Roslyn woke up with two plans nearly fully formed. No, three.

First, she was going to assassinate the leaders of the Franklin Privateers before they had time to turn their newbies into the strike force they used to decimate the Ibsen Group and the Dorset Battalion. She was going to do it now, quickly, while their leadership was still panicking over how many new people had suddenly entered their territory.

Second, she was going to come back here and sweep her way through the halls, looting everything unattended.

Or maybe if she didn’t burn her bridges and get chased as a murderer, she might operate in another section, because the Ibsen Group really was a bunch of controlling asshats even if they didn’t deserve to die.

Third, was the most complicated, she was going to spend her down time composing a field guide to the First Realm, which she was going to immediately post for free and sticky to the top of the global message boards. There were two parts to this, first she had to write it, then in order to sticky a thread on the boards she had to have 250,000 coins to pay to pin, so she was going to hunt seriously to get the money by the time she had the guide ready.

There were only a couple of really good ways to gain that kind of coin at her strength level: Human killing and giant worm killing. She could probably get enough off two or three Moon Wurms to cover the cost. One if the Wurm had managed to eat a wealthy enough hunter.

Spatial rings didn’t dissolve in monster guts, and people who died wearing spatial objects left their coins inside.

Nope. She had four plans: she was also going to grind through the entire personal enhancement quest series and she might even get it done before she finished writing the guide so she could update her memory with current quest data.

Of course, if she closed her sticky post to comments she could continue to add chapters or whatever by commenting and editing her sticky, so maybe she needed to do one big hunt and then grind.

She nodded as her plans evolved.

The truth was her plans were still evolving. Her life plan had always been make plans and let them evolve as they impacted reality.

Plan four: self improvement, included daily workouts, daily meditation and daily hunting.

She got to work right away. She used the clock in the room to time one hour for her morning Qui Cultivation Meditation.

It felt strangely refreshing to start her cultivation over from the beginning. She knew what she did wrong before and how it felt to succeed. She’d spent a large part of the fifth realm demolishing and rebuilding her cultivation.

When the alarm interrupted her, she pushed herself through a simplified version of her usual daily body weight workout. She could not manage the whole thing, her body was no longer a hardened warrior’s body.

There was even a pull up bar in every room: the curtain rod for the shower would hold a bodybuilder for pull ups, chin ups and suchforth.

When she didn’t need several healing cantrips per movement every day she could move on to weighted workouts in the many available gyms.

When she was in the shower washing off her workout, Ros got a notification.

Strength +1

She smiled ruefully. In the beginning it was just that simple. She had also gained +2 Recovery from her meditation that morning.

Plan one was the first thing to do, even eclipsing Wurm hunting for maximum profit. She was going to infiltrate section H, before everyone knew everyone else.

Ros got out her Variable Pigment Cosmetic Color Kit(S) and set about disguising herself for her foray into the Franklin Privateers territory.

Her goal was total anonymity on this mission, an alias to burn. In the worst case scenario she could take the first train to the city and head to some other station, but she was hoping she could manage a good enough disguise to prevent suspicion.

She wanted to kill the leaders who pushed the group into a killing spree and get out before anyone thought to Examine her name. At the moment it was still a fairly unknown bit of trivia that most people yielded a thousand coins or more when they died. More coins the higher their rank. More coins for someone significantly stronger than you. More coins for someone with expensive abilities or traits.

There were several scandals next year. While the fifth wave arrived, more than one group of ten or more people had assassinated the entire ten thousand people who arrived in some random station section, getting them all as they entered the realm. New people were especially vulnerable, isolated and confused.

Right now Ros was probably quite cheap. One very cheap trait, one medium priced ability. She estimated that a thousand coins was the high end of what she’d be worth to kill right now.

In true vestibule fashion, the cosmetic kit was a lot more extensive than it’s 1 point price had implied. She could change her hair, contour her face and generally make herself look nothing like herself.

She picked a very convincing natural redhead hair color, and remembered to make the curtains match the drapes. At this point she freely acknowledged that womanly wiles were her best spy tactics, since she was a squishy nothing. The hair dye was magical, and there didn’t seem to be any limit to uses. She just had to specify color from a long list.

She picked up a fake mole that came with the kit and Identified it.

Alibi Dot- changes wearer’s official name temporarily. Stats revert to base human norms. Reusable. Choose name? (yes/no)

Ros grinned. “Yes, I choose the alias Cherish Noble.” It was the name of her high school mean girl, her bully.

She looked at her status page.

Roslyn Atwood Cherish Noble

Physique: Human- F Ranked (base)

Qui Adept- Early Mortal

Strength: 6->7 5

Endurance: 12

Recovery: 7->9 5

Soul: 27 5

She grinned. That would do perfectly. She continued putting on her makeup. She dressed in her waitress uniform, minus the yoga pants she’d been wearing under the skirt. She covered it all up again with a ubiquitous uniform jumpsuit.

She pulled off her spatial ring and considered what to do with it.

In the Sixth Realm, when Ros had upgraded her spatial ring to a C grade ring she had learned that high quality spatial rings could be worn anywhere on the body, as long as they were in touch with some skin, the bonded user could store and retrieve items from the ring with a thought, and without tapping the ring with a finger as was necessary for low grade rings.

Over time Ros had worn her spatial ring many places: navel, toe, labia, nose. She liked the nose, she could magically pierce it through septum, then twist it up so it was invisibly inside her nose.

The obvious fear, that she would be struck in the nose, causing the ring to do more damage than the original blow, wasn’t an issue. A spatial ring was magically incapable of damaging its owner.

Even if worn on the finger it could not hurt the finger when the fist hit something. Even if the fist wearing the ring shattered itself completely, the ring would be undamaged and would impart no additional damage.

Ros loved being underestimated. Not many people had spatial rings this early, directly out of the vestibule, only the die hard gamers who understood the utility of a dimensional storage space even looked for them. Therefore she now hid her spatial ring up her nose and more or less forgot it was there.

Before she left the room, Ros checked her exact position on the room screen. The fastest route into H where the pirates had their lair was across the chasm bridge into I and then north into H where the pirates were said to live.

Of course the other route was nearly the same, North through C and across the bridge there. However someone might be watching as a lookout for the pirates.

Ros considered searching rooms on the way, but that took too long and the whole looting everywhere plan seemed wrong headed if she could pull off a Moon Wurm hunt this early. There would be enough loot in the intestine alone to fund her lifestyle for months, even after she made a few sticky posts.

Therefore she reluctantly abandoned her intention to search every room and decided to write a post about where to search in each room instead.

Ros had somehow forgotten the majestic view of the central chasm. By the time she’d left the First Realm everything about the mining stations had seemed dull and boring. She was on the 24th floor, the highest yellow floor, and she found the bridge without really even trying. She stopped at a balcony suite, all the balcony suites were nice, but she was more looking for a place to Blink to in case she got into trouble on the bridge.

It would be a lot easier to shoot a flyer, which looked like a nightmare version of a bat, from the balcony than from the middle of the bridge.

Ros made a quick search of the room, finding a few useful items but nothing of note except more 100 point health pills. She barred the door with a spare pipe and she jammed the sliding door closed too, since it didn’t lock either. She wished she had a better gun.

She took a steadying breath and Blinked from inside the balcony onto the bridge, which she could see clearly. Plus, while she had not been on this bridge in this body, she’d been on it in her previous timeline.

She appeared on the span, right where she intended to be, and walked across. She winced once when she heard a flyer screech, but she didn’t see it.

Ros took the time to search and claim the balcony room directly across from the one she’d claimed in B. It should be a long time, if ever, before anyone tried to break down the barred doors, but the station cleaning and reset would remove the barricade eventually. Once she completed the first soul quest she would easily be able to Blink across the Chasm.

Roslyn was surprised not to see any Evrets until she crossed into section I. Then she killed three in quick succession before she heard someone shouting.

She ran towards the sound.

“Help. It’s going to tear my leg off. Get it off me.”

Ros entered the corridor junction and quickly took in the scene. One young man in a red enameled breastplate was trying in vain to pry the jaws of an Evret off his leg with both hands, his sword had dropped on the ground. His two companions were each backed into a corner by three of the monster dogs.

Ros speared the dog with the mouthful of human, and tossed the guy her bottle of two health pills, the one she’d found in a room. Two should fix him right up and she didn’t want to throw a single pill.

He got the jaws of the dead dog off his leg and poked and prodded at his wound.

“Take a pill. Anyone else want help?” Ros asked, not making a move at the remaining dogs. Kill stealing was a serious problem in this reality.

“Yes! Help! Kill them.” A high pitched but still probably masculine voice called.

Ros relied on her return rune for this battle. Every time she lodged a spear in an Evret’s fragile ribs she let go and let it return. It was a lot more pleasant than yanking the spears out. It seemed like pulling them out took twice the energy of pushing them in.

“Kill the last one.” Ros ordered. “You need the experience if you’re going to run around the yellow halls. What about you? You need help?”

“I… I can’t get a good angle.” The man said, frustrated. He was doing ok holding three off.

The formerly injured man ran in and slashed off an Evret’s ear, drawing its aggression. The man looking for an angle found it and two strong strokes later his sword had cleaved killing blows into both of the remaining dogs.

The high pitched voice squealed as his last foe snapped at his arm. He finally got a sword into its eye and he slumped against the wall.

“These things are awful.” The formerly injured one said as he put another shallow wound on his foe.

The deep voiced one came in and dispatched it. The corridor was now clear.

“That was a lot worse than Ivan said it would be.” Deep voice said. “I thought Louis was going to die before I could get to him. I thought… I thought we’d be able to do this.”

“You can do this.” Ros said staunchly. “Here. Split this however.” She held out a bag containing the coins she’d made off their kills. System generated coins always came in a bag when you pulled them out of your status page. It was only dead humans whose coins ended up in their spatial rings.

“Also, the next dogs are worse, so don’t cut out the tenth scent gland until you’re ready to move on. These will keep respawning for you until you finish the quest. Six coins each is more than enough for a solid meal from the replicator.”

“What’s your spear called?” The high pitched voice asked.

“Leaf spear.” She unscrewed the coupling and showed him how it came apart. “The pipes are everywhere in the green halls. The blade is two coins but I’ve enchanted it with a return rune.”

“That’s so cool.” The boy’s voice broke. “Can you make me one?”

“You can have this one for four coins if you want it. The rune is probably worth more. I don’t know if anyone else bought it in the vestibule.”

“Are you… I mean they say women were rare in the third wave, are you third or fourth wave?” Louis asked.

“Fourth, it all feels like a video game until you actually have to stab something.”

“I’m Mike. That’s Louis(Lou-ie) and he’s Kostya.”

Kostya, deep voice, winced. “You shouldn’t run around alone. I’m Konstantin Illyavich Ivanov. But yes, I’ve always gone by Kostya.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“I’ll buy your spear.” Mike said. “If you have another.”

“I’ve got four, they’re all for sale, the dogs don’t go into rooms unless they’re chasing you in. So fight with a door at your back.”

“Good advice.” Kostya said. “Want to fight with us? Our third wave group says we can stay in their lounges if we bring back five of these each,” he pointed at the dogs. “they gave us these swords, but they’re not making the women fight. They’re all looking for wives. I have never heard so many bad pick up lines in one day.”

“There were more men in the third wave than women.” Ros observed, most places it was three to one. “I’m just passing through. My name is…” she almost said Roslyn. “Cherish. Maybe I’ll see you around later.” She waved and started down the hall.

“Wait, you seem to know what you’re doing.” Louis said. “What should we do?”

“Find the gym on level 25 or 20 and work out. You can train strength and endurance by lifting weights. Also don’t depend too much on a group that makes demands or charges to live somewhere. Pick any room and live there. When you have enough money, get a spatial ring. You can carry more without being weighted down.” She shrugged. “There’s a message board and some people post useful information. Any bedroom has a desk terminal. That’s about all I’ve got. Good luck.”

She started walking again and they didn’t call her back.

Ros took the route that seemed least visible, through I into H. She used her knowledge of the stations, and the standard monster paths, to take the lift beside the bridge all the way to the lowest red floor. There was a main corridor parallel to the chasm which had no regular monster patrols. She would have to be very unlucky indeed to see anything there.

Also, if she did encounter a wandering Fenrir Hound, her shield would protect her and she could probably even kill it.

On her way in Ros paused at a luxury flat overlooking the chasm that separated the sections of the mining station. Actually she investigated six flats in section H, five in the green area, the last in yellow, one right above the next.

They were all empty. She wanted a sure landing spot, just in case she needed to blink.

Ros was slightly surprised that the Franklin Privateers weren’t living in the spacious chasm rooms. Or she was until she saw a nightmare bat with foot long fangs land on a balcony.

Ah. Right.

She had forgotten how intimidating the things looked. She remembered the kill shot on these things, heart, but she wasn’t at all sure she could hit it at the moment.

She stripped out of her jumpsuit in the balcony room on the 24th floor, just inside the bridge, and smoothed her sexy waitress outfit, no apron, no pants. Although she did spend twelve coins she hadn’t had earlier on a merry widow bustier with garter strings and a pair of stockings. She made sure she looked perfect in the full length mirrors of the luxury suite. She shook her head at her tight, perfect 23 year old body. The right lingerie did make a difference.

Time to bait an asshole. She giggled.

Asshole fishing.

She made sure her Mind Barrier was attractively concealed under her unnaturally colored hair and left the room, balancing like a professional on her tall heels.

Ros affected a carefree swaying gait, guaranteed to leave men drooling and their women seething.

She strolled through the section, noting the complete lack of organization.

‘How did they go from this to exterminating the neighbors in just a few, about six, months?’ She wondered seriously. Ros(playing Cherish) waved at people she passed, she cycled the Qui in her ears trying to hear conversations as she sauntered.

She was hoping that someone would mention Buccaneer Brandon or Swashbuckler Martin, the only two 2nd Wave geniuses associated with the group at the time of the extermination war.

Franklin of the Franklin’s Privateers had not been present during the war.

She wandered up to the observation deck in the lift, fully expecting it to be a hive of newly arrived people. She was not disappointed. A couple hundred people were sitting around, playing cards, getting to know one another.

The hand painted signs plastered on the dome glass caught her attention immediately, just as they had been intended to do.

Don’t be a dick

Kill monsters to get stronger

Earn coin killing monsters

Buy what you need

It’s easy

Don’t be a dick

Ros was extremely amused. She wanted to meet whoever had put up those signs. She was having trouble equating those signs with mass murdering warmongers.

Her plans were starting to change.

She made a slow turn around the room. She actually recognized a bunch of these people, especially the girls, from her months as a captive and fuck toy after the pirates had killed all the men and kept any pretty women. She liked a lot of these women. She even liked that asshole over there, Matt, who was chatting in an animated fashion with Beverly, her one time friend and teammate.

That was the couple who cheated on her. She frowned from across the room. Or maybe he’d been cheating on Bev with her.

Didn’t matter. Ancient history. Lots of water under that bridge, and she didn’t have to associate with them.

She went down the central lift one level to the rec room above the one the Ibsen Group was using for the mess hall. It was a lounge and game room, flashy lights, arcade games, pool tables, slot machines, gambling tables.

She smiled ruefully. She had spent more than a few hours in rooms like this in other realms. Part of her fifth realm Qui Cultivation method demanded cultivating in noisy and distracting environments.

The game room was a convenient place for that, and if there weren’t any other humans it was completely safe too. Monsters didn’t even come close to the observation deck. Even the observation deck lift had a six foot safe zone around it, so monsters wouldn’t ambush people at that lift. They could prowl around and respond if attacked, but not attack.

Ros took a slow turn around the loud room. Too bad she only had 8 coins left. She could get lost in here.

She suddenly felt the unmistakable creepy feeling that meant someone was checking her stats. She turned slowly, pausing to look at a pinball machine to make it seem like she hadn’t felt the probe.

She also felt the same mind Grab at hers, it slid right off her Mind Barrier, and the sensation confused her at first.

DeadEye Trenton, not that he called himself that.

He was looking right at her. He had a cocky smoldering look on his skinny, nerdy face.

Derrick Trenton

Physique: Vampire (base)

Strength- 8

Endurance- 5

Recovery- 15

Soul- 3

‘DeadEye was a leader of the Franklin Privateers, how in the world did he get there from this, a zero? This nerdy little twerp to the buff studly dude who had any chick he wanted, even if she didn’t want him?’

Her life hadn’t normalized until DeadEye, Brandon and Martin all took the hyper loop to the city. They caused havoc there too, but there were a lot of stronger people in the city by then and the Franklin Privateers were mowed under, subsumed into the tide of later waves.

The last she’d heard of DeadEye was Third Realm when he had… he’d wiped with a party fighting a Ghoul Lord.

Brandon and Martin, on the other hand were still around on the eighth, both married, daredevils but stable.

She felt the creepy, ineffectual Grab again and tried to respond like a mind control attack had worked.

Ros smiled at Derrick. “Hi there, why haven’t I seen you around yet.” She sauntered closer, smiling and engaging every ounce of charm she possessed.

He seemed to be eating it up. “My…” his voice broke. “My vampire body trait took a few hours to evolve. I used to be skinny.”

“You’re looking a lot sturdier than skinny.” Ros bit her lip and laughed, looking deep into his eyes. Doesn’t everyone know not to look the vampire right in his eyes?

He put his hands on her body and pulled her hips to his so she could feel his excitement.

“Let’s take this party somewhere quiet, you can check out the improvements.” Derrick tried to purr, and for half a second Ros almost lost it. The Grabby feeling suddenly made sense. He was glamouring her to sleep with him.

‘This piece of Wurm shite really is using a Psychic Compulsion Ability of some kind on me.’ Roslyn thought with artfully concealed revulsion. ‘That’s it. He doesn’t know it, but he’s dead. I bet that’s how he got chicks last time too. All his cast offs couldn’t remember why they went with him.’

She giggled and bubbled and nodded as if getting him alone was exactly what she’d intended when she spoke to him, which in a way was true.

Ros cuddled right up to the psycho killer boy and cradled his elbow between her nearly bare tits. She looked up into his smug weaselly eyes and smoldered.

Ros had never worked in a strip club, but weekend dinner service at a pub was nearly as bad. She could simper and smolder and make any asshole think he was the only dick on the planet. She could allow just the right amount of subtle groping without letting the bartender, hostess or anyone else see it happen.

She got the absolute best tips on weekend nights, even better if there was a game on. The pub had a practice of overbooking waitresses for big games. The girls were supposed to leave everyone alone while the game was playing and do all the serving and clearing during the commercials.

Usually Ros found a friendly lap to perch on during the games. Often it was a lap that could take her home and pamper her for a day or two. She even had a few regulars and frequent offers to let her move in.

The reality of her old life felt so odd and distant now, but she remembered how it was done.

“We should go off somewhere we can be alone.” Ros pouted. “I can’t cum properly if I can hear voices.” She gasped. “Oh, I know. Let’s get a balcony room. Have you seen the balconies yet?”

“No.” He looked intrigued. “Lead the way, beautiful.”

It was almost too easy. Ros led him to the very nearest balcony room, which was unoccupied, she’d looked at it on her way in. All the balcony rooms seemed unoccupied.

“How did you even know that this was here?” Derrick looked around the big sitting room and through the closed balcony sliding doors.

She giggled, stripping off her top. “The map, silly. I’ve been a bunch of places, all green zones.”

She dropped her tiny skirt and kicked off her high heels. “I’m not taking any chances of scars on this perfect body.” She cupped her tits in his direction, emphasized by her corselet.

He was just standing there, watching her like an idiot- or a virgin. She crossed the room, bubbling like an idiot, and reached for his arm.

Her hand hit resistance two inches from his skin. It was the same green resistance she got when the Evrets bit her shield. She gasped and shook her hand like it hurt. She hadn’t noticed it before because he’d touched her first.

“It’s just a shield, beautiful, I’m not going to take it off, we just have to move nice and slow.” He said, smugly. “The slow blade penetrates, just like Dune.” He giggled.

“Huh?” Ros got the reference, she just didn’t feel like letting him have the satisfaction.

He pouted a little and touched her, very slowly. The shield fizzled on her pale, bare skin.

“Oh, I like that.” She cooed. She eased her hands into his shield and caressed his neck.

The Vampire Body Trait was cool enough as far as effects go. They can live on nothing but beast blood for long periods. They mostly don’t kill their human victims. However, he was smart to pair it with a shield. The vampire wasn’t invulnerable, it had a huge recovery boost, but so did the werwolf, the large animal shifters, the Titan bodies…

They didn’t die from a stake to the heart, their hearts were the size of a shriveled pea and nearly indestructible. Garlic was no problem for them. Silver didn’t burn them, or sunlight.

They did have a bat or mist transformation, depending on sub-type, which had to be painstakingly practiced for months before it was useful.

Ros cooed happily as she stroked his neck through the shield. Like most humans, vampire bodies died when decapitated, or when their brain was damaged beyond repair. Other than that, their recovery fixed most wounds. They were notoriously hard to kill. Except…

Except.

In the Third Realm there was a Vampire Clan War, two powerful idiot leaders, both way too into their own personal vampire mythology, pitting their forces against one another and mowing over bystanders. At least until the rest of the large groups and most of the smaller groups, banded together and wiped out both groups.

Ros had spent a few months with a squad of vampire hunters, like every vestibule catalog physique type, there was a weakness.

The Vampire Body weakness was like an Achilles heel, a single point of extreme vulnerability to balance the near invulnerability.

They had a pair of fang mark scars on the neck, little silvery round scars: their Maker’s Kiss. A knife through that spot, right there… a visible and obvious spot. It was even super sensitive. She touched it and he shuddered. That was the kill shot.

Of course you should also take off the head and scramble the brain for good measure. A mature vampire body could issue coins for a kill and still come back from that. He wasn’t mature though.

He was just a baby vamp.

A baby vamp asshole incel who thought mind control was an acceptable way to rape women.

Ros had her hand inside his shield, her fist balled right over the kill zone, caressing softly with her knuckle.

She materialized her brand new Leaf Spear in her fist. The blade appeared directly into his throat, something that actually took practice and a deliberate application of killing intent.

He would feel just a split second of intense danger just before his neck was pierced.

She twisted slightly until she felt the blood vessel under the mark pop like a capsule. His Kiss Blood welled up in her hand as she held the spear shaft just below the blade.

If she cared, she could have drunk that blood to become a vampire herself or caught it in a vial or two to sell. She didn’t care to make any more vampires. They were a nuisance build, chosen by romantic assholes.

She looked deep into his surprised eyes as he died.

“Why?” His lips moved without breath or sound.

“Glamouring girls into sleeping with you is rape. I don’t like to be raped. Also, I have a premonition that you really like killing people, and that glamour makes you dangerous. You’re too dangerous to live.”

He blinked rapidly three times and the life went out of him.

Obtained- 12,480 coins, Personal Energy Shield(A), Spatial ring(F) and contents.

The shield and ring moved from his dead body to her empty hand. She moved the shield to her own ring and looked inside his. Clothes, a sword(12,500 points). She pulled it out. She shook her head, the same flaming asshole sword he’d wielded in the attack where she’d been captured. She put it in her ring. She carefully hung his clothes in the suite closet. Someone would want them someday or the station would reclaim them.

She recycled his body, feet first, into the room replicator. She didn’t want the semblance of eating him at every meal, but whoever ate here wouldn’t care if they didn’t know. That took care of the body, no coming back from that. She put his ring on her right middle finger and when it asked if she wanted to bond to it she said no. She could sell it at the market if it wasn’t bonded. She put the spear away and when she pulled it back out it was clean, bloodless.

She peeled the Alibi Dot. It still had nine uses left.

She took a shower, ignoring the blood as it washed down the drain. She set up yet another alias, Christine Morgan, gave Christine brown hair, bought her a slinky red dress with money from the first kill. She Blinked up a level to the empty suite there. She still wanted to get a feel for Brandon and Martin.

The empty ring on her hand felt odd, but she couldn’t put it in her bound ring, the resonance would kill her and destroy both rings.

Back in the observation deck she reverse pickpocketed it into Bev’s jumpsuit pocket. She would feel bad using it and Beverly had been her friend. Matt was nowhere to be seen and Bev was flirting with someone else.

It wasn’t like she’d never get another spatial ring, she was going to go Moon Wurm hunting.

Ros kept walking and retraced her steps to the casino room as a completely different person than the redhead who had left with Derrick, in case anyone was aware of Derrick.

She had money now, she smiled as she made a coin appear in her hand as she approached a slot machine. She deposited the coin and pressed the spin button.

The lights flashed, the crazy music booped. She won two coins. She picked them up and put them away. No time for frivolity, she was a spy on a mission.

Roslyn, aka Christine, wasn’t the only woman in a slinky dress in the room. She strolled through, she noticed the bouncer standing in front of what she always thought of as the VIP Room. It was sound dampened, often reserved for the section leaders.

Ros eased up towards the bouncer. “Hi, big fellow, what’s in there?” Might as well be direct.

The obvious guard grinned. “Before you lot showed up we didn’t bother with a bouncer. Our first and second wave boss level dudes are inside. Want me to see if they want company?”

She shrugged. “What are they like? Did one of them write the signs in the glass room?” She pointed up.

He laughed and nodded, “Franklin, well, he thought up the words and Katie painted them while Sam and I built and moved the scaffold. Sam and I are third Wave. You’re fourth.”

She nodded. “Cool. I like the message. I don’t like it when someone is a total dick.”

“That’s why Franklin named us the privateers. We’re all equal here, all private citizens, all the captains of our own destiny. Plus it makes other people think twice about attacking us if they think we’re all pirates.”

Ros laughed. “That’s funny. Any real pirates in the bunch?”

“Naw. Not unless you lot brought them with you. Franklin, Brandon and Martin are used to hunting together. They’re good guys, bros, you know? Do you want to meet them?”

“I think… I think you’re what made me ask. You’re…” she bit her full, rouged bottom lip. “I guess I liked what I see. Are you their permanent shadow?”

He laughed. “No. Mostly I go out hunting with Sam, Katie and Jack. We’re all third wave. Hate to break it to you…” he blushed. “But Sam is kinda more my speed than you.”

“Oh.” She gasped and blushed. “Darn it. All the good ones are gay or taken.” She chuckled. “Or both. I just…” she lifted her hand to his arm. “May I?”

He grinned. “Sure. That’s hitting the gym, training hard and Qui Cultivating, I haven’t done any of those stat boosts or whatever from the quests.”

Ros caressed his arm. “Nice. Any of those boss guys have a body like yours?”

“Yeah, all of them.” He laughed, “better than mine. You can’t see all the puff in my muffin top.” He patted the gut under his suit coat.

A sharp face peeked out the curtain in the doorway. Ros didn’t recognize him.

“Pretty. Want to come in? It’s quiet and we have booze.” He held up a glass with a sphere of ice and some golden brown liquid.

“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t distract the guard.”

“It’s ok. Don’t be shy. We won’t even hit on you if you don’t want to be hit on.”

“Ok, sure. Got any apple juice?” She followed the man into the VIP room.

Two big brutes she did recognize, Brandon and Martin, were lounging at the back of the booth. Brandon reached over to the replicator and dialed up apple juice in a lowball glass with a sphere of ice.

“Martin is a lightweight too.” Franklin teased.

“I’m Christine.” She read the table and sat in the open space across from where Franklin sat with his glass, in front of a half eaten enchilada dinner.

“I’m Franklin, no nicknames, the redhead is Brandon, the swarthy chap is Martin. We’re just talking about getting the heck out of Dodge. All the new people are crowding us.”

“Don’t worry, give us a few weeks and we’ll scatter a little.” Ros said. “Some to more distant rooms, some under monster toes, who knows.” She sipped her juice.

Franklin smiled wryly. “Under monster toes? Not bad turn of phrase. We lose a lot of people. Whatever you do, don’t take on the Moon Wurms. We lost half the second wave to Moon Wurms. Six months of steady gains and they think they’re invulnerable.”

“Has anyone ever killed a Moon Wurm?” She leaned forward, interest in her eyes and her parted lips.

“Not here.” Franklin shook his head. “I’ve seen some boasting on the message boards, but I’m not sure if I believe them.”

Ros nodded slowly. “Well, probably a while before I try.” Probably tomorrow. “I’ve run into some inside out dogs.”

“Evrets.” Brandon supplied.

“I think so. That’s how I bought the dress.” She lied as she smoothed her waist with both hands. “Six coins apiece for the Evrets.”

“Best place to start.” Franklin said staunchly, “And when you reach your limit here, come find us in the city. I’ve been there and back a few times. It’s not as hard as it seems. You can avoid most of the spawns by holing up in the restroom. There’s never more than ten mobs inside the train, so if you clear them out at the beginning, then again about three hours before the station you’re golden. Just get you a spatial ring and store up some dinners. Just about a week worth.” He nodded curtly. “That’s the way. We just checked the timer, when the new wave comes in the train stops for a cycle, so it’s skipping the train that would have been in four days, so we’re taking off in two weeks and four days. You can come along if you want.”

“Spend a week in a train restroom with some guys I just met?”

Franklin laughed out loud like she’d said something funny. “The rest room is a lounge with couches, two toilet stalls and two showers. The monsters walk up and down the corridor, but they don’t spawn in the room.”

“Oh. That makes a difference. I’ll think about it.” That was news to her. She’d always just kept watch or set an alarm for spawning time.

“If you charm one of those two into bed you won’t be wasting your time.” Franklin said with a cackle that suddenly made Ros aware that he was older than he looked. All of the first wave were old.

“Boss.” Martin protested with resignation.

Franklin grinned. He offered Ros dinner from the replicator and paid for it. She had a good time eating and talking and trying not to say anything spoiler like.

When she left she took the lift down to the yellow floors and Blinked into her closed balcony room in H, level 24.

She pulled out the notebook where she was making plan lists.

1. Prevent war

2. Loot as many rooms as possible

3. Sticky note/Wurms

4. Grind quests

She crossed out items 1 and 2. She was reasonably sure she had prevented the deaths of a few hundred men in this station by simply removing just one psycho. If not her best course of action was to stick around and listen for the next threat. Plan one: success. Plan two: not a priority.

Tomorrow, time for her next priority: operation sticky note. The intel she got from Franklin, that she would be the first person to kill a Moon Wurm in station 387 history, made killing as many Moon Wurms as possible a top priority for her. Old Moon Wurms carried more loot than young Moon Wurms.

Ros cleaned off her disguise, becoming Roslyn again. She did her evening workout and her Qui meditation.

She spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on her guide, even figuring out how to host documents on the server or whatever the computer cloud was called.

In between topics, while she was thinking, she also worked on her Unbreakable Rune and then on enchanting a big pile of leaf blades with both runes she knew well.

As advised by Aetherniel, she went to sleep cycling Qui around her pathways.