Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six - Biting Bullets

  It was a long deliberation, but I decided not to give up on the loop.

  That was something I came to after saying goodbye to Becky at the same bus stop that I'd seen her arrive at. I probably should have been worried about leaving her alone there. It wasn't a nice part of the city. But then it was Becky, so my worry was probably better directed at the city and citizens.

  The 'date' had been fun, and Becky being Becky, I was pretty sure she was too random and weird for me to be able to recreate anything like it exactly.

  Besides, we'd accomplished what we came for.

  I saddled my bike, then rode it out of the pay-per-hour parking that I'd stashed it in. That had been a fun evening, and I was feeling pretty good, overall.

  After our little chat with the local brats, we'd actually gotten to the bottom of things, and... yeah, there wasn't much I could do.

  I mean, no, there was plenty I could do, but I wasn't going to stick my neck out on this one. There was shenanigans afoot, but I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with me. I paused at a red light, then removed my helmet to fit a headphone into my ear. Then I Saved before placing a call.

  Might as well bite that bullet.

  It rang twice, enough time for me to slip my helmet back on and get honked at when the light turned green.

  There was a faint click as the line picked up. "Hello?"

  "Hey," I said. "Me again. Seems like I'm calling you more often than my own family." Damn, what was the last time I talked to my mom?

  "Ah, hello," Fran said cooly. "I'm free now. Did your attempt to discover anything go well?"

  "Very," I said. "Unfortunately, while I discovered a few things, I don't know if there's anything I can do about it."

  "What did you find out?" Fran asked. I had the impression she was moving around, maybe in that fancy kitchen of hers?

  I cleared my throat and spared some attention for the road. I was more or less heading back home since there wasn't much left to do. "So, I went on a little excursion with a little rodent I know. We looked into some things. Long and short of it is that the gang that'll cause a fuss tomorrow is known as the Weiss. Or Weiss' crew? They're settled in the western part of down, not too far from the industrial district and the port there."

  "I've never heard of them. Though I can't say I'm well versed in that side of things," Fran replied.

  "Not too surprising. So, the Weiss are all about money-making rackets and the like. They run a few small businesses, do protection stuff, maybe peddle some drugs, but nothing too strong. Typical small gang stuff. They have a few D-rankers, one pretty strong C-ranker, but their leader's a normal guy. Maybe an E-ranker at best."

  "Noted."

  "And a couple of days ago, Seraph burned down one of their pizza places."

  There was a pause. "That seems unlikely."

  "Ah, there's a whole story to it. We bullied it out of a few teens."

  "Pardon?"

  "Longer, unrelated story, sorry," I said with a chuckle. "I'll tell you over pizza one day. Anyway, as far as the Weiss are concerned, Seraph is responsible. They have this pizza joint off along some side street just off the docks. Greasy junkfood kind of place, selling weed on the side, mostly there to cook the books but also a place where some dockworkers come in to eat. You know the kind of place?"

  "Not personally, but I can imagine."

  I nodded along, then almost cursed. I'd missed my turn. Dammit, I wasn't familiar with this part of the city, and I didn't have a GPS running. Oh well. "Right, so, a portal opened up in the kitchens about three months back. Little E-rank think. Weiss cleared it. Had a bunch of them on lookout just outside soaking in the mana and sent their D-rankers and C-ranker in. A few injuries, but nothing serious. The gang made a small profit and they were happy overall."

  "They didn't report it?"

  "Why would they? Portals are dangerous, but they're profitable. The same portal reappeared two weeks later."

  "A recurring portal. That's very valuable. And two weeks? That's on the shorter end."

  "Two weeks and three days," I said. "And then again, and again. The gang started to basically farm E-rankers from it, waiting longer to take it out and parking people in the kitchens when they thought the portal would appear again. It's a cheap, free way to bolster their numbers and strength."

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  A gang filled with E-rankers would be more intimidating than one filled with normal folk, even if the difference between a normal person and an E-ranker wasn't always that big.

  It was still a difference. A group that was slightly faster, healed slightly better, and was slightly stronger... well, it added up. And there was always the fact that to hit D-rank, one had to be E-rank first. Even if only one in twenty E-rankers eventually hit D-rank... well, having twenty more E-rankers would amount to one more D-ranker eventually.

  It was a huge windfall for the gang. They'd have another reason for people to join them, and their guys would slowly be stronger.

  "So, the gang was given a huge economic boost on a silver platter," Fran said.

  "Just about, yeah," I replied. "Then the place burned down a couple of days ago. Weiss thought it might have been an accident, but they looked into it. There were cameras around, off of any grid, and they saw people coming in to sabotage the place. Tracked them down, and one thing led to another, and they're blaming Seraph for it."

  "That's the part that doesn't make sense," Fran said. "Seraph is a larger guild. A respectable one, even. They're second only to NetherGain in Fortress ENE in terms of capital."

  "Aren't Midnight Tea Garden and like, Chatterbox big too?"

  "Yes. But while Midnight Tea Garden has more A-rankers and Chatterbox better contracts, Seraph have been edging into domination for a while now," Fran said. "Some might say they're too big to fail."

  "And just this week they lost some C-ranker in a dungeon or something, no? Isn't that one guy, Bloody Violet or whatever, livestreaming a run through that portal today?"

  "I hadn't heard of that, but it's possible. In any case, I can't see why they'd... no, I can see why, but I don't imagine them doing it," Fran said. "A recurring E-rank portal isn't worth the hit to their reputation."

  "I think they used someone else to burn the place down," I said. "They didn't send their own people. And I don't see the point, entirely. Not like the portal won't show up again... probably?"

  "It might not," Fran said. "There have been recurring portals that ceased to appear after the area was destabilized. A fire might be enough to stop the portal entirely. Or it might not, and the portal will reappear in the burned out building, in such a way that this Weiss gang won't be able to disguise it."

  "I don't think it matters either way. Maybe Seraph wanted the contract for themselves, or maybe there's more to it. In any case, the gang is pissed. They had some people get hurt in that fire. Now they wanna take it out on Seraph."

  "Maybe it was a false flag?" Fran asked.

  I shrugged even if she couldn't see it. "Maybe. Not something I can really dig into on such short notice."

  "That's fair, I suppose. Do you believe I should attend the gala?"

  "It's a small risk," I said. "But no more than the risks we took this weekend. With the portal, I mean." That last bit was important.

  In reality, she'd probably not actually be at risk at all. I'd make sure to set a Save early and wait until I heard back from her later before setting another. That way I'd know she was fine.

  "Speaking of risks. This might be premature, but I think I have a bead on another portal this weekend. I was wondering if you'd be interested?"

  "I would," Fran replied instantly. "Just the two of us?"

  "Uh... maybe."

  "Maybe?" she asked.

  "I was thinking that our little operation might use one more? I'll see. She's competent... or at least, she's powerful. You might like her?"

  She wouldn't. Becky and Fran would clash, hard, but I kinda liked working with Becky, and getting her close would undeniably be a good move. Becky was strong. Give Becky a dozen portal runs, even just E and D rankers, and she'd be a bit stronger.

  The breach might be too much for one D-ranker to handle, but if I could climb to C between now and then, and if Becky and Fran did the same, then... maybe three C-rankers would be enough?

  It was a hope.

  "Anyway, we'll keep in touch tomorrow," I said. "Before and after your gala. In the meantime, I've got more work than you could imagine lined up."

  ***