Her expression softened in the dim light. “Oh. Okay. That makes sense.”
“Trust me,” I said. “Nobody in this group is going to judge you for something like that. Be polite and you will get politeness back.”
All three of the newcomers were nodding. Their faces looked much less tense.
“Will you… teach us more about the System?” said Dave. “Emily’s my sister. I want to protect her.”
“Nobody and nothing is going to hurt her while she’s with us,” I said firmly. “We’ll help you. But you have to listen. We don’t know much either but what we know we learned the hard way. Will you do that?”
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Indirect Suggestion active. Beings who can hear and understand you will be much more receptive to what you say. 50MP used (one minute.) 110/260 MP.
The ability seemed to be working pretty well but the Mana cost was insane. Minutes were Mana. I almost missed Dave’s answer while watching my Status.
“Of course, sir,” he said. “Thank you.”
Emily and Dave were smiling openly now, and Michelle was looking at me as if I had just promised her the sun, the moon, and the stars.
“‘Sir’ is not necessary,” I said with a grin. “Just listen close, be polite, and do as we say, when we say it. Got it?”
He blinked. “Yes. We will. Thank you.” Emily gave a strong nod and Michelle… Michelle was starting to get a ‘your wish is my command’ look on her face.
That’s enough of that, I thought, and deactivated Indirect Suggestion. I could feel the Mana drain stop, but no one blinked or anything.
PRIVATE MESSAGE / TO DANIELLE BRAID: Did you feel anything just now while I was talking?
I started reviewing their potential Classes and Skills, with Anthony and Joe contributing their opinions.
PRIVATE MESSAGE / FROM DANIELLE BRAID: No why? Wait a minute. What did you do? >:(
Great. More emojis, I thought. I had to answer a question from Dave before I could respond.
PRIVATE MESSAGE / TO DANIELLE BRAID: Used a new Skill we’ll talk about it later. I swear I did not do anything to hurt them.
PRIVATE MESSAGE / FROM DANIELLE BRAID: We WILL talk about it later. But I trust you.
PRIVATE MESSAGE / TO DANIELLE BRAID: Thank you :*
What do you know? It even has asterisks, I thought to myself with a smile. I saw Danielle blush a little when I sent her the ‘kiss.’
By the time the candles were getting low, Dave, Emily and Michelle had gained the ‘Secret of the System’ quest, and had picked Classes. Dave was a generic fighter of some kind, Emily a combat mage, and after they got the idea of a party, they talked Michelle into being a healer.
When we suggested non-combat classes, all three strongly rejected them. It was hard to argue with the idea that the world was way too dangerous a place right now for that. Sheila looked like she wanted to speak up, but the look on her face was miserable and no one pushed her.
None of them had any System Start perks: they had all been in town and inside the Exclusion Zone at the time. Instead of the warnings we’d gotten, they’d gotten a notice that if they left the zone, they were likely to be attacked, and if they attacked anyone inside it, they would be punished. The punishment wasn’t specified: Dave mentioned he’d seen one fistfight start but a cop had been nearby and had broken it up quickly. The fighters didn’t get struck by lightning or anything, so it was obviously something more subtle than that.
All three were Level One: apparently if you weren’t in danger from the beginning, you got no bonuses. We didn’t go into details on the perks, but mentioned that we’d gotten a boost for being outside town and some XP for reaching the Exclusion Zone. None of them had anything like that and hadn’t heard anyone mention it. Maybe we would turn out to be way ahead of the curve.
That led to a discussion of the stat system, but it didn’t last long. Everyone was starting to yawn anyway and we didn’t want to waste any more candles. I was as bad as anyone: my short nap didn’t seem to have helped.
Crawling into the sleeping bag with Danielle was nice, and a tiny part of my brain wanted to switch her to her catgirl form. Cuddling with a real live catgirl sounded amazing. But there were strangers in the tent and besides, we had to be good. I didn’t know if I could be that good with a catgirl in my arms.
Or maybe I was overthinking it, because as soon as she had snuggled into me, I was fast asleep.
Chapter 22
A Book Of Revelations
The night passed quietly enough. At one point one of the kids had to pee or something and I stirred as I heard Sheila slip out the door with them. I almost told somebody to go with them but I figured with this many people around, and the protection of the Exclusion Zone, they’d be fine.
Hard ground or not, I slept pretty well, too. Which made the arm shaking me the next morning that much more annoying. It did not belong to a beautiful redhead, either. This did not help.
“Wake up, James,” I heard Joe say in a low voice. “It’s almost seven. We were thinking there might be another announcement.”
“Bleh,” I said. But I stretched inside the bag, feeling a very warm, very soft body next to mine. Fortunately we’d climbed into the bag in our clothes, minus jackets and shoes. Somebody said you weren’t supposed to sleep in your clothes in a sleeping bag but dark or not, nobody was comfortable with stripping and PJ’s were in short supply.
‘System, time.’
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Local Time is 6:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, Monday, April 10, 2017.
“Danielle, wake up,” I said into her ear. “Announcement time. And I need the bathroom.”
Her whole body tensed for a moment, then relaxed as she realized where she was. Then it tensed again and I felt her scrabbling for the zipper of the sleeping bag.
“Me too,” she said breathlessly. We managed to make it to the Porta-Potties Stephanie had pointed out the night before in time to avoid any accidents. We were both in one when the “one minute” warning came but I was standing there waiting for Danielle to get out of hers when it happened.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: General System Announcement. System Time is 12:00 GMT, Monday, April 10, 2017.
Here we go, I had time to think before the announcement began.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Hello, Earth! We are pleased to announce that placement of Trade Centers is now complete. There are still a few Ring Centers left to place. Please be aware that after 18:00 GMT today, Trade Centers and Ring Centers will only be available for new locations if purchased for placement from an existing Trade Center. Please inquire at any Trade Center for details.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Now that the placement of Trade Centers is complete, immigration will be opened at 18:00 GMT. Immigrants will arrive through Trade Centers.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Natives of Earth should be aware that the System encourages sapient beings to travel freely. Penalties for unjustified attacks on new arrivals inside Exclusion Zones are severe. First, last, and only notice.
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Natives of Earth should also be aware that transit through a Trade Center includes complete biological clearance for anything that could materially harm the ecosystem of the arrival destination. Quarantine is not necessary and will be treated as an unjustified attack.