, you humans have been taking losses far less than we projected. Since arriving four months ago, you've only lost 423,000 more miners."

423,000 people dead. That was an enormous number, almost half a million. Yet my heart swelled with pride because it could have been so much more.

One big advantage we had was that several of the remnants of various Earth-armed forces were now cooperating. We were coordinating who used what portal and avoiding conflict as much as we could. "So then how is Phase 2 starting?"

"Your numbers were so good, actually, that several of the big conglomerates who usually show up in Phase 2 petitioned the Reality Engine Exploitation Committee to allow them to start Phase 2 early. They pointed out that even though you humans aren't dying, you also don't have as many mission-capable miners as most species. You seem to be a lot fonder of working together in groups than the last few Reality Engine exploits have seen. So you've got more people farming, fewer running missions."

That matched what I knew. "So that gives them an in?"

"Exactly. For their mission-running teams, anyway. There aren't slots available for their farmers, so they're going to have to make deals with you human miners or with your sponsors." Veda grinned. "We are potentially in a really good spot, Shad. I know we only have two fully mission-capable teams in your coalition, but with all the farming and crafting, we're going to be able to sell to the people coming in. I hadn't expected that before. It's not my family's usual strategy to make money off of Phase 1. I've got a plan drawn up. What I'm thinking is we coordinate with a few allies and work on taking an early Phase 2 objective. If we can hold it for a month, we'll have more than made back my investment and paid off a lot of your coalition's debts. Also, being up front with you, that will renew my company's Phase 2 license, which will let us stay in business. It's probably my second most important goal after making my money back."

"You told us before that Phase 2 isn't deadly. That if you die, you just respawn," I said. "Is that true?"

"It is."

I sat back on the couch. That was something, at least. We’d made it through the dangerous part.

"How about party size?" Grandpa asked. "Is that going to work differently?"

"It'll be like when you worked together to claim a farming level. You'll have individual squads who can be managed by the officers in charge. The party size will increase to 15, which can be split into three squads or teams of five. Larger bids will feature multiple teams, but there’s no discount for less than a full party, so recruit or convince some of your farmers to join the team."

"Bid?" I asked.

"So for phase two, some of the portals that were offering missions will now be tuned to the new large phase two maps. These are going to be bigger even than what you saw in farming zones and much more diverse. The exploitation committee is negotiating with the reality engine right now over how many maps it will open and what kind of stakes are to be provided."

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She gestured, and my system pinged with an information packet. I held it in reserve to look at once she was done talking.

"We're hoping that since we have more eligible human miners than usual, the system will be inclined to be generous. Once we know how many maps are open, teams can put in a bid for entry. It'll be based on team composition and a lot of other factors. An all-human team should be able to make it in with a smaller bid than what the outsiders are going to have to do."

We drank that in. "Does the Reality Engine have a preference for locals?" Grandpa asked.

"Kind of. There’s all sorts of conspiracy theories about that. Anyway, I want you to put together a bid proposal. We'll run it through my systems and see what kind of suggestions we can get. The initial maps are going to be blind bids. Nobody knows what to expect and nobody can see anyone else's bids until they've been awarded. The system gets to do the awarding," Veda explained, "with a few vetoes and legacy slots that the exploitation committee will be able to use."

"Vetoes?"

"Not on individual bids, more like on rule sets. That's another of the bids going on, but that'll be at a much higher level and we aren't going to get a look in. What I'll do is attach our team proposal bid to a couple of different rule set bids and then whichever we can afford, we’ll buy into. There's almost always a battle royale map," she told us, "and I don't think that plays to our strengths. We're going to look for something more of a capture the flag or perhaps a take a point and hold it rule set. Something we can build up. I'm hoping we're successful enough with our initial foray that one of the larger companies will offer to buy us out. That's when we can really make some money."

"And what happens to us when we do take the buyout?" Sage asked, leaning forward and clasping her knees.

"I’m not going to accept any offer that leaves you here in debt," Veda said simply. "Your coalition, I don't owe as much to, but I'll make sure they're not shafted in any way. At the very least, I will negotiate a buyout that gives them a favorable contract for supplies. They won't be forced into running anything dangerous."

"You said phase two, nobody dies," Sage said, shrugging. "So how bad could it be?"

"You need to take it seriously," Veda said. "I’m going to have you all on a very strict schedule of coming up here for medical and psychic evaluation."

I snickered at that. "What we're going to have Miss Cleo read our palms and tell us our future?"

She frowned. "I don't know that allusion. There must be a translation issue here. We have very sensitive systems and trained specialists who can analyze what kind of damage you've been taking to your psyche. You won't die in phase two, but you're going to think you have." She leaned forward, her voice deepening as she spoke. "Respawns hurt. Not just physically. You're going to be in situations where your brain deep down believes you are about to die and that there's nothing you can do about it. And then you're going to wake up somewhere else and be asked to do it again."

"Shell shock," Grandpa said.

"What we call PTSD now," I agreed, sitting back on the couch. The army had been starting to take PTSD seriously in the past couple of years, but I knew they'd still had a long way to go based on some of my colleagues experiences. "You're saying you can prevent it?"

Veda shook her head. "I’m saying no one can prevent it, but we can monitor and make sure that we intervene if things get too bad."

"Is that part of what you've been doing already?" I asked.

"It's included in the package," Veda said. She seemed a little hesitant, probably because they were doing something shady with our brains that I didn't want to ask about. "So let's get down to work and start planning strategies. I'm going to call up a list of some of the most common rule sets and we can list them in your preferred order. You're going to need to recruit more people either from your guild or some of your associates. If their sponsors are willing to let them work with me, I'm willing to work with them."

"Oh!" Sage jumped up. "Wait. We reached Level 5 last mission and I finally got my class evolution! I have to tell you about that."

"Wonderful!" Veda clapped her hands.

Grandpa had gotten a class evolution at Level 3. His [Tomahawk Ninja] class had evolved to [Last War Chief]. He’d kept all his abilities and gained some buffs for allies, as well as a couple tactical skills. It had also enabled our coalition to double in size immediately. That plus the coalition upgrade tokens we’d been picking up in missions had been key in letting Misfits Guild grow.

Sage had been angry at level 3, then incensed at level 4, not to get a class evolution. She’d pouted for days. I had been more relieved than she was when she finally got it at level 5.

Sage displayed her character sheet for us all to see, a nice trick possible here on the Hub. "I’m a [Barrel Racer] now!" she exclaimed. "I’ve kept everything else but I have a [Three-Barrel Race] skill that lets me designate two points on the battlefield and teleport between them and my starting location at will. And I’ve upgraded my T-Shirt Cannon. Now it can take rounds I craft with my reloading press. There’s still a stupid long reload time but I’ve got decent aoe damage at last!"

"That’s excellent. You should still be looking for more area damage and healing abilities to supplement your own. Or add team members who can do those things. Just because you won’t die, don’t neglect healing. The respawn timers can be brutal. Now, let’s focus on our plans for Phase 2." Veda projected several images into the air. "We’ll go through and then list them in terms of your favorites."