51ST AND 9TH, OUTSIDE TIO’S DINER. HELL’S KITCHEN, NYC
NEIGHBORHOOD: CLAIMED BY GUARDIAN: LOOPHOLE (CONTESTED)
CITY: UNCLAIMED (BLOCKED BY TIMER)
CURRENT PHASE POINTS: 2210
END OF PHASE ONE: 03D:04H:21M:32S
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I had taken my time coming back to the neighborhood, changing out of my gear and walking instead of hightailing it back home. While I didn’t necessarily want to take the time to go through my loot boxes, I did want to get my Level 5 stat points placed.
Though I had derided the idea when Angie had first explained the leveling procedure to me, I ended up using all four points to increase my Charisma by 3. One of the first achievements I had received, Deceptively Disarming, had come from me somehow using my Charisma stat to convince Jon to stop asking questions when I had first woken up.
I hadn’t exactly considered the implication of it at the time, but it meant that somehow my Charisma stat worked on what Axio considered as Sentient NPCs. With what felt like more probing than needed, I got Angie to explain.
The Sentient NPCs in the world actually each had hidden stat blocks of their own, some even having their own “hidden features” that gave them stat boosts comparable to some of the higher leveled Augments. She wouldn’t go into detail on how any of that actually worked, but she did explain that persuading them generally only required having a higher Charisma stat than theirs, barring an unexpected feature of course. Rounding my Charisma up to 10 felt like it had a good chance of being able to beat anything that I might have to talk myself through, at least with what I wanted to do.
That said, there were some things that even Axio wouldn’t allow Charisma to override a person’s free will over. These were some of the more obvious things that would be morally questionable, even for an A.I. running a game that encouraged robbery and murder. But as long as it just came to something a Sentient NPC would naturally do with a little shove? That was completely fair game.
Given that I wasn't sure just what I was going to need to do to make the next part of my plan work, being able to talk my way around problems certainly didn't seem like it could hurt.
Jon had been working in the building when I stopped by and on my way back out of the building I pointed out the time, causing him to realize he had missed lunch and needed to take a break. On the way to the diner, I convinced him to grab me a pack of gum under the guise of having no cash leftover after buying my new phone, though I wasn’t sure if I was going to need it, I knew I needed to make a habit of keeping a pack on me for using my Like Concrete ability.
This also gave me the opportunity to see if there was some sort of effect or visual cue that I could pick out when my Charisma was affecting someone, but unfortunately, I didn’t notice anything… well… noticeable.
“You sure you don’t want to stay and grab a bite? I don’t mind covering for you until you do start making some money again,” He said as we came to a stop in front of the diner.
“I appreciate it, but I actually gotta head over to this building around the corner on 52nd real quick. Mr. Russo apparently just got a cleaning contract with them and he asked me to stop over and get the details,” I explained, pulling a stick from the pack and pocketing the rest. “Although get this, he told me to be careful heading over there cause apparently there’s been some reported biker sightings up and down the street today? I don’t know, they seem to be popping up damn near everywhere.”
Jon’s grip on his laptop bag tightened as he looked up toward the intersection.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that too. Loophole has been seen fighting some of them already and hell I swear I saw a few of them run a light back by our place earlier today,” he said as he slowly pulled his attention back to me. “You heading over to the building now?”
“Yeah, figure it’s better to knock it out quickly. Keeps me on the boss’s good side,” I said and started to walk away from the diner. Sure enough, Jon moved to keep pace with me and followed along. I looked back at him as I popped the piece of gum into my mouth, “What’s up? I already told yah I don’t have any cash for the gum. I had to spend it all on the phone, but I can get yah back later.”
“Huh, oh no, sorry, like I’d care about a pack of gum,” he laughed and stopped in his tracks. “I figured, I don’t know, I’m not really that hungry and maybe if there are some bikers around…”
I let out a laugh as I continued walking and he followed along.
“Your funeral. In case you forgot, I nearly died getting in the middle of an Augment fight.”
“Well… yeah but that was The First and an actual bad guy, not just some biker thugs and a noob.”
“Well he’s not wrong you know, trying to compare yourself to him is rather… grandiose of yourself.”
“Not now, Angie!”
“Regardless, it’s not like I’m going to be running in or anything,” Jon continued once he had caught up with me. “Just figured if, and it’s obviously a big if, Loophole was around, I don’t know, maybe I could grab some footage of the show. Would make deciphering the dude’s powers a whole lot easier, don’t you think?”
“Hey whatever works for you man,” I shrugged as I rushed to the crosswalk before the sign could change over. Jon kept pace with me and I suppressed a smile. “I actually heard he was down in Hudson Yard earlier, though I guess he could have traveled back up this way already.”
“Duuuuude. Wait till you see the videos. He was fighting this naga-looking biker with some other dude that could clone himself, I think the sub said he’s going by Hydramental, which is kinda a fitting name if you squint at it the right way,” Jon explained as we turned the corner and started to walk up 52nd. The street was far less busy than some of the main roads, with only a few cars passing by and a handful of pedestrians walking along. “But it’s still pretty much been more of the same, not a lot of footage that gives anything away.”
About halfway up the block, there was a building with its windows boarded up and though it wasn’t immediately obvious, a snake had been painted onto the wall tucked into the alley closest to us. If that hadn’t made it clear enough, thanks to the map in my inventory, I was able to highlight the building. It didn’t give me a lot of information, but it was listed as a Bronze Level Viper Den.
As casually as I could, when I was sure Jon wasn’t paying too close attention, I pulled the gum from my mouth and dropped it onto the ground in front of the door as we walked past it.
“Warning: Littering is a crime! This is worth -1 Karmic point.”
“You have got to be shitting me,” I shot back and heard Angie giggle in the back of my head. I let the topic die as I tried to focus on my overall lack of a plan. On the far side of the building, there was another alley separating the Viper Den from any other building. Just behind a dumpster a few yards into the alley, I could see a door into the neighboring building that looked like it was partially propped open.
I looked to the front and saw a sign hanging over the front windows that labeled it as a Florist. The building wouldn’t have been my first choice since Mr. Russo’s company normally contracted with commercial offices, but given the location and the accessible back exit to slip out of, it was going to have to work. I looked over at Jon as I came to a stop ahead of the front door. “Ok, this is the place. I gotta run in here and talk with the owners for a bit, you gonna hang out out here while I do that?”
“Yeah, I’ll uh, text you if I see something or go running off so you don’t think I got crushed in a fight or something,” he replied with a laugh and extended a fist that I bumped before heading into the building.
The bell rang overhead and an associate working near the register looked at me with a hopeful smile. I turned my attention away, trying my best to look as casual as possible and realizing just how awkward it made me feel. The shop had several displays along the center of the store, with various flowers gathered together in prearranged bouquets. The overwhelming floral smell was a distinct difference from the general smell of weed, gas, pizza and urine that filled the air of the streets of New York.
I hadn’t been to a ton of florists, because the truth was… well why would I? But the shop felt oddly nice and made me feel a weirdly distinct level of pride in my neighborhood.
I almost felt bad that I wasn’t actually in here to buy anything, but I couldn’t just choose an empty building, that would have been a bit too obvious. And Angie had been clear, anything that was blatantly obvious would get dinged by Axio.
“You know, I really don’t think you should be so worried about rushing this, Loophole.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Your objections have been heard, considered, and ignored. If I want any chance of making this work without feeling like I’m stumbling around like an idiot, I need to do this and I need to do it now. I’ve wasted enough time as it is,” I shot back, walking along the wall as I pretended to look at the selection of cards.
“Why is this so damn important to you?”
“Can I help you sir?”
The interrupting voice came from the young attendant as she appeared almost silently beside me, her twin-braided hair bouncing along as she rocked on her toes with a wide smile across her freckled face.
“Sorry, just browsing… um… do you happen to have a bathroom by chance?” I asked, looking and seeing her name tag said, Amy. Though my HUD did highlight her, I mentally waved away the tooltip before Angie felt obligated to read it.
“Paying customers only, it’s my dad’s rule, sorry,” she said with a frown. I hadn’t known exactly what I was going to need to use my Charisma stat for when I raised it, but I certainly didn’t think it would be something as simple as using the bathroom, and I was pretty sure I had definitely made a dumb call by dumping all of my points into it for the level. But unless there was a way to reset my stats, it was just going to be a lesson learned. I steeled my nerves, hoping this girl wasn’t somehow the most charismatic person on the planet, and plucked a random card from the shelf.
“So if I buy this I can use the bathroom? That sorta seems like an arbitrary rule, don’t ya think?” I said, trying to come off as playful.
“You know, I’m gonna skip making fun of you for “trying to be playful,” it’s just too easy, but you don’t even have the cash to buy that anyway, you really should exchange some of your credits at the Square.”
“Not now, Angie.”
“I’m just trying to help,” she muttered, trailing off as she complained about skipping her jokes about my apparent lack of, quote-unquote, game.
“Is it? I mean, you’ve been inside of shops in New York right?” Amy giggled before she looked over her shoulder.
“Of course I have, just always felt like it was a bit of a dumb rule. Maybe the streets wouldn’t smell so bad if bathrooms were a bit easier to get to,” I said with a smile as I turned the card around. I tried not to groan at the irony of the “Have a Super Birthday” caption as I looked back over to her.
“True, but our bathrooms smell terrible when we don’t limit who goes in there,” She shot back with another giggle before a look of horror passed over her face. When she spoke again, it was almost as if she wasn’t stopping to add the spacing between words “I mean, I’m not saying you smell terrible or anything like that!”
“I can’t believe this is actually working, Axio seriously needs to tweak just how effective that stat is on people. Or maybe you’re just the first man that’s not related to her that she’s seen after waking up from brain damage.”
“Oh my god seriously, not now, Angie!” I nearly yelled as she burst out into a fit of laughter.
“Hey I’m just saying, you’re barely doing anything and this girl is looking at you like a lost puppy.”
“I wouldn’t have been offended if you did think I smelled bad, I’ve been walking around all day and deodorant only goes so far,” I said to Amy as I tried to get myself back on track. “Look, I honestly just bought a new phone and am still a few blocks from home, I really just gotta go real quick…”
Amy looked from me back over her shoulder again. There was a window that separated the front of the store from the nursery section and several people were working in the back. “I… okay, go and make it quick, but if my dad sees you… you know what, just make it quick and don’t let my dad see you.”
“Thanks,” I said and dropped the card back onto the wall. “It’s just down that way, right?,” I asked and she pointed around the side of the front counter to a small hallway. I gave her a small wave as I slipped around the counter and down the tight space.
“I can’t believe you actually just lied to that poor girl.”
“It’s only a lie if I don’t use the bathroom,” I replied, stopping at a door with a clear bathroom sign and a Paying Customers Only sign taped firmly underneath it. A minute later, I was drying my hands on my shirt as I peered back up the hall to the main store. No one was coming to look for me so I turned my attention to the other end of the hall. There was a corner just past the bathroom and I approached it as casually as I could. Sure enough, as I turned the corner I found a door partially propped open with several boxes full of plant clippings sitting on the floor and an Exit sign illuminated above it.
I took one last look up the hallway before dipping around the corner, out the door, and into the alley. I activated my equipment and almost felt a bit of relief as my hotbar lit up along the bottom of my vision. I briefly activated my Area Sense, letting my senses reach out to the edges of my zone as I looked at the side of the two story building. Part of me had hoped there would just be another side door I could utilize and although I could have wandered to the back of the building and looked for a door there, I did find a ladder extending up to the roof.
“The roof or the back…” I muttered to myself as I scratched my chin.
“There’s also the front, you even set your little trap in place and everything.”
“No, I’d rather use that as the exit,” I shot back and eyed the ladder. If there were people on the upper floors, it probably wouldn’t be the worst idea to take them out first, but I was going to need to make sure that I kept the noise down either way.
“I thought you had this grand plan, why is a ladder tripping you up so much?”
The truth was I didn’t have a grand plan mostly because I couldn’t have a grand plan. Angie had made that crystal clear and I knew that she was aware of that. Which almost made her questioning all the more confusing.
“So the ladder it is then,” I said, more to say something than anything. Unlike most buildings in New York, the ladder for this building was fully descended and without any sort of anti-climbing device attached to it. Normally this would probably be a big red flag, but given the circumstances, I was choosing to believe it was just a preset condition from Axio.
“You know, I’d refute that and make some sort of “he’s not an all powerful god” joke, but when it comes to these zones, he kinda is,” Angie explained.
“Yeah, that makes about as much sense as any of this,” I said as I started to ascend the ladder. In no time at all I climbed over the lip of the roof. As my feet hit the roof, a label that read Bronze Level Viper Den - Hell’s Kitchen, flashed in the location panel. There were a few A/C units placed on top of the flat roof along with a single protruding structure with a door on it. Instead of walking right to it however, I approached the edge of the roof. I peered down off the ledge and noticed Jon was pacing along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road. “I suppose I should also report this to the precinct, didn’t Lt. Nester say something about getting rewards for clearing these out?”
“He did, the communicator app should be near the phone icon in your interface,” Angie explained and I found it with ease. “You should note, it will be like using the phone app, you have to talk out loud for it to hear you if you’re making a call.”
As soon as I clicked on it, there was a prompt that automatically filled out with my name and a series of numbers I didn’t recognize. As it faded, there was the sound of a connecting line that rang through my head before an almost bored voice answered.
“10th Precinct Augment Outreach Dispatch, give me your name and your report.”
“Oh, uhhh. Yeah, this is Loophole, I am at a Viper Den here halfway between 9th and 10th street over on 52nd.”
“Are you reporting its existence or your planned assault on it?” the dispatch asked, the clattering of keys moving slowly in the background.
“Um, I guess a planned assault? I just wanted to give you guys the heads up,” I explained.
“Thank you for your report, we will dispense a few squad cars to come pick up any captured members. If you have anything further to report, please feel free to contact us again,” the dispatch said before the line clicked off.
“Bronze Viper Den Updated! You will now receive a reward from the 10th precinct if you complete this Den.”
I waved away the notification and opened my phone app. Though I probably didn’t need to, I texted Jon that I was still going to be in the florist for a few more minutes. I looked back down toward him just as he turned his attention to the phone. I saw a thumbs up emoji flash on my message screen before I waved it away and headed for the door. I walked over, tested the handle and found, to my luck, the door was unlocked.
“That luck stat of yours really has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for you, and you’ve barely added all that many points to it so far…”
“Let’s just hope it actually keeps up,” I said with an internal laugh. “Wait… are you saying this door could have been locked?”
“And the ladder could have actually been up out of reach. I was just looking into it here in the information trees that I'm currently authorized to view and these Dens have a variety of things that can be handled differently based on your base stats. For example, certain Dens will have vaults or other obstacles that will have set Strength stats if you choose to brute force your way in. I would like to petition for a database upgrade as soon as possible if you wish for me to be of more assistance than just my delightful descriptors.”
“I’ll add it to the list of things I need to get upgraded, I still think the map might take precedence,” I started down the short stairwell, turning at a corner and coming to a single door to the second floor.
“I’ll explain to you why you’re wrong later, I think you’re about to have your hands full.”
“I thought you didn’t know what I was about to be walking into?” I said, leaning toward the door as I tried to hear through it.
“Let’s just call it an educated guess,” she said, almost in a sing-song tone before it turned into a nervous laugh. “Actually let’s just call it conjecture and assumption based on the fact that Axio seems to be using an accelerated timeline. It really seems likely he’s throwing a whole lotta curveballs at you new Augments this year, I just can’t imagine he’d let you off with some random fight.”
I let out a long sigh. I couldn’t really be that mad with her because the truth was, she was right. I knew doing this at a Den instead of waiting for a Crime Alert was a risk, but it was one I was willing to take.
“Welp, I guess it’s show time.”