It stood to reason that Solomon had to do something with the Zone Command Tokens he'd been picking up. He certainly didn't want them to go to waste after all the effort he'd put in. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long.

"What do I need to do?"

"Come with me," Mort said.

He led the two of them out of the store, then approached the wall of the anteroom. He set his palm against a brick that looked like any other. A moment later the wall slid to the side with the sound of grinding stone, revealing a spiral staircase.

Mort set a brisk pace. Solomon would have expected the old man to struggle with the climb. With the system around, though, appearances could be misleading. He really didn't have any idea what Mort's stats looked like.

The staircase itself was carved out of stone. The construction was eerily regular. Solomon couldn't see any mortar, or any sign that the stone had been worked on. The way was lit by glowing stones set into the wall. Something about the overall ambiance reminded Solomon of the fluorescent lighting he had to put up with at the office.

Well, used to have to put with. The system wasn't all bad.

The staircase ended at a blank wall. Again, Mort put his hand to an unremarkable portion of wall, and again it slid aside. Solomon followed him out and had to squint as the sun hit his eyes.

He'd been on the go for long enough that night had passed and it was well into morning of the next day. Solomon still didn't feel fatigued, though he worried he'd be paying for it eventually.

"Now, wait for it," Mort said, gesturing for them to look into the distance.

They had emerged onto a plateau, bordered on one side by the ravine where Solomon had enjoyed his introduction to the system. They had a great view, or they would if not for the shimmering walls blocking the way.

As Mort spoke, the timer in the corner of Solomon's vision ticked down past five seconds. They stood in silence as the clock ran out on the second grace period.

The force fields off in the distance faded out of existence as though they had never been. A ding sounded in Solomon's ear and a blue screen appeared in his vision.

Earth's second grace period has ended! Earth's third grace period will expire in one week!

The timer in the corner of his eye refreshed, now counting down to a deadline a week away.

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Kanmi whistled. "Never thought I'd see it with my own eyes."

Solomon glared at Mort. So much for the idea that he needed to take over the zone before he'd be able to leave.

The old man gave him a grin and a shrug. "Claiming the zone would have let you pass through the barriers if they were still there."

Solomon shook his head. Everything had worked out in the end, but he'd add this to the pile as one more reason to take anything Mort told him with a grain of salt.

"How many grace periods are there, anyway?" Solomon asked.

"Don't worry about that," Kanmi said. "Now that Second Grace is over, dungeon monsters are going to grow and multiply. Ditto the mobs in the outposts."

He fixed Solomon with a serious look as he delivered the information. Solomon stared back at him for a moment, puzzled at the non sequitur.

"I told you," he said, "we're not charging into any more dungeons."

"Yeah, well, the monsters are gonna come to you," Kanmi said. "Once there's too many for the dungeon to hold, they'll break out."

Solomon sighed. "How long does that take?"

He'd known the system was going to dump a disaster on him eventually. He just hoped it would hold off for long enough that he could make sure his family was safe before everything went to hell. Went more to hell.

"They can't break out during the third grace period," Mort said. "After that? More than a day, less than a month."

Solomon nodded. "And at the end of the month the invaders will show up?"

He hadn't forgotten about that ticking clock. It was just too bad they were getting a bunch of little disasters to soften them up before the real heavy hitters showed.

"All the, uh," Kanmi said, pausing for a moment to pick his words, "aggressive entrepreneurs get their shot at the end of Fourth Grace, yeah."

"But the locals can stop it if they do what I did, right?" Solomon asked.

"The challenge level is scaled for the population, kid," Mort said, shaking his head. "They'd need to round up five, ten, or a hundred people who are all as ridiculous as you. And it's getting tougher every day, now.

Solomon sighed.

He'd been working with the assumption that everything he'd gone through so far was just the beginning. Even so, it was a little depressing to learn the scope of the problem. If untended dungeons led to monster explosions, that meant that his little patch of territory was going to be surrounded by an enormous part of the map labeled "here be monsters."

Massive numbers of powerful monsters from the dungeons. Swarms of pesky and persistent goblins from the outposts. Almost all of eastern Oregon was going to be drowned in a tide of system-generated baddies. It was almost enough to make Solomon want to pick up stakes, forget about his tokens, and just run back to a populated area.

Except that the populated areas of Oregon were due to be taken over by aliens. Solomon would do what he could to try and rally some people into wresting control of their own land from the system, but Mort had seemed to have a pretty good feel for the workings of the system so far. If he thought the invaders were a lock to take over, Solomon couldn't say he was wrong. He'd still try, but he needed a backup plan.

Ideally, he could turn his territory into a little bastion of freedom in the middle of hostile territory. Maybe he'd get lucky and all the monsters would keep the invaders away.

"All right, all right, one thing at a time," Solomon said. "So what do I do to make my claim?"

"Just head on in and present your tokens," Mort said, pointing at something behind Solomon.

He turned around and saw a glowing spherical force field, much like the zone boundaries that had so recently vanished. A day ago, Solomon would have marveled at the sight. Now, he just grunted and started walking.