Nathan cast a quick glance over the town. Not much had changed. Nathan marched right up to the meeting hall. Behind him, he could hear footsteps—his companions had probably followed him inside.

Quick glances were shot at him by the mushroom people. He didn’t care. Gius had been hiding something from him, and it was time to get to the bottom of it.

He burst open the doors. Inside, Gius was discussing something with one of the mushroom guards. When Nathan burst open the doors, Gius jumped from his seat and windmilled his arms for balance.

“L-Lord Nathan, what are you doing here?” Gius said.

Nathan stared. “Everyone out, except for Gius.”

The mushroom guard froze and gave a stiff nod. She walked out the door, shutting it behind herself with a loud screech of the hinges.

“You’ve been hiding things from me, Gius,” Nathan said.

“I don’t know what you’ve been talking about.”

“I think you do, actually.”

Gius stood up from his seat and folded his arms behind his back. The movements were slow, languid, and unhurried—but Nathan could see through it. His eyes were stiff, unlike the rest of his body. He was putting on an act.

“I came across a prisoner,” Nathan said. “A prisoner who told me a very interesting story about Vince. Apparently, he was getting weird system messages. Something about failed raids.”

“Interesting.”

Nathan stepped forward. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, right?”

“Of course not, my lord.”

“So if I searched through my strategy view, I wouldn’t find anything related to Vince, right?”

“No, my lord. We don’t possess that feature in the strategy view.”

Nathan opened his strategy view and took a look through the menus. Nothing had changed. He went to the settings tab.

[X] Basic Town Lord View

[ ] Advanced View

“What’s this ‘Advanced View?” Nathan asked.

“Nothing of importance,” Gius said. “Truly, nothing at all. It’s what I abstract away from you so that you don’t have to worry about the finer points of decision-making. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Nathan clicked on Advanced View. Instantly, his strategy view changed. Rather than the three or four tabs he’d had before, he now had a hundred. Maybe more.

Nathan clicked through the tabs, his eyes flashing across the text. He went through them slowly… but he was unable to find anything.

Right up until the very last tab.

He scrolled down through financial reports until he hit the bottom most. There, tucked away, was a small button labeled ‘Wartime View.’

Nathan clicked it.

A new set of windows Nathan had never seen before appeared in front of him. Troop strength, his town with the defenses highlighted—and most importantly, Raid History.

He clicked on the tab.

Two raids, each from ‘Vin-SYS’. Beside it was a big button labeled ‘Counterraid.’

This whole time, I could’ve counterattacked and ended this whole charade?

And if this ‘Vin-Sys’ is just some kind of pseudonym for Vince, then that means I’ll be able to surprise him and take back the Pandora.

The torches on the wall crackled, their light casting long shadows across the room.

“What does Authority actually do?” Nathan asked.

“I don’t know—“

“Oh come on, do you really think I’ll fall for that?”

“Then I won’t say anything.”

“How dare you—?”

Gius’s eyes flicked toward Nathan.

“Do you have any idea how many people I’ve lost?” Gius said. “The Mushroom People used to have trillions of individuals. Trillions. In this colony alone, we had several million.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

A cold shiver passed through Nathan. “But there are only a hundred of you now.”

“Exactly,” Gius said. “All of my people, burned away on the whims of selfish, cruel, callous lords. So excuse me if I’m hesitant to hand over a sword to someone I’ve only known for a scant week or two.”

“But I—“

“But what? You’ve been a good leader? You haven’t run us into the ground, but can you honestly say you’ve been an effective administrator? Besides, how do I know you won’t turn around and use us as fodder as soon as you get the chance?”

He kind of makes a good point… but I can’t trust him now. That’s the truth of it. He was hiding things from me—things I needed to know. What else could he be lying about?

Right as Nathan was about to speak, a message popped up to his right.

Raid Alert!

5 Minutes to Raid

Wave 1/1

----------------------------------------

Nathan rushed toward the walls, passing by the rest of his companions.

“Nathan?” Chad said. “Where are you running—“

Nathan didn’t stop.

The city was frozen, nothing happening. Nathan caught more than one person staring at a raid message screen in front of them.

“Raid!” he shouted. “Raid, everyone get to safety!”

Rapid footsteps echoed out, and dozens of people started rushing for their homes and basements. Nathan continued running and came up to the wall. With a powerful bound, he propelled himself upward and landed gracefully on the top.

Footsteps scurried behind him.

“What’s going on?”

Chad was to his side. On the ground, the rest of his motley group had appeared.

“Raid,” Nathan said. “In five minutes.”

“What?” Chad said. “It never used to take this short in the past.”

“I know, but the message was clear. Not only that, but there’s only going to be a single wave.”

Chad’s lips extended into a tight grimace. “That’s not right, none of the other waves have ever been like this before.”

“Well, buckle up, because that’s what it looks like.” Nathan turned his attention back down to the bottom of the wall. “Mara, please tell me you have some more explosives!?”

Mara gave a thumbs-up. “You know I do!”

He looked behind Mara. Mushroom Soldiers with spears and armor funneled toward the walls.

Nathan cracked his neck and faced back toward the north. As always, the portals opened up at the edge of his sight.

Unlike last time, the army was composed entirely of werewolves, all dressed in gleaming armor.

An opportunity!

“Someone find me Lupim!” Nathan shouted. “We might be able to end this peacefully!”

One of the mushroom guards saluted and ran off. In a matter of minutes, Lupim was brought forward from the center of town. He was dressed in fine clothing and had seemed to lose some of the wariness in his eyes.

Nathan jumped down to meet him. When he spotted Nathan, he dropped to his knees. “My lord.”

“Lupim,” Nathan said. “How do you feel about convincing your people to join my town?”

----------------------------------------

The two of them walked into the open field to meet the army. Lupim tugged at the collar of his shirt.

“I mean no disrespect, my lord,” Lupim said. “But this seems like a terrible idea.”

“If we can end this without bloodshed, then we need to try.”

They’re normal people, like me. They were forced into an awful position. We need to try to save them.

As they got closer, they were able to make out the individual details of each of the werewolves. All of them were staring at Nathan, expressions of confusion and fear written on their faces—all of them save for one werewolf man. He was dressed in golden armor and was twice as tall as the other werewolf men. He had no helmet, revealing a scarred, disfigured face.

“I know him,” Lupim muttered. “Hunter, commander of my legion. He will not take kindly to your offer.”

“We have to try, Lupim.”

Lupim stiffened, then nodded.

“I will trust your wisdom, my lord.”

Nathan walked up to the towering wolfman, Hunter. He snorted and peered down at Nathan like he was staring at his next meal.

“And what are you supposed to be?” Hunter said. “Are you here to deliver the terms of your surrender? I see you’ve brought a prisoner as proof of your seriousness.”

“Quite the opposite,” Nathan said. “I’m here for a very different sort of proposal.”

“Oh?” Hunter said. “Go on.”

Nathan turned his gaze from Hunter to each of the werewolves surrounding Hunter.

“It’s my understanding that none of you are here by choice. You were conscripted by the System and forced into this. If you want to, you can come to my town and we can work together. You’d never have to fight another day in your life if you don’t want to.”

Hunter paused. “Are you joking?”

“No, I’m serious. Lupim can attest to this.”

Hunter looked at Lupim. “I don’t recognize you.”

“I was just a grunt, sir. We’d never met.”

“Number?”

“Thirty-four. Division six.”

“And this lunatic is telling the truth? The town’s lord is willing to grant us shelter?”

“You’re looking at him,” Nathan said. “I’m this town’s lord.”

“You? The scrawny wimp?”

Nathan stared up at Hunter—and to Nathan’s surprise, Hunter jolted back.

Hunter averted his eyes toward Lupim.

“He’s serious, sir,” Lupim said. “He’s sheltered me and ensured that none of the original inhabitants of the town abuse me. I’ve become a member of the community. It’s… very different from life in the raid system.”

For a moment, it looked like Nathan had gotten through to Hunter. His eyes softened marginally and he glanced at the town.

But the look was gone as quickly as it appeared.

“I’m afraid that your proposal, while well-intentioned, is naive. Even if you make a deal with the System and it lets you go, the town isn’t coming with you. We’d be sacrificed and thrown right back into this hellhole.”

“Make a deal? What do you mean?”

Hunter shook his head.

“Turn around. We’ll attack in one minute.”

Nathan switched his gaze from Hunter to the werewolves standing to the side.

“You don’t have to listen to him,” Nathan said. “Even if he’s right, this is only going to end in bloodshed for both sides. We can stop it right here.”

“The only way they’re getting out of this is by joining your town,” Hunter said. “Like Lupim. And that’s just delaying the inevitable.”

Nathan clenched his fists. “It’s not. You’re about to cause unthinkable amounts of death. And for what? Your own self-centered defeatism?”

Hunter turned his head up.

“You don’t know a damn thing about me. Now, I’d recommend that you take the deserter and leave. We have too much honor to kill you here at the negotiating table.”

Nathan looked at the werewolves.

Do I really want to slaughter all these normal people? They’re not here by choice… but I won’t just lay over and die. What can I do?

“If you have so much honor,” Nathan blurted out. “Then you’ll give us an hour to prepare.”

Hunter’s left eye twitched.

“What?” he said. “Why would I give you time to prepare?”

“Because we only had five minutes’ warning. That doesn’t sound very honorable to me.”

Hunter opened his mouth to respond when he saw his men staring at him. He paused.

“Fine,” he said. “One hour. Just to make it fair.”

Nathan nodded and turned around. As he did this, he caught a glimpse of one of the werewolves’ eyes. They were hesitant. Nathan had gotten the slightest bit of doubt into them.

A smirk crossed his face.

If I have my way, not a single person is going to die today.