“So? How is it?” Peter asked his son as he leaned against the freshly cleaned kitchen countertop.

Blake slowly chewed the roast his father had prepared and considered how to not hurt his father’s feelings. He took a swig from his coffee to wash down the stringy meat, and offered his review. “It’s got a good flavor.”

Peter’s eyes lit up, and he grinned.

“Although,” Blake hesitated. “It’s a bit dry.”

“Oh.” After the criticism, his father’s smile faded, and he seemed to deflate.

“I’m sure the next batch will be great,” Blake encouraged. He then checked his status. “It gives great bonuses, too! For the next four hours, I’ll have a point added to all my physical attributes.”

Peter slapped a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “You don’t have to sugar coat it for me, son.”

“No, it really is great,” he explained. “Much better than what I ate in my last life. I’m just used to everything you make being amazing is all.”

His father laughed and his smile returned. “Well, help me bring some of this slop out to your friends.”

Blake stood beside the chef in his kitchen and accepted plate after plate filled with food. When he could carry no more, Peter collected his own filled dishes, and they entered the dining room of the level two cookhouse. The medium sized hall looked the same to Blake’s eyes as it had for the last month, and would remain so for over a week. It could not be upgraded until the faction hall reached level four.

As he placed roast filled plates before each of the seated diners, he listened to Montgomery share a tale of Dahteste’s feats.

“...spun around and caught the goblin by surprise. She was so fast, it didn’t even know what happened. It just stood there with it’s mouth open, and blood running down its throat.”

Oliver laughed. “Dude, that’s awesome!”

Blake placed the last dish before an empty seat next to his mother, and then dropped into the chair. She smiled and nodded her thanks.

“Yeah,” Montgomery smiled sadly. “She was pretty badass. You know,” he leaned forward. “We were totally gonna be a thing.”

Jeff rolled his eyes and blurted, “Bullshit.”

Montgomery whirled on his friend, a hurt look plastered across his face. “I’m serious! For the last week, she stopped rolling her eyes every time I flirted with her.”

Oliver coughed and had to swallow a gulp from his ice water to force the stringy Lupus down. When he recovered, he asked in a hoarse voice, “Are you serious? That’s your metric? A lack of disdain?”

“Naw, it wasn’t like that,” Montgomery shook his head. “I’m telling you, we totally had a thing going. I was slowly breaking down her resistance, and, if it wasn’t for that asshole, she would have eventually succumbed to my wiles.”

The table grew silent as the subject of Rajesh was raised once again.

Not this conversation again.

The night before, Blake visited his two friends to fill them in on the result of Rajesh’s crime. They had been livid. The argument raged on for over an hour about the Indian’s proper punishment to no resolve. They demanded blood, but Blake insisted on mercy. The disagreement only ended when his mother informed them it was time for Dahteste’s funeral.

“I still can’t believe you called that bastard our friend,” Montgomery shook his head.

“He was,” Blake insisted for what felt like the hundredth time. “Although, he wasn’t so rude in my past life. I mean, he always thought he knew best, but he didn’t club you over the head with his ‘superiority’ like he did here. I don’t know why he was so different than I remember.”

His mother answered him. “You said it was two years after the Invasion before you met him, right?” After Blake nodded, she continued, “That means he had two years to come to terms with losing his family. For two years, he learned that he couldn't continue to treat people poorly if he wanted to be accepted. I’m sure he was booted from plenty of combat teams before he finally learned to be civil.”

“That sociopath?” Montgomery scoffed. “I bet he never learned anything, he just got better at hiding it.”

Jeff nodded.

“Well, whatever it was, he’s gone now, so you don’t have to worry about him anymore, ” Blake reminded them.

Jeff grunted. Oliver’s eyes darted between Blake and his friends, curious.

“I still say you should have at least beat the shit out of him before he left,” Montgomery mumbled before he bit into his roast.

“So, how close are you two to getting a class?” Blake asked abruptly, eager to change the subject.

Montgomery swallowed his roast and then took a drink from his glass. “I’m almost at hundred mega-nano, but I’m not sure I want a basic class.”

“Why not?” Blake asked, curious. He did not disagree with the decision, but wanted to know his friend’s reasoning.

“Well, it’s just the two of us now,” he nodded to Jeff beside him. “It would take way too long to bring someone else up to our speed, and I’m not sure I want to rely on someone else anyway. We kinda got burned,” he explained.

“Yeah, I can see that.” Blake nodded. “Are you thinking about dual classes?”

“Naw man, I think we should go omni-class, like you did.”

Blake shook his head. “That’s not a good idea.”

“Why not?” Montgomery asked, annoyance back in his voice. “You’re doing it.”

“At least you get a class,” Oliver muttered.

Blake ignored his brother. “Yeah, but I get twice the nano from my Scion title, and I solo scenarios a level above me. I can only do that because of my achievements.”

Montgomery scowled. “How do we get achievements like that?”

“You can’t,” Blake responded. “Most of the good ones I got are from being the first to do something. My biggest is my ‘Master Solo Warrior’. It gives me fifty percent more attributes.”

Oliver whistled.

“Is there a duo version of that?” Montgomery asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not as good,” Blake informed him. “From what I heard, you have to complete a scenario a level above you with just two people.”

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“We’re totally doing that!” Montgomery announced. He then leaned forward. “What’s it give you?”

“I think it’s five percent more attributes.”

“Lame,” Montgomery scowled.

“It’s not lame,” Blake disagreed. “When you hit the higher levels, it’s a huge difference. And, if you can take on a scenario two levels above you, it doubles.”

“Whatever,” Montgomery grumbled.

“Uh, this may be a dumb question,” Oliver interjected. “But why not bring some machine guns and mow down the goblins? I know you won’t get any nano for it, but if you get the achievement, it would totally be worth it.”

His mother frowned at her eldest son’s flippant disregard for the goblin’s lives.

Blake responded to his brother, while Montgomery and Jeff shook their heads. “Like I told them before,” he nodded across the table. “The Architect may be an asshole, but it isn’t stupid. If you bring guns, it won’t give you an achievement.” After a moment, he added, “Or a reward.”

“That sucks,” Oliver grumbled.

Blake could only agree and reminded those seated that, in his past life, he had heard of thousands of ways people attempted to cheat the system. None of them had worked. Unlike the video games they had grown up on, there was no hard coded result you could exploit.

Every single action you took was weighed and judged by the AI based upon its level of risk. If you found a way to reduce that danger, it would not reward you. Worse, if you continued to search for an exploit, the Architect would eventually punish you.

“Well, my potions will totally help,” OIiver offered. “I got them up to two attributes, each.”

“Nice!” Montgomery praised, while Jeff smiled and nodded.

“That’s great,” Blake agreed. “What about that scent potion? Any progress with that?”

Oliver shook his head. “I think I need another week.”

“That’s fine, I want to test out some things with my bow anyway. I’m going to keep to scenarios just a level above me until then. It’s safer that way.”

His mother frowned. “Good, you’ve been taking far too many risks lately.”

“I had to,” he explained. “We couldn’t get the materials for the level four faction hall if I didn’t. But, Oliver’s potion and dad’s cooking will make it a lot safer.”

“We would have been fine with staying at level three until you leveled. There was no need to take so much of a risk,” she disagreed.

Blake shook his head. “It would’ve taken me another four weeks to get enough nano to evolve all my spells and level. That would leave just a week before Invasion day to upgrade the faction hall. It’s going to take eight days to finish the upgrade, and then who knows how long it will take to build the shield generator.”

His father frowned. “You said monsters won’t appear for a few days, and when they do, they’ll be low level. Will they be able to get over the wall?”

“No,” Blake answered. “But I’m not worried about monsters, I’m worried about people.”

“Won’t a wall stop them too?” Montgomery asked.

“Dude, ladders are totally a thing,” Oliver pointed out.

Montgomery scowled. “Hard to climb a ladder when you're full of lead.”

“They’ll have guns too,” Oliver reminded him. “You wanna walk the wall when you can get sniped in the head?”

Jeff snorted and glanced over to his friend. “Gotcha there.”

Montgomery shot his friend the bird.

“I’m more worried about before Invasion day than after,” Blake explained.

“You think that asshole is gonna tell the cops where we are?” Montgomery growled at the thought of Rajesh. “I told you, you should’ve kept his ass in jail.”

Not this again.

“He won’t.” Blake assured him. Montgomery opened his mouth to disagree, but Blake raised a hand to forestall his objection. “But, if I’m wrong, it’ll be the last thing he ever does.”

“It better be,” Montgomery mumbled.

His mother frowned at the thread of conversation. Blake noticed, and quickly diverted back to the original topic. “I’m actually surprised the police haven’t shown up already. The walls around our property are twenty feet tall, and you can clearly see them from the street. All it will take is one curious cop driving by to ruin everything.”

“It’s private property, and they don’t know we’re using it. They’d need a warrant,” Peter pointed out.

“Nah, the cops around here are clueless. They don’t notice a thing.” Oliver scoffed.

“Speaking from experience?” Blake quipped.

Oliver glanced quickly at his mother and shook his head.

Blake snorted. “The local judge is clearly in their pocket.”

Donna’s frown deepened, but did not disagree.

The door to the cookhouse suddenly opened, and a few natives entered. They met his eyes and headed his way, rather than an empty table. He recognized all three, but only knew the leatherworker’s name.

I really should learn everyone’s name.

Blake had spent so much time in scenarios, that he had not had the time to meet all their newer faction members. A quick Analyze revealed their names, and he quickly greeted each of them. “Hello Debra, George, Elan.”

Blake’s father stood, ready to feed the newcomers. “Would you all like a plate?

“No thanks,” Debra said while the others shook their heads. “I’ve already eaten.” She then turned back to Blake. “Uh… hey,” She began, clearly nervous. Debra glanced down at the sheet of papers in her hand and then back to his.

“Do you guys need anything?” he asked as his father sat back down.

“We, uh, were looking over the ‘onboarding document’, and had some questions,” she said warily

Wait, she’s just looking at it now? We handed that out weeks ago.

Blake hid his annoyance and smiled. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

With greater confidence, Debra continued, “It says here that anything not made with nanomachines will slowly be destroyed after invasion day.”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“But, aren’t nanomachines going to be everywhere and in everything? Wouldn’t that prevent stuff from being destroyed?”

He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure the Architect wants to get rid of everything made before it Invaded.”

“How long before stuff like houses and canned goods are gone? How long before those trucks are useless?” George spoke up.

“Most buildings last about six months before they start to crumble. Canned food will probably last longer, but it’ll all be eaten long before the can disintegrates along with the food inside. All things living are infused with nanites, but anything that’s dead will eventually crumble. As far as the trucks go, without constant maintenance, they’ll be useless within months as well. Same goes for diesel fuel.”

“Then, why bother converting them?” Debra asked.

“Because for the first few months, we’re going to be doing a LOT of scavenging, and that’s a hell of a lot easier with trucks and trailers. Besides, any replacement parts can be made by a blacksmith, and those won’t decay.”

“Uh,” Oliver interrupted. “The Earth isn’t living, does it get destroyed too?”

“Of course not,” Blake rolled his eyes.

“Then what’s the difference between some rock in the ground and a concrete house?” His brother challenged. “Why does it leave one alone and destroy the other?”

Blake sighed and rubbed his temples. “I don’t know, it just does.”

Elan filled the silence that followed with a question. “Uh, it says we can bring our families here before Invasion day. Is there a limit to how many we bring? Can we bring other stuff, too? Can I bring my cat?”

Blake shook his head. “No limit, and you don’t have to wait until just before Invasion day. They are welcome any time. Pets are welcome too, as long as you bring reasonable numbers.” He then made eye contact with each of the natives. “For that matter, you can live here now if you want. There’s free meals, and you won’t have to drive here every day.”

Debra smiled. “Thanks, I may just take you up on that. What about stuff, how much can we bring?”

“Well, keep in mind that it’s going to get crowded here after Invasion day, and everyone is going to be packed in like sardines. There won’t be much space for belongings for a few months until we expand. And, by then, most of your stuff won’t be in the best condition.”

“Even photos?” she asked.

Blake nodded.

While he continued to answer their questions, everyone finished their meals. Montgomery and Jeff left to complete a level zero scenario, but Oliver stayed rather than work on his alchemy. As time passed, more and more people entered the cookhouse with their questions.

At the beginning, Blake calmly sat and answered everyone. At some point, Donna whispered to Oliver. He left and returned with a notepad. Donna then began to furiously record the conversation. Blake eventually was given a chair on top of the table, so the throng could hear him better, and his father prepared snacks for the crowd.

Hours later, when he was still stuck in the cookhouse, he became restless.

I need a break.

Blake raised his hand to quiet the mass of people before him. “I’m glad you guys are taking this seriously now, but I need a break. But, I’ll be back here for dinner and I promise to answer more questions then. Donna will add an addendum to the document with all the answers so you can read them again, and our guidelines on personal possessions.”

His mother smiled.

He saw the look of disappointment on their faces, but they nodded in acceptance. Blake quickly fled the now crowded dining facility, and grabbed his weapons from his room. After he exited the gate in his modified diesel truck, he let out a sigh of relief. The question and answer session seemed to resolve the tension between himself and his faction members, which while exhausting, was a relief.

Killing some monsters with a bow is just what I need.