I sleep well through the night and wake up bright and early, and every bit as hungry as I have been these last few days. In all seriousness, I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it’s everyone, and I’m not sure if it’s due to all the activity I’ve been doing lately, or just because higher stats equates to more metabolic needs. But if it’s everyone who’s going through this much hunger, there’s going to be some major food shortages.

I scarf down eight sausage patties and another four pancakes for breakfast, and honestly, I could eat more without even beginning to get full. Chloe doesn’t eat nearly as much as I do, but she still downs a three-egg omelette alongside half a dozen strips of bacon. I didn’t even know she liked bacon half as much as she seems to be right now, smiling and full of good cheer as she chugs down a small glass of water like a shot.

“So, you still down to go visit the dungeon again this morning?” I ask her as she finishes the last bite on her plate.

“Are you secretly hoping I’ll say no?” she asks, giggling. “Because I’m sure I can find something else to do to laze the day away.”

I lower my jaw at the audacity of my best friend. Is she trying to play some sort of reverse psychology trick upon me? In the end, all I can do is laugh. “Do you really want to laze the day away?”

She gives me a cheeky smile.

We make our way down to the local quartermaster to get food and supplies for our cross-town journey. In addition to plenty of food and water— mostly flavorless hardtack rations, but with a few pieces of jerky and an orange apiece— I also get back my suit of [Simple Leather Armor] from our earlier excursion. I ask for and receive another writ allowing us to keep the loot we find inside without having to turn over a portion to the military efforts.

With that, we’re out the door scarcely half an hour after dawn, but before we get off the base, a friendly voice calls out to us. I turn around and see Lindsey moving at what looks like a light jog but would have been comparable to a full sprint before the System’s arrival.

“Taking off so soon?” she asks.

I give a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I think the two of us have a full day ahead of us.”

“I see.” She looks away briefly.

“Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?”

Lindsey puts her hand on my shoulder. “You remind me of myself from when I started out in the army, Sera. Eager, excited, wanting to rush out and make a name for yourself. Cool, confident, sure of yourself, ready to take whatever shit life throws at you, chew it up, spit it back out, and slam it back in life’s face. That, and you’re starting to look and fight a lot like a [Ranger] between your dagger skills and whatever contraptions you’ve come up with. I just don’t want you to go and throw your life away in a blaze of glory.”

I take a deep breath and nod. “I understand, Lindsey. I don’t know exactly what life will bring, but I know the System’s arrival has opened new doors and given us more possibilities than I can possibly count. I definitely won’t let myself get killed before I get a chance to see what opportunities lie in wait.”

“Damn right she won’t,” Chloe says. “I’m not going to be the one to drag her sorry ass out of the dungeon if she does something stupid and gets herself killed.” She pulls me by the shoulder, yanking me off Lindsey’s hand and dragging me off.

I get only a brief wave before we’re off and running. Within two minutes, the base is already out of sight, and after ten, we’re breezing into midtown. With power back and some sense of normalcy restored, there are a fair few cars on the road. But there are plenty of convenience stores whose gas pumps read ‘out of service’ and long lines on the few that still have gasoline available.

We aren’t the only ones running about; there’s a few cyclists, as well as a number of people on the sidewalk moving at a brisk jog. But we are the only two actually running on the road as opposed to the sidewalk. This, because we’re able to keep pace with vehicle traffic, earning a mixture of raised eyebrows from other pedestrians and amused stares from drivers watching us run past them on the road.

There’s a brief kerfuffle about two thirds of the way to our destination. A few ne’er-do-wells decide to cause a ruckus outside of a nearby bank. There’s a slate of police officers standing outside, no gear, mundane firearms, making complete fools of themselves as a gaunt middle-aged man carrying no-sells the gunshots that ricochet off his chest.

I take a closer look. They are causing a slight amount of damage, causing about as scraping as a rough tumble on a paved surface. But probably not costing him more than ten or fifteen [Health] per strike. I want to ignore the situation altogether— it’s not my problem, nor do I care that a handful of bankers are getting robbed instead of being the ones doing the robbing. But Chloe is a bit of a goodie two-shoes, and as she rushes in, I’ve no choice but to follow.

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The battle is anything but. He throws a single punch toward Chloe with all the grace of a lurching zombie. She dodges with a simple head-tilt, and I follow-up with a quick thwap upon his back that knocks the wind out of him and sends him tumbling to the ground. Once he’s subdued, one of the cops slowly walks up toward us, a pair of cuffs in hand.

“Uh…” He looks at me, not sure what to do.

I sigh, expecting another rigmarole to proceed where we’re chastised or arrested on charges of vigilantism. I turn to Chloe and ask her to start trying to get ahold of her mother, prepared to plead for her help in getting out of yet another mess. But she’s already tearing the officer a new one.

“How can you be so… irresponsible, officer?” she asks. “Relying on handguns against people that have enough [Vitality] to match an elephant? Are you trying to get yourselves killed? Like, you’re supposed to be out there protecting people, not sitting around with your hands underneath your asses being too scared to do your job. And now what, you have to have high school students come in and apprehend burglars now?”

My mouth drops for the second time in as many days. When did Chloe go from wanting everything to just go back to normal, to now standing in front of the police and chewing them out without a shred of fear in the world. I quickly adjust my facial position before I manage to make more of a fool of myself than I already have.

“But–” the officer stammers.

Chloe pauses, but I interject. “There are real monsters lurking just outside of town. Hell, I’ve seen nasty things in the suburbs. I’m talking giant birds that will pick you up out of the sky and bizarre creatures that came right out of a cosmic horror movie. We’ve–” I point to myself and Chloe “–been fighting them over the past weeks. What have you been doing? Sitting on your asses eating donuts all day? I thought you were supposed to be the heroes, protecting and serving! Or is that just a bunch of hogwash you pigs oink out to feel better about yourselves and help you sleep at night?”

Chloe grabs my arm before I can continue my tirade any further. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

Honestly, I’m surprised there haven’t been this many incidents in the past couple of weeks. Then again, it’s not like I’ve ever really paid attention to local news. Chloe keeps us up to date on the latest in social media and national events, but there hasn’t been all that much progress on that front. Just a lot of ‘deliberations’ about how to move forward from people who seem to want nothing more than to continue burying their heads in the sand. People who don’t seem to have caught on to just how much the world will have to change to accommodate the existence of literal superpowers and the fact that we seem to only get stronger by killing things.

We make some distance from the scene, and to my great relief, there doesn’t seem to be any pursuit. Whether that’s because they appreciate the fact that we did their job for them, or they’re too afraid to try anything against us, I’m not sure. Hopefully, the situation will spark the impetus to see some real change in how society will be structured going forward. And hopefully not for the worse.

I worry who the new powerbrokers are going to be in society once everything shakes out. The current assholes in charge are bad, yes, but at least they were mostly gunning for monetary profit. But who’s to say how the new world will end up being structured? Will the systems of government in place adapt? Will we see warlords rise up to claim dominion? The one piece of good news is that there’s enough of a scaling factor in place that I don’t think there’s going to be anyone trying to slaughter entire armies of level 1 people. But… history has shown not to underestimate the depravity of madmen who seek power.

In either case, I need to make sure I’m not the one being used if it all falls apart.

“Hey Chloe,” I finally ask. “It seems like you’ve really changed your opinion in the past few days?”

“I guess this past week has changed me a lot.” Chloe drags me on. “I didn’t realize it until we were in class yesterday. But when we were eating lunch, I realized why you were so adamant about pushing forward with levels. It’s for all of them, isn’t it? I want to make sure they can live the lives they want to live.”

“The selfless reason, yes. The selfish one is that I want to learn more about who I am. And I think continuing to put myself in danger and understanding the System better is the best way to do so.”

“Well, I guess I’m selfishly wanting to help others.” Chloe says.

“I’m not sure that’s at all selfish.”

“Is it any more selfless than you being all ‘I want to use these powers to save the cosmos!’?” She does an impressively bad caricature of me as she speaks, even puffing out her chest and standing on her tiptoes in a laughably awkward penguin trot.

I can’t help but laugh.

By now we’re long out of the busy part of the city and out into the southern suburbs where the cars are few and we don’t have to worry so much about getting run over by someone not watching where they’re going. We could both probably survive it with only bruises, especially with Chloe’s healing magic. It still sounds unpleasant and like an unnecessary risk, and I’ve been chastised to avoid those already today. By at least two different women, and three if I count myself.

We stop by Chloe’s house and sneak inside for just long enough to top off our water and use the restroom, and before long, we’ve made it back to the dungeon entrance. At this early hour, there are none others venturing forth, and the guards on duty look dazed, as though they’d not been relieved from their night watch.

In either case, about five minutes later, we’ve made it through the checkpoint, signed our waivers, and are on our way. I take a deep breath as I survey the faint glow of Ether exuding off the dungeon walls. Despite the danger omnipresent when dungeon diving, I feel… relaxed, ready to take on the challenges within.