Doublerift reigned alone over the Liberation's Call Syndicate. Directly under his command were three Champions and five Chief Officers. The Champions were the syndicate's strongest combatants, and worked as solo units. The Chief Officers, meanwhile, each commanded a small squad of lower-rank members.

Within each squad, the Chief Officer worked with Seniors, who aided in overseeing the lowest level of recruits, the Juniors. The average squad might have around three Seniors and eight Juniors, plus a Chief Officer, for roughly 12 people total.

Altogether, the LCS had around forty full-time members, plus another thirty or so members whose involvement waxed and waned.

After meeting Doublerift, I spent the next week getting initiated into their ranks.

I got my work phone, which looked like an iPhone, and could be used to call other people in the syndicate. I met important people and memorized their names. We chatted, and they treated me courteously. I learned about the LCS bylaws, their secrets, and their resources. They had several hideouts scattered around the city, and several armories of magic items. Gathering strong magic items, including single-use consumables, was one of their main objectives. I was not allowed to pick one just yet. First, I needed to be assigned a boss.

I proposed to Kevin the skull knight, one of the five Chief Officers, to take me into his squad. He flatly rejected.

"You beat up two of my Juniors," he protested to me.

"...I did, huh," I admitted. To be fair, when that fight broke out in the magic item shop over the Mask of Lost Shadows, I had no idea that those two no-name minions could've been my future potential coworkers.

At the end of the first week, Doublerift summoned me to his inner court, where he sat upon a black leather throne behind a grand table. There, he assigned me as the fourth Champion, directly under his command.

"...Wait, really?" I asked. I was expecting to start as a Junior. Not right at the top of the food chain.

Doublerift furrowed his brows. "Do you have objections?"

I shuffled my feet. "I mean, I thought I'd have to work my way up or something."

Doublerift leaned back on his throne. "You led the Bounty Hall," He said flatly. "You took out Cirrus. Alice, the Witch of Roses, was crippled thanks to your actions in Silver. You will be the weakest of the Champions, make no mistake. But you've proven your merits enough."

"Thanks," I said. Then I added, "You know a lot about me."

"I have subordinates in many places."

I nodded. "I guess that's not too surprising."

In the same meeting, Doublerift assigned me my first task.

"Are you familiar with fusing magic items?" he asked me.

"T-that's a thing?" I asked.

"There was once a player who could," Doublerift said. "He called himself Haphaestus. Not a humble man, but undeniably talented. He forged himself a suit of armor from five separate magic items. The armor proved stronger than its components combined, yet it took only a single attunement slot."

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"I didn't realize you could do that," I admitted. "That's like, putting together an Infinity Gauntlet."

"Hephaestus easily won the game and returned home. His techniques were lost with him. Since him, many have tried to fuse magic items, all without avail." He pointed at the gun slung across my back. "Your railgun. How did you make it?"

I looked down at my weapon. "I mean, this isn't really item fusion. I kinda just added on some electronic parts to enhance the performance of the radar."

"And what if you tried to add magical items as parts instead?"

I blinked.

"Well…I've never tried," I said.

"You will try now," Doublerift said. "Take survey of our armories. We have many magic items, greater in quantity than strength. Bind them together into one. Concentrate their power. Forge gear that will make Alice bleed again. I expect a draft of plans in three days."

"That's not much time," I pointed out.

"We do not have much time."

Ah. I wasn't going to argue with that.

"I'll see what I can come up with," I said.

And so I went to work. The first day, I spent a whopping 12 hours visiting the three armories scattered across the city. I brought my laptop with me, and made a spreadsheet of the items I could find. I recorded whether they needed attunement, and gave each a power level rating from 1 to 10. Most skewed on the lower end and needed attunement. If any item didn't need attunement, or were particularly strong, someone in the syndicate would've already taken it for themselves.

On the second day, I brainstormed potential ways to combine the items. I combed through the rows of my spreadsheet. The combinations were practically infinite. Within that metaphorical mountain of hay, I had to find the silver needles, the ideas worth trying.

Suddenly, my work phone rang. It was Kevin.

"Hello?" I asked as I picked up.

"Sophia!" his deep voice boomed, hurting my ear. "Are you at the inner city armory?"

"No. Do I need to come in?"

"We need backup!" he shouted. "We're getting raided by Truck-kun!"

Truck-kun. The strongest of the Vigilantes, of those who oppose the syndicate's control. The fry-stealing boy had told me about them.

"I'm about four miles away," I said, "McDonald's near intersection of Murray and 4th street. Can you send a driver to pick me up?"

I gathered my things and stood watch outside. Not soon after, a car raced down the road before screeching to a halt next to me. I jumped into the back row.

The driver turned out to be Kevin's underling. One of the two I had beat up.

"H-hi," I said.

"Focus," he responded. He slammed the pedal, and we sped off.

Right. I checked my equipment. I had everything with me. Hat, gun, Ring of Pursuit and invincibility necklace. I put on my Mask of Lost Shadows to conceal my identity.

"Status?" I asked.

"We caught Truck-kun's alone this time," the driver explained. "We're rallying all LCS members in the area. Our goal isn't defense anymore. We're going for either kill or capture."

I gave a firm, unseen nod. "Let's go," I said.

In a matter of minutes, we had arrived at a turn leading into a backstreet. The armory entrance was right around the corner. I leaped off, railgun in hand, and stormed around the corner.

I saw them.

Kevin lay in a pool of blood, motionless, in the middle of the street. His armor was cracked and battered.

Around him were strewn the bodies of his squad. Some seemed to be barely conscious. Others…I couldn't tell if they were still alive. One of them was slumped against the door into the armory.

Opposite us, there was a single truck, its engine rumbling. A battered, white, unremarkable vehicle. Its headlights glared down at its fallen foes. And at me.

The driver's side window had been rolled down. A mechanical hand extended out of the window, holding a long spear drenched in blood. The spearhead was two-edged like a heavy dagger, and at its base was an embedded blue gem.

I squinted against the light to see the driver.

It was Hei.