<hr>


    There was still some time before lunch, so Peter ran Regina and Marius through a series of combat drills. Marius stubbornly refused to accept that his Crab Maga was Bullshido. Peter had to improve the man’s skills by going the long route around his preconceptions, like for a child.


    Leaving the two to spar some more, Peter returned to their camp to take Shredder, intending to take him into the next fight. Yet, now, it was noon. To compensate for the canceled dinner, they invited William for lunch at the best restaurant in town, which was at their inn. The werewolf often sighed, and after a while, Regina asked: "All OK?"


    "I used to be a vegan… Now look at me," William gestured toward the steak.


    "Eh, bilghies eat grass, so eating bilghie is the same as being vegetarian," Marius said.


    “Shut up, you ‘merican. You can eat nuts,” Peter offered his advice.


    They had coffee and sweets, and sitting on a terrace was such a nice vibe that they didn''t want to go. William broke the charm. “Sorry, I have to reopen my parlor. Tell the waiter to put the meal on my account.”


    “Nope,” Peter shook his head. “I’ll pay. By the way, if you hear any interesting gossip from your clients, let us know.”


    “Of course. Cya.”


    "What now?" Marius asked, repeating the question he had asked on the hill.


    Peter massaged his temples for a few seconds. “Well… first, we should hide our rezz beads in our suite. This place looks safe enough. For the rest, you already know the idea. Upper echelon cultivators are lazy. They must’ve ordered some lower-ranking teacher to do their dirty work. We remove a few until the rest get the message and behave.”


    “And you count on the news spreading by itself?” Marius asked.


    “Yeah, why?” Peter scratched his head.


    “What if it takes too long?”


    “I get your point,” Peter nodded after a few seconds. “I have an idea… One of the students filmed me during the fight… Let’s open an account on that kids’ app, Tic-tac-toe something—”


    “Hey, I’m not a kid!” Regina objected, puckering her lips, mostly the lower one. “And I have hundreds of followers!”


    “Sorry. Let’s open an account on that trendy app for Impulse, the Bounty Hunter. An outlaw that doesn’t give a shit about the cultivators. We’ll start with a clip about Moon, showing his head and telling the public what he did. I bet it will go viral among cultivator students, and the teachers will notice immediately.”


    “You’re joking, right?” Marius choked on his drink. “Isn’t it a bit extreme?”


    “Not at all. Is it more extreme than they killing young people for nothing?”


    <Opinion. It’s not a bad idea. And I can do so that the page cannot be hacked or blocked.>


    “Fine, let’s try it,” Marius raised his hands in surrender. “Now… the day is still young. You said something about another job?”


    “Let’s rock and roll!” Regina clapped. “I want to test Mister Pandy Panda against real people!”


    “Only if they’re bad people,” Peter said. “We have to be selective. We don’t want to become a murder hobo couple, right?”


    “Any kind of couple would be swell if I’m with you, baby,” Regina leaned forward to kiss his cheek.


    “What are the options?” Marius asked.


    "There are two," Peter showed them a map on his phone''s screen, where two locations were marked. "There’s another student camp fifty miles to the east. All the students in the camp are in that assassin training program, but one is particularly bad. She was sent on a pilot test and killed all her doppelganger’s family. Her file says she enjoys killing.”


    “Psychopaths are the worst,” Marius said.


    “She’s now ranked five in Body.”


    “That soon?” Regina gasped.


    “They’re from Floor Two; they had a few years on us. Eliminating her would deter the other students from making the same choice… And since you wish it so much, you can sic Pandy Panda on her."


    "And the other option is?" Marius asked, his face serious.


    Peter felt a pang of guilt. He had been too eager to involve Regina; killing someone was a serious matter. Peter easily carried the burden of being a killer, but putting that weight on Regina’sr shoulders was another matter. He sighed and continued:


    "Something Naomi forwarded me just before lunch. A CIA Forward Operating Base further north. They’re allied with the Trade faction."


    "I say we scout the base and gather information,” Marius said. “That could lead us to more bad people on Earth.”


    "I agree," Peter said before Regina had the time to insist on going for the kill. “I’ll Stealth and hack their computers.”


    <Correction. I will hack the computers.>


    "I could send in Mister Pandy Panda," Regina puckered her lips.


    Instead of answering, he posed a short kiss on them. “Pandy is not exactly the stealthy type. They’ll blow it up. I bet they have grenades or something.”


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    After finishing the coffee, they left town and headed north for two hundred miles and some change with Peter’s help. They entered a forest for the last ten miles and advanced in small jumps. And it was a good choice because soon enough, they heard the buzzing noises of a drone.


    Hiding below a ridge, they equipped themselves. This time, Marius and Regina put on full ballistic armor. Peter left the two there and Warped up in the sky, activating Stealth and Gliding.


    Tucked in a valley between high mountains, the base was a square surrounded by barbed wire fences, minefields, and guard towers, a square about a mile long. A drone patrolled above the forest, and large armored vehicles were parked inside the base. Tanks and self-propelled artillery.


    That’s a real army down there…


    <Suggestion: Get me a bit lower, and I''ll take control of the drone’s camera… Done. The camera will display loops of empty landscapes. You can go closer; they won''t see a thing.>


    Returning to his team and taking Marius and Regina with him, Peter Warped to another ridge, half a mile from the premises.


    “That’s a big one,” Marius said. “Hundreds of people there.”


    "Here I go," Peter said. Stealthing again, he Warped inside the camp. Alarms started just moments afterward, and armed people rushed around, searching the tents and alleys. Peter had to jump back. "Fuck! How did that happen?"


    <Apologies. There were a lot of pressure and sound sensors I couldn''t hack fast enough. They were aware of the possibility of someone using Stealth.>


    “They adapted to the cultivators,” Marius said.


    "I have an idea," Peter said. "Shreddi, come here. Stay small, OK?" Taking the warg under his arm and engaging Stealth, he made another trip inside the base but returned empty-handed.


    "What are you doing?" Regina yelled. "They''ll kill him!"


    "No one kills a pup!" Peter replied. "He has the System; thus, it''s like one of us is inside."


    <Information: Shredder is no longer a pup; he’s a mythical beast. And also has a Rezz bead, currently with Ariana.”


    “Great. But let’s stick with Shreddi pretending to be a pup for now.”


    "Keep your voices down!" Marius hissed.


    <Reproducing what Shredder hears:


    It''s a pup! So cute! It must''ve activated the sensors. How did it enter? Probably under the fence. Lucky dog. He''s too small to activate the mines. Let''s keep it. It has a collar. What if the master comes to claim it? We shoot the master and keep it. Let''s ask the commander…


    One of them is taking the pup to the commander.


    New dialogue:


    Look what we find, boss. Can we keep it? Send people to search the area. Kill anyone you find. I''ll keep the dog. It''s cute. But boss, what if the pup''s master is a kid— Gunshot. Anyone else wants to disobey my orders? Take the idiot out and bury him next to the other idiots. What are you waiting for? Go and kill anyone on sight… No, stop. Cancel that. If it''s a lion-people, bring them back for dissection. If there''s a human girl, bring her back too… We need a little entertainment. But boss, how can a human girl come here? Floor Two has a student camp twenty miles to the west. Last month, we shot a couple of stragglers. I bet it’s someone from Floor Two again.


    End dialogue. They exited the officer''s tent.>


    "Evil bastards! Teleport Mister Pandy Panda inside the camp. I’ll kill them all!" Regina sneered.


    <Requiring your attention. The officer put Shreddi on his desk next to his laptop. I’m using the pup to get access. Oh no… There’s an alarm!>


    “What?”


    <The computer has detected Shredder is a Mana user and started a countdown. I think the device will auto-destruct. The officer is screaming and trying to input a code to stop it. He blames Shredder and tries to hit him. Shredder grows, eats the man’s head in one bite, returns to pup size, and runs away. He’s exiting the base.>


    Even without binoculars, they could see a rolling ball of fur going full speed—which meant as fast as a racing car— on the main alley of the base. Exiting through the main gate, the pup ran up the hill. A few seconds later, a blinding light shot out toward the sky, expanding into a burning ball and then a mushroom cloud.


    <Warning: DUCK!>


    “The computer will auto-destruct, huh?” Peter yelled, plunging behind the ridge along with the others. A cloud of debris and heat passed above, and along with it, a furry projectile flew over their heads and ended in a tree.


    "Woof!" Shredder yelped in panic.


    "Sorry, boy, I''ll get you down in a second," Peter yelled, Warping up.


    <Theory: the computer was linked to a tactical nuke.>


    “You sure it was not confetti, Miss Marple?” Peter snorted. “There was a nuke there, and you didn’t detect it?”


    <Apologies. It didn’t occur to me to scan for radiation.>


    “Poor Shreddi!” Regina wailed. “His fur is all schorched… Let me heal him!” she pushed Peter away.


    <Information. His vitals are fine. Radiation DoT, -0.05% HP per second and falling. Mythical beasts are tough,> the System said to all of them.


    “Peter, get in front of the camera to take a photo!” Marius yelled. “We could use this for the project.”


    “Right, right,” Peter rushed to get on the ridge so that Marius could take some pictures of the nuclear explosion.


    <Information: I checked the wind patterns. The radiation is going away and is not high enough to affect you anyway. That was a small explosion. Theory: albeit only one nuke exploded, they had a stash of about ten.>


    “Why would they have so many nukes here?” Regina asked.


    “Hm… Nukes are meant to be used against targets, and the only targets I can think of are the student camps,” Marius said.


    <Information and theory: Very few colleges are not controlled by the Trade faction. It means the CIA planned to double-cross their allies.”


    “Man, the world is really fucked up,” Peter sighed, calling up his notifications.


    You and your party have slain... Tens of small windows inundated Peter’s sight. He dismissed them, reading only the last: You have reached level 60.


    <hr>


    They stopped in the town to change and wash their clothes and themselves in case some radiation was still sticking. However, instead of sleeping there, they returned to the camp in the evening to be among friends.


    Regina went to sit with Ariana, which meant Jack''s group. Peter didn’t object. After all, they were still her best friends. He and Marius sat at their own campfire outside the camp.


    "Hi," a familiar voice said, and Daniel appeared beside them.


    "Hey! How come you''re here?" Peter asked. "Meet Regina''s uncle, Marius. The friend of your friend who asked for a favor."


    "Nice to meet you," the cook offered a handshake. "Your doppelganger brought me through the portals. In exchange for the passports he needs, he promised to take me hunting bilghies. Their hides are selling for a hundred grand," he told Peter.


    “Great. Good hunting. Sorry, I feel sleepy…”


    Waving, he retired into his tent, albeit his intention was not to go to bed but to invest his free points, of which he now had thirty. The first investment was a no-brainer: Strength. He didn’t care too much for the True Stats’s effect of tripling his power at low Health, but the cap value perk allowed him to restore some of the damage dealt into HPs and Mana. The four remaining attribute points went into Constitution.


    Peter Hillden, age: 25, Class: Impulse, Lvl. 60


    Strength: 100 / Dexterity: 100 / Constitution: 58


    Intelligence: 41 / Will: 48 / Concentration: 46


    Charisma: 61 / Luck: 81 / Magic Power: 48


    <Suggestion: Assuming you gain points only from leveling, you could still cap two more stats. Have you decided where do you want to invest in the future?>


    “I don’t know…” Peter whispered. “I mean… Constitution and Magic Power are supposed to increase if I have friends around. How does it work? If I go over the cap from that, would that activate the bigger effect, or do I have to actually invest points to get it?”


    <Sadness. This unit does not know. True stats are so bespoke that a unit such as myself cannot anticipate their effects.>


    “It’s OK, we’ll experiment.> I guess we’ll have to wait and see…