“So those concepts are a bit above me,” I admitted, looking at the three bottles and empty plate.

  I rummaged around my inventory, looking for more but apparently I was out of beer. That sucked. I did find a bag of chips. When the cooks back in Solace had rediscovered how to make potato chips, I almost ordered that day to become a holiday. Kat stopped me though. She said it wasn’t important enough to warrant a holiday, though she did put it in the book of records she was keeping.

  To me though, it was as important a day as when the first beer was bottled post apocalypse.

  At least to me, and that’s all that mattered.

  This bag was ruffled chips, which were the best and I had to make sure the bakers figured out how to make those almost instantly. We weren’t quite at the level of flavoring them yet, which was fine with me. I never liked the flavors anyways. It always bothered me that the only bag of Ruffles, the best, that I could get at a gas station convenience store was sour cream & onion. That was a travesty and one I fixed the first chance I got.

  These weren’t as good as Ruffles, but they were a close second.

  “They are above many beings in the Multiverse,” Stylo said. It didn’t come across as condescending. “Most do not bother themselves with such thinking and just concentrate on the here and now and their Advancement.”

  “I can agree with that,” I said. “So the Haric were the first and then others started showing up?”

  “Indeed,” Stylo said. “As the System integrated their worlds, the Factions started appearing in the Nexus and started climbing the Infinite Tower.”

  “Who told them the rules?”

  “Hmm?” Stylo asked.

  “The first Factions in the Nexus, who told them the rules of the Tower and the Floors?”

  “No one. They had to figure it out on their own and it took a lot of miscalculations and mistakes.”

  I was suddenly very glad that Earth was not one of the originals. Sure, we’d be very powerful and probably own a dozen or more planets, but that would have been a lot of deaths and issues trying to figure out the rules of the Tower. Sometimes being first wasn’t that big a bonus.

  “That had to be brutal,” I said.

  “It was,” Stylo agreed. “Those early Factions are not the more dominant ones today.” He paused, long fingers tapping on the table, not that they made a sound since he was a hologram. “The dominant Factions, what are considered the Elder Factions now, were built off the bones of the old.”

  “What happened to those first Factions?”

  “They are gone,” Stylo answered. “Mostly forgotten. Their people died out. Even their worlds have been taken over by others.”

  “Damn,” I muttered. “That is brutal.”

  This Multiverse created by the System was messed up. I’d always known it, ever since the Tutorials appeared on Earth and we were given the choice of which one to take. The world was a brutal place, no matter how hard I tried to make it otherwise. At least for most of my people it wasn’t that bad. But the entire Multiverse was rough and had been for millennium.

  Things were supposed to improve over the centuries as the race got older, wiser, learned from the past. Sure there were rough spots now and then, but overall life was supposed to evolve and get better. New discoveries, better health. All that stuff.

  And then the System arrived and reset it all and gave these rules we had to follow, making us all risk our lives to Advance and face Challenges. For what?

  “Why?” I asked, a bitter tone to my question. “Why does it exist?”

  “The System?” Stylo said, figuring out what I was asking. “No one knows where it came from. The System just exists and expands. Why does it expand?” he asked, anticipating my next question. “Why does anything seek to expand?”

  “More Resources and territory,” I answered.

  “Indeed. The System is ever growing and like anything that continues to grow, it needs more and more to keep it fed. The System feeds on Arcanum. The Arcanum generated by worlds that it has integrated, the Arcanum generated by Dungeons and the Arcanum generated by those Awakened and Integrated.”

  “And it has to keep going because it has created this,” I said, waving my hands around me, meaning the Nexus and all the Factions and planets. “Which feed off the same thing, Arcanum, and the System needs more of it to keep all this going and all the territory it has. And it just keeps going and going until finally it’s integrated the entire Multiverse.”

  “That is correct.”

  “And then what?”

  “Hhhmm?”

  “What happens when it’s Integrated everything and there’s nothing left?”

  Style stared at the wall, fingers tapping on the table, not making a sound.

  “Let us hope that never happens,” he finally answered.

  That was a bleak thought.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  ***

  “What’s happening in here,” Tammy asked, stepping into the long hall.

  I was leaning back in the chair, feet up on the table, thinking about everything Style had told me. The Guide had disappeared, back to wherever he went when we didn’t need him. Maybe he was in the store with Fields, answering some questions and making Fields mood take a nosedive like mine had.

  And I had no more chips, that had soured the mood too.

  “Just thinking.”

  Tammy sat down in the chair to my right, glancing at the empty bottles, plate and chip bags. She pulled two beer bottles out of her inventory, handing one to me. I sat up and popped the top, taking a swig.

  “Thanks.”

  “Sean is going to have to ramp up production,” she said. “We’re going to take him for everything he has and leave him with nothing to sell in Solace.”

  I chuckled.

  “We have that crafting building outside. Let’s see if can convert that into a brewery.”

  Tammy pulled out a notebook, making a note. Back in Solacetown, Kat would be getting that note and would start acting on it instantly.

  “So what’s wrong with you?” Tammy asked, closing the notebook. “I know you have a lot of weight on your shoulders but looked like a couple tons got added.”

  “Just doing some deep thinking,” I said.

  “You? Deep thinking?”

  She said it with a smile, so I knew she was joking. I laughed.

  “I know, hard to believe.”

  “About what?”

  “The Multiverse, the System, all that.”

  “I try not to think about it,” Tammy said, leaning back in the chair and taking a drink. “It’s one of those things that I have absolutely no control over, so why let it bother me? There’s enough to worry about with things I do have control over.”

  “That’s pretty smart.”

  “I know,” she said, taking another drink. “I am pretty smart. You should listen to me more.”

  I laughed.

  “So, tell me about Sunie,” she prompted.

  I glared at her.

  “What?”

  I sighed.

  “Nope,” I said. “I’m not doing that. If you’re interested, talk to him yourself.”

  “He’s your partymate,” she said.

  “Nope,” I repeated.

  “But..”

  “Nope.”

  She sighed.

  “You’re not a good friend,” Tammy muttered.

  I laughed.

  I leaned forward in my chair, looking at her. She caught the serious expression and sat up straighter.

  “Tammy,” I started. “I’m serious about the bodyguards. Do not go out without someone else.”

  “I can take care of myself,” she said, but it wasn’t indignant or defensive.

  “What Level are you?”

  “Eighty-Five.”

  “Bodyguard,” I said.

  She nodded, knowing I was serious.

  Tammy and I liked to give each other a hard time, but we did care for each other. It was a brother-sister relationship. Who didn’t give their sibling crap now and again? Tammy knew when I was truly serious about something and she’d listen.

  “That bad?” she asked.

  “Maybe. I don’t like that the damned Anura jumped one of Subudai’s guys just because he was human.”

  “I’ve seen other humans that aren’t from Earth,” Tammy said. “One of them came in the shop the other day, said he represented the Solar Winds Federation from the planet Osirin. Nice enough guy and looked just like anyone back home. Why aren’t they attacking them?”

  “I think whoever is paying the Anura can tell the difference between a faction that’s been here awhile and a newly integrated one.”

  I fell silent, just staring at the empty bottle I’d been holding. Hadn’t even realized it’d still been in my hand. I wasn’t feeling a buzz. Couldn’t get one anymore. I just liked the taste of beer. But I still had a habit, left over from pre-System, of having a beer in hand and just kind of zoning out in thought. Usually happened when I had something deep on my mind.

  “It’s not your fault,” Tammy said.

  “Huh?”

  “The Anura,” she said, waiting until I was looking at her. “Not your fault. They came looking for trouble. You responded the right way and will continue to respond the right way. If that first one hadn’t bumped into you, they would have come after Fields or me and then what? We can’t duel.” She pointed her now empty bottle at me. “Want to know the best way you can protect us, and all the other folks from Earth, from the Anura?”

  She pulled out two more bottles of beer, handing one to me. I popped the top, looking at her.

  “And what’s that?”

  “Keep kicking their asses until they know not to mess with us,” she said.

  “So keep punching things?”

  “Yep.”

  “I like that idea.”

  We clinked the bottles together.