We woke up in the afternoon to find the settlement already buzzing with activity. The ten who had gone with us earlier had filled everyone in on what happened, and those who had chosen to activate their systems were eager and impatient to get started.

  I didn’t see Jess when I woke up and they told me she was in the shower.

  I pinged Shawn and Jess in the party chat to see if they were okay taking the lead for the day. There was some back-and-forth about whether my plan was completely insane, but they eventually agreed... reluctantly. Jess added that she’d be done soon and would meet us back in the room.

  But before moving forward with the plan, I wanted to check my loot. Other than the usual health potions and gold, I had gained enough XP to almost hit level eleven. I still had to visit the 7-Eleven to distribute the ten skill points I earned from reaching level ten, and I needed to make a few purchases too.

  Everyone had levelled up from the last two fights with the lurchers and pangolins, so we planned to take turns upgrading ourselves today. From the pangolins, I received crafting materials in the form of scales and claws. The scales were surprisingly tough and would probably make good armor. The claws were just… claws. I hadn't a clue what I could craft with them.

  I also received a [Ring of Dexterity +1]. I put it on immediately and watched my HUD tick my Dex up by one.

  Jess came in after her shower, muttering curses as she towel-dried her hair. She’d gotten another tattoo. This time it was the Rod of Asclepius, the serpent-entwined staff you see on ambulances. It sat on her right forearm, right next to the rune line that ran straight from her shoulder to her wrist, the one that let her throw up her shield dome. At the pace she was going, she was going to have a full sleeve by the time we cleared this sector, whether she liked it or not.

  If we clear this sector. One step at a time Chris.

  “What does it do?” I asked, shaking the thought away and pointing at her new ink.

  “It lets me summon a snake. A fucking anaconda, apparently,” she said, still annoyed and resumed cursing. She did not mention how her dad would be disappointed this time.

  That’s because we burned him in his own house just yesterday.

  An anaconda? That… was definitely not what the symbol meant in real life. The Rod of Asclepius usually meant healing and was used on hospitals, ambulances, clinics, the whole deal.

  The system was just making shit up now. And that bothered me. It wasn’t dumb enough to mistake a symbol that common, so was it improvising? Adapting? Trying to force certain outcomes again?

  Luckily, Siva chose that moment to speak up about his loot and pulled me out of that spiral. I didn’t want to go down that line. Not here. Not yet. We had more pressing problems to handle first.

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  Siva’s upgrade was more straightforward. He grinned as he activated it and a translucent bronze shimmer flickered to life around him in a perfect Siva-shaped shell. His shield belt had been upgraded, it no longer floated in front of him but wrapped his whole body.

  “So you got a full-body condom,” Shawn said, immediately and loudly, earning a scowl from Siva.

  Jess finally stopped cursing long enough for a smile to break through. She patted Siva’s shoulder as sparks flickered off his new full bodied shield and told him to ignore Shawn.

  As for Shawn, he refused to say what he got, as usual. He looked relaxed enough, so it probably was not anything harmful, but my eyes drifted to the [Soul Gem] around his neck. I wondered how many souls were still inside it, and whether it was affecting him.

  During the pangolin fight, I had seen Shawn irritated with other fighters for the first time. Then again, none of us ever ran or hid when we fought as a team.

  We’d just finished lunch and were heading to the parking bay with the next ten people when Shawn suddenly stopped mid-stride. Without a word, he turned and ran back toward the residential blocks, leaving the rest of us blinking at each other.

  “Does anybody know how to drive a bus?” Shawn’s voice boomed in my ear, loud and clear, as if he was standing right next to me.

  “What the fuck!” I shouted as I nearly jumped out of my skin. I wasn’t the only one. Everybody that I could see all recoiled in some fashion and started looking around.

  It took a few minutes before he returned, accompanied by a haggard-looking elderly man, speaking quietly to him in Mandarin. Behind them trailed a whole mob of people, with Farah and Shaheerah at the front, striding like they were leading a parade.

  They looked… impressively competent, or at least as competent as people who just got a full system activation could look. Shaheerah had ditched her traditional Malay dress for simple jeans and a long-sleeved tee, her new magical hijab and trench coat completing the look. Farah was in her new Wizard robes, all flowing and slightly intimidating. They waved as they approached, and we waved back.

  “We’re taking the bus,” Shawn announced with a wide grin as he came to stand next to us.

  “What bus? And how’d you do that?” Jess asked, tapping her ear while eyeing the growing crowd. There had to be at least a hundred people gathering around.

  “That bus,” he said, pointing at the personnel carrier we’d spotted on day one. “Oh, and the voice thing? That’s a spell I just received, Commanding Presence. Lets me talk to anyone within two hundred meters.”

  Jess muttered something about how unfair it was that his spells didn’t involve getting tattooed.

  Siva tilted his head, eyed the bus and said, “Yeah… that actually makes sense.”

  They were right. It did make sense. If we had kept doing this in batches of ten, it'd take forever.

  I reminded everyone to be careful, then headed for the Phantom with Siva. We were going the other way.

  As I started the bike, I pinged Siva, who was already on the pillion seat. He’d somehow found a motorbike helmet in the settlement’s equipment shed and was wearing it. I recognized it as one of those Fast Response Paramedic helmets from the motorcycle units.

  Chris: You ready for this?

  Siva: Heck no. But I know we’re doing it anyway.

  Chris: Good. Let’s go.

  I gunned the throttle and rode out of the settlement toward West Gate, straight into Temple territory.