"That was it?" Ivy unfolded her safety chair carefully and stepped out, as though expecting the shop to reprimand her any moment.
[Yes, co-owner Ivy. That is it. However, the amount of information that was stored beyond this barrier is too high for me to process all at once. If I were to put it in simple terms, the current shop's capacity is less than half of one percent of what was stored beyond that barrier. It cannot be reintegrated at once without causing drastic side effects for the shop and everyone connected to it. Please be patient. This will take a while.]
"So are we talking about a few hours? Several days? Should we go out and start trying to find people to make deals with while we wait, or should we sit here…?" James asked uncertainly.
[The shop estimates it will take 27 years, 8 months, and 13 days to integrate the unlocked information at a basic level. If you can accumulate enough soul energy, this process can move faster, but please remember that right now we cannot afford to cause any sort of disturbance. What happens on this world is irrelevant as long as it does not come to the attention of the soul administrators. Please be discreet, but do gather as much lifespan as possible.]
"Do I have the power to make deals for you too?" Shen Ai asked. "Or is it only the owners?"
[The full details of your permissions are up to the discretion of the representative.]
"I see no reason she shouldn't be allowed to make deals for us. With all three of us out, we can accumulate lifespan that much faster, right?"
[That is a correct assumption, Representative James. Be aware that once you have granted negotiating authority with the shop to employ Shen Ai, any deal she makes will be binding on you as well as the shop itself. Ultimately, you are the representative, and however many people you accumulate beneath you, ultimate responsibility will remain yours.]
"That is fine with me. Thank you. Please give employee Shen Ai full deal-making permissions for the duration of our stay on this world."
Shen Ai all but burst into tears. She hugged James tightly, with a fierceness he didn't quite understand. "Thank you, thank you. I'm sorry. I never thought that anyone would put so much trust in me. I won't let you down, I promise! I'll find deals for you and Shop-sama, and you'll never have cause to regret this. I promise."
James awkwardly hugged her back, patting her shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, Shen Ai. You're one of us now. Of course you have our trust. If you can't trust someone you've destroyed the heavens with, who can you trust?"
They all laughed, and Shen Ai wiped her face.
[Stealth mode has been activated. While in stealth mode, all deals must be instigated directly by the representative. The shop will not be seen by any inhabitants of the world.]
"All right! New world, Euriste 3, coming up," Ivy said, pumping her fist. "Let's hope it's something fun this time, and not something gloomy and lame."
James nodded in agreement. "Shop? If you would."
[The door is open, representative James. You may all leave and return at your discretion. Passive attention will be dedicated to fulfilling any agreements you make, but you will need to return to the shop if you wish to have a full conversation like this.]
"Entirely understandable. I too can't wait to find out what it is that was so important to stay hidden. Time to go see what options we’ve got to kill some time."
James put an arm around Shen Ai’s shoulder on his right, Ivy’s on his left, and together the three of them stepped out into the new world.
They’d arrived in a city, and it was evening. The shop was tucked into a side alley between a cafe facing the main road and a club of questionable purpose with dancing neon lights that gave the name, Pink Pony, and nothing more.
“This looks disappointingly modern,” James said, turning to look at the rest of the rather dingy alley they’d emerged into. “Not that I have anything against our technology levels, but I expected a society built on magic cards to be more—” His jaw dropped as all he could do was stare.
A huge tower dominated the skyline. Office buildings and towers rose around it that he could tell from the distance could rival any on Earth, but this tower was something else entirely. It went on and on, a line of light that pierced the very sky until it was too distant to be perceived.
Ordinary light shone from the windows of apartment buildings, but none of it came close to matching the tower’s radiance. Clouds lit up in blue and gold as they drifted near it. James only now realized that it wasn’t evening, but rather the middle of the night. The tower’s brightness had fully replaced the sun.
“It’s beautiful,” Shen Ai said in the same tone of voice someone would use to describe a particularly unpleasant new neighbor.
“It is.” Ivy frowned at Shen Ai. “Why do you say it like that?”
“I can feel its hunger from here. Senior Shop has always given back for what is taken, but this… It is a thing of consumption without end.”
“You can feel hunger from that thing…?” James gaped. He thought back to the description the shop had given. “It was described as parasitic. But how do you feel that from all the way over here? That’s incredible.”
Ivy elbowed his ribs. “Let a woman have some mystery.”
Shen Ai giggled. “I’m quite perceptive, Senior James.”
“Is that so?” He turned his attention away from her and back to the city and the tower aggressively illuminating everything as far as he could see. “Is it just me, or does it kind of look like an oversized night light?”
Tilting her head, Ivy nodded. “I can see it.”
Then the noise caught up to them. Despite it being nighttime, the streets were packed and cluttered. There were vendors everywhere and anywhere, banners hanging overhead with insignias of all sorts in an even greater variety of flashing colors.
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“Oh, this is so much better than I thought it would be.” Ivy pulled her arm free and started running around looking at anything and everything, oohing and aahing at every new thing.
James let Shen Ai’s arm drop from his shoulder as he sighed. “This might take awhile.”
—
This tower, thought Merek Sion vehemently, is pure evil.
He’d been reluctant to enter it in the first place, but these days anyone without at least a basic deck would be relegated to the worst jobs. And since over half the population was still without a deck, that meant the competition was incredibly high.
So now his only choice was to go and fight monsters and kill people, just so he could earn enough to keep a roof over his head another month. If not for the tower, things would have been like they used to be. His real skills would be valued, not have him passed over for the first kid with a shiny manifestation deck.
“This is so cool!”
Merek paused at the shriek of joy. Not the sort of thing one usually heard when heading to the tower. Normally it was the dull grumble traditional for a crowded commute to work, nevermind that the commute was a ten-minute walk.
“Look at that giant sword! It’s mechanical too. I’m sorry for ever doubting you about coming here.”
“It’s fine. We can check out the arena place next, if something else doesn’t come up.”
“Do you think I can get a sword like that?”
“Why one like that? I’m sure you can get a better one.”
“Promise?!”
He finally caught sight of the excitable idiot in question. She was short, only standing out from the crowd because of the waving, pointing, and shrieking. It’d been a long time since he saw tourists. Though duty and necessity demanded he go into the tower, there was no requirement that he do so this very minute. He could afford a quick detour. Maybe save the idiots from being coerced into faction fodder. Just because his life was doomed didn’t mean anyone else had to fall into the same trap.
“Oooh, did you see that armor? What about that staff? There’s no way that staff is as good as the armor.”
“You might be surprised. We still don’t know much.”
“Excuse me,” Merek said, walking right up to the strangers. “You seem to be new to the area?”
The girl tried to whisper quietly to the guy next to her, but she was bad at it. “Oh look, a local! What do you think he wants? Also, did we ever get the name of this city?”
“You came here without even knowing what city you’re in?” Merek shook his head. “Tower chasers.”
“You got that right! This place is the most interesting we’ve been to, like, ever! You should have seen the last one. This isn’t even comparable. It’s at least civilized here.”
“Please, for your own sakes, go back to wherever you’re from before it’s too late. Once you get locked into the tower’s games you’ll find it very hard to escape.” He should never have believed the recruiters. If he wasn’t already locked down for the next eight years, he’d have swapped to Destruction in a heartbeat.
“Games? Did I hear someone mention games?” Another girl approached from behind them. “Excuse me, sir, but what kind of games?”
“The kind where you get killed,” Merek snapped.
“Is that all?” The newcomer was genuinely disappointed.
He stared at the kid with sheer bafflement. “Is… that all? You think life and death are trivial? That fighting monsters and trying not to get stabbed in the back by someone looking to climb the leaderboard is too tame for you?”
“Monsters will be a fresh break from the type of people we’ve been dealing with, to be honest. A lot more straightforward and without near-godly levels of power. All the slave traders and depressingness of Aiguo. Can’t say I’ll miss that place.”
Merek’s anger drained away. “Oh.” He’d never heard of Aiguo, but if they were from an isolated region by a slaver warlord? “Yeah, maybe don’t go back there. But if you came to the tower in search of freedom, you’re heading the wrong direction. Find a nice quiet suburb to settle in. Don’t let yourself be trapped. Whoever told you this was a good idea lied to you. Probably plan to exploit you.”
“Definitely won’t be going back. No thank you.” The excited girl looked around. “Can you tell me where to go to awaken my heart card? I heard you can’t get into the tower without doing that first, and nobody will sell me anything if I can’t even go in the tower. It’s so weird. Seems counterproductive to business.”
She’d completely ignored him. Talking to her was exhausting. How had they even managed to get to New Tienithport if they didn’t have heart cards awakened? The outskirts had become realms of banditry for those who couldn’t make a living in the tower but still had something combat-related.
“I’m getting a headache,” Merek grunted. On the one hand, unlocking their decks would be a good idea if they insisted on fighting. But once you started down that path, you couldn’t stop until you had a full deck. If he was away from the tower even a full day, he’d grow weak as the heart card’s uncontrolled influence burned through his body’s resources instead of staying constrained to its deck.
“Sir, about those games…?” the second girl asked, nearly bouncing in place with reserved anticipation.
“Death games. The tower likes us to fight among ourselves. Split us up into factions. Sends monsters after us. Rewards anyone who kills anything, whether monster or enemy climber… or ally.
“It’s just like what the description told us. It’s perfect for obtaining power and more lifes—”
“Ivy,” the guy grunted, cutting her off. “Too many ears here. You don’t know who might be listening.”
“I know who isn’t listening,” Merek grumbled. “Do you have a death wish? Are you all completely insane?”
“Perfectly sane, thank you,” the Ivy girl said, placing her hands on her hips.
“Then why, in the name of all the beyonds, are you still looking at the tower like it’s something fun instead of horrible?”
“Why can’t it be fun?” she retorted, rolling her eyes.
“Because it’s horrible. Pure evil.”
“Says who? Seems pretty close-minded to me, unless you’re telling me you’re just bad. That sounds like a skill issue to me, if I ever heard one.” She shrugged. “If that’s the case, then I understand where you’re coming from and appreciate your attempts to warn us of the dangers. Now, I’d really appreciate being pointed in the direction of the awakening ritual.”
“Bloody radical Ascensionists,” someone called out. “Psychopaths, each and every one of them!”
“Who do you think you’re talking to that way?!” another shouted back.
“You freaks are nothing but pests! You want to see what we do to pests over here in Destruction?”
Their little confrontation had attracted a bit of an audience by now, and it didn’t take long for someone to call in a recruiter. Merek saw the ripple in the crowd from here, someone hurrying against the current of people heading to the tower for the morning.
“I’ll show you to the intake office,” Merek said, “as long as you come right now.”
“Sweet! That’s just what we wanted to hear!” Ivy said, skipping as she followed behind.
He’d already grabbed her hand and started walking, purposeful and brisk. If they wanted to throw their lives away, fine, but at least they could do it without some Ascender radical breathing down their necks.
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