The Digger was already waiting for us when we rolled into the carpark near Ginza Plaza, exactly where Siva had said they'd be in the party chat earlier. Shawn was leaning against the driver’s side door, smoking a cigarette and staring into space.

  He had changed into a blue long-sleeved cotton shirt tucked into faded jeans. The top few buttons were open, sleeves rolled up, and as he took another drag from his cigarette, the light breeze caught his shoulder-length hair. For a second, I couldn’t help but think he looked like he belonged in a Guess ad. The scene was practically begging to be in black and white.

  Moments like this had me reflecting on the strange duality of it all. Not forty-eight hours ago, we’d been locked in a brutal fight against movie monsters in a shopping center’s food court, and now here was Shawn, looking like he was posing for a romance novel. The contrast hit me hard. This world was nothing but brutality, but here, in this strange stillness, I was reminded that there could still be beauty.

  From a fucking Necromancer...

  I hadn’t even noticed Siva standing beside him, mimicking the pose, but without the cigarette.

  I sighed and rode up to them, parking the bike as they walked over. Shawn immediately asked if we were ready for lunch, his voice a little too cheerful. I looked at Siva, who just quietly shook his head. I gathered as much. It hadn’t gone well for Shawn either.

  We headed to the nearby hawker center and ordered our food. The NPC hawkers still freaked me out with their mechanical movements, but the food was still good and cheap.

  “So, any luck with the 7-Elevens?” Shawn asked between mouthfuls of Indian fried noodles. He seemed forced. I dropped Siva a private message to ask what happened.

  Siva: I don’t know. He went in alone to his house and came back out after about thirty minutes. He said we should go.

  Chris: Did he say anything else?

  Siva: No. I’m scared, Chris. He’s not himself. He’s pretending…

  I shook my head as a reply to Shawn but also to clear my head. I needed to talk to Shawn. Later.

  I told them how I’d kept an eye out on the ride back, but almost all the 7-Elevens I saw were either destroyed or had wary-looking people with weapons, eyeing us suspiciously as we passed.

  Siva nodded. “We saw the same,” he said quietly.

  The table fell into an awkward silence as we continued eating. Jess was picking at her food, barely touching it, while Shawn was wolfing down everything on his plate. We all dealt with grief differently.

  Shawn stood up and went to order more food.

  “What are you doing?” I called after him.

  “Takeaways,” he shouted back as he walked down the row of stalls, ordering practically everything on the menu. “For the people in camp.”

  We stared at each other for a moment, then got up to do the same. We had plenty of gold, and each meal cost barely a bronze coin. We could literally feed an army with what we had.

  With the ordering done, we took a seat again to discuss our next steps.

  “What we need is a 7-Eleven that’s so secluded, they missed it,” Siva said, munching on an apple.

  We sat in thought, considering the options, when Jess broke the silence.

  “You know,” she said, “there used to be 7-Elevens at the void decks when I was growing up. Before they moved into malls and train stations.”

  I paused, remembering. Yes, I knew those. Small convenience stores run by independent operators, right at the void decks of housing blocks. Eventually, they’d all been bought out by 7-Eleven, who priced them out. Those had been the days when the stores were community hubs. They then moved to shopping malls and train stations, where there was higher foot traffic. But this particular memory was a bit lost on me. I hardly ever traveled to the west side of Singapore, and I didn’t know the area well.

  Shawn smacked his forehead with his palm and loudly exclaimed, “I’m a fucking idiot.”

  We glanced at him, and he chuckled to himself. “There’s one just ten minutes from here. It’s a bit hidden, though. The block’s surrounded by industrial companies, but if I remember right, it should still be there.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  We discussed it for a moment and agreed we had nothing to lose. We could only avoid confrontation for so long and it was time to move. Night was fast approaching, and we wanted to be back in New Jurong to bring them dinner.

  We collected literally thousands of packed meals and stored them in our inventories. We exploited the inventory rule where multiples of the same item stacked into the same slot and had ordered identical meals. Even so, we maxed out our inventories and had a few packs we had to carry manually in takeaway bags.

  We loaded the Phantom back into the truck bed and drove the short distance to the block Shawn had mentioned. We parked a block away and approached on foot, trying to be as stealthy as possible, hopping between pillars and staircase landings until we finally spotted it, the glowing 7-Eleven sign. The shop at the void deck was small, barely big enough to fit five people at a time.

  We crouched behind a stairwell, watching.

  It didn’t take long for the guards to show. They rounded the corner and began pacing in front of the store. There were five of them, both men and women in their mid-twenties. They wore plated armor and carried swords and axes. They didn’t look augmented, so we guessed this was the Rebellion, not the Temple.

  I switched to party chat.

  Chris: Shawn, go talk to them. See if you can talk them down.

  Shawn: What? Why?

  Chris: You have the highest charisma among us.

  Shawn: So? I say we just bash their heads in and take the shop.

  We all turned to look at him, and I could see he wasn’t kidding. I silently shook my head.

  Jess: We are not killers, Shawn.

  Shawn: Aren’t we? Then what do you call what we’ve been doing, Jess?

  I was about to reply when Siva sighed heavily and walked out from behind the stairwell, hands raised.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “We just want to talk.”

  All five of them turned in unison, weapons raised.

  Fuck.

  I was about to step out when one of them produced a crossbow and shot at Siva. I cast [Haze] just as Siva activated his shield belt. A translucent shield formed around him, and the crossbow bolt pinged harmlessly off the shield.

  A thick haze engulfed the entire block as we sprang into action. The world blurred for them, but we cut through the mist with ease. They were blinded, flailing, but we could see everything. Like shadows in the dark, we moved fast and silently, disarming them with practiced ease. Jess cast something, some kind of spell and one by one, they crumpled into unconsciousness. That was new.

  It was over in a flash, until one of them managed to break through. In the confusion, he’d escaped the edge of the [Haze], sprinting for cover. I was about to loose an arrow at his leg when he suddenly stopped, his feet lifting off the ground as if some invisible hand had grabbed him.

  His arms and legs spread wide, suspended in the air like a ragdoll.

  Shawn took his time, walking slowly toward the man. His hand glowed a sickly purple as he held it out toward the floating figure.

  “Where are you gonna go?” Shawn’s voice was low, a growl in his throat as he closed the distance.

  With a flick of his wrist, the man twisted mid-air to face him. Shawn’s eyes locked onto his, unblinking, his palm still raised.

  “Did you text your friends?” Shawn asked, his tone calm, like he was asking about the weather.

  The man groaned, trying to speak through the pressure constricting his throat. “No…” he gasped out, the word strangled, barely audible.

  Shawn’s lip curled into a smirk. “I don’t believe you.”

  He kept walking, his fingers flicking in the air like he was bending the very space around him. The man’s forearms snapped with a sickening crack, bending at a 90-degree angle. He couldn’t scream. His mouth was locked shut by Shawn’s power. The [Boneshaker III] effect was unmistakable. I recognized it instantly. Shawn was twisting his bones like they were nothing.

  “Shawn, stop it!” Jess shouted, her voice breaking through the tension.

  I couldn’t speak, just staring in horror at what was unfolding. Siva ran forward, but Shawn flicked his hand again, and Siva was thrown backward, crashing into a nearby pillar with a grunt.

  “Make me believe you…” Shawn whispered, his eyes locked on the man’s struggling form.

  With another twisted motion of his fingers, the man’s legs bent backward, the bones shattering under the strain. Blood spurted from the breaks, spraying out in thick jets as his body contorted.

  A golden dome flared into existence, washing the void deck in warm light as Jess cast [Holy Nova]. The air hummed and, for a second, I felt lighter, bathed in the golden light.

  Shawn gasped like he’d been punched in the chest and dropped to his knees. His spell broke instantly. The man he’d been holding aloft crashed to the floor, screaming now that he could finally make a sound.

  Jess sprinted past me, first to Shawn, dropping a quick [Soothe] on him, a soft glow wrapping around his shoulders, then straight to the injured rebel. She knelt, whispered something, putting him to sleep, and began healing the mangled limbs even as blood still pooled around him.

  I ran to Shawn just as Siva reached us. Siva wasn’t hurt, but he was pale. He’d seen what Shawn could really do.

  Shawn was on all fours, sucking in deep, ragged breaths.

  “Shawn, what the fuck—” I started, but stopped when he looked up at me.

  He was crying.

  “They murdered my family!” he yelled, the words tearing out of him. “All of them! All of them are dead! Why?”

  He pushed up to stand, pure rage and grief driving him, but I tackled him to the ground. We slammed into the concrete and rolled, struggling for position. Shawn was stronger than me, and mad on top of that. I couldn’t hold him.

  Siva dove in, grabbing his legs. Together we forced him down. I got an arm around his neck, locking in a rear naked choke, not to knock him out, just to hold him there while he thrashed.

  “Shawn. Shawn. Stop,” I said through gritted teeth.

  I felt the fight drain out of him. The rage went first. Then the strength. Then, he was just shaking.

  He grabbed my hand and broke.

  “They’re all dead, Chris… all of them…” he sobbed.

  I loosened the choke and pulled him in instead, just holding him there on the dusty void deck floor. Jess came over, eyes wet, and took his other hand.

  We stayed like that, the four of us huddled in the middle of the glowing dome, until the [Haze] finally burned away.