“I’m James Erickson, and this is my friend Danielle Braid,” I said. Danielle nodded and smiled politely. “Like the deputy said, we arrived last night. We had rented a tourist cabin with some friends and we walked to town when the power went out and the messages appeared. The Sheriff saw us come in.”
She looked at him, and he nodded. “All right, Mister Erickson, what do you need to tell me?”
“Several things. This could take a few minutes. May we sit?” I looked at some empty chairs.
The City Manager looked dubious, but Deputy Franklin said, “Ma’am, you need to hear this, I guarantee it.” After that, Ms. Adams gestured to the chairs and sat back down herself.
“Thank you,” I said after we’d sat down. Deputy Franklin stayed standing next to the door.
“You’re welcome,” she said. “Now please go on. There’s a lot we need to do as I’m sure you can guess.” She had a thicker accent than anyone we’d spoken to so far, but her phrasing was very precise
“First, do you know about quests?” I asked.
This got me a confused look, and I explained quickly about the ‘Secret of the System’ quest. All three of them looked dumbfounded as they were offered it and, after asking us about it, accepted it.
“Okay, that’s the first thing,” I said. Before I could go on, the City Manager interrupted me.
“How did you figure that out?” she said. She had already recovered from her shock and was looking at me intently.
“I’m a gamer. I like video games, tabletop games, that kind of thing. A lot of the System stuff works like a video game. Or at least, it’s putting it into the closest terms we can understand. Using concepts we can visualize. It was actually another of us that figured that part out,” I said.
“All right,” she said. “Go on.”
“Here’s the next thing,” I said. “We haven’t told anyone else about this. It’ll get out eventually, but you can probably use it now. Sheriff, your radios don’t work any better than our phones, do they? You’re not carrying them.”
“No,” he said, leaning forward and looking very interested. “Why? Can you make them work?”
“No,” I responded. “But I can offer you something that will help.”
“I’m all ears, Mister Erickson,” he said, looking me right in the eyes.
I explained about Party Chat and had him, the City Manager, and Deputy Franklin create a Party. The looks on their faces were something to see.
“Thank you, Mister Erickson,” said the Sheriff sincerely. “This is very helpful.”
“It only has a range of a couple hundred yards, I think,” I cautioned him. “When everybody went to dinner last night, I couldn’t see their chat messages. But it’s better than nothing.”
“Good to know,” he said. “But it’ll still help.” He looked at Deputy Franklin. “Annie, if we ever get paid again, remind me to give you a raise. Bringing them here was good thinking.”
“It wasn’t exactly up to me, Sheriff,” she said wryly.
This got his attention. He looked at her, then at us, and his expression stiffened.
“Did you threaten my deputy?” he asked. His tone was still civil, but implied that things could get a lot less civil very fast depending on the answer.
“No, they didn’t,” Franklin said quickly. “They were nothing but polite. But if they wanted to come there wasn’t any stopping them.”
“I don’t follow,” he replied.
“Show him,” she said to me.
I gave him and the City Manager permission to view my name, Level and public Title and had them Examine me. His jaw dropped just like Franklin’s had, and I explained a little bit more about the fights we’d had and what the Title meant. The deputy told him about Danielle’s demonstration and he whistled.
“That is quite a story,” he said. “Why’d you do all that?”
“First, so you’d know we were serious about wanting to help. Second, so you’d listen when I asked you what I’m about to ask you,” I said.
“And that is?” spoke up the City Manager for the first time in a while.
“I want to try to use the Trade Center.”
“Absolutely n…” the Sheriff started to say.
“Pardon me, Sheriff, but please, hear me out.” I interrupted as politely as I could.
“Let him talk, Marc,” said the City Manager. The Sheriff quieted and nodded at me.
“I know a few of your deputies have fought some monsters,” I said. “One of them told one of my friends he was Level Three. But we’re Level Eight. We’ve picked our Class Skills and we got bonuses for starting outside the safe area in town. And if you know what you’re doing, levels are not linear gains in strength: they’re almost exponential. We are far more powerful than anyone you have.”
“So you’re the boss?” said the Sheriff with that this-could-get-ugly-fast tone in his voice.
“Not at all,” I said. “But what we are is both stronger, and more expendable, than any of your officers.”
“We protect civilians,” he said stubbornly. “We protect people with black belts and people with rifle collections, even if they don’t want us to. You’re not expendable.”
Activate ‘Indirect Suggestion.’
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Indirect Suggestion active. Beings who can hear and understand you will be much more receptive to what you say. 100MP used (cast, one minute.) 160/260 MP.
“Thank you, Sheriff,” I said, “You’re an honorable man, and this town needs you. Which is why you should let us go. Anything happens to us, you’re out two refugees. But they can’t lose you.”
PARTY CHAT / MIKE: James, your MP is going down. You okay?
He opened his mouth as if to argue, but couldn’t seem to think of anything to say. I pressed a little harder.
“Sheriff, I honestly don’t believe there’s any danger. I’m not a martyr. If the System wanted us dead, we’d be dead. Have you seen any of the animals outside the town? The ones that have grown?”
This question got me a thoughtful nod, and I nodded back, reinforcing the idea that this was right. I took the opportunity to respond to Mike.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Fine. Just doing a demonstration. Everything’s cool.
“If the System wanted us dead, they’d be growing faster,” I said after sending the message. “There’d be no Exclusion Zone. The monsters would be walking into town and eating your people and there’d be not a damn thing you could do about it. Can you argue with me?”
“No,” he said after a second. “But I still don’t like it.”
“Mister Erickson, do you think that box will do anything to anyone that doesn’t go near it?” asked the City Manager.
“No, ma’am,” I said. “If it was going to, it would have. Like I said, if the System wanted to hurt us, it would and we couldn’t stop it. There’s no reason to lie to people who are completely at your mercy.”