The teens' plan to acquire the best possible OddBotz meant that Val and Joe had been doing a lot of the work, while Baz and Red supported them from the rear and bided their time. Now it was their turn.

  Val and Joe struck poses as they presented the others. "Check this out!" she said. "Three limited-edition bots in one party!"

  The quiet, dark-haired Baz had a cybernetic right leg now, a frame of curved beams and armour plates which replaced so much of the original limb that their leggings had been cut down to a legging. At the back, two thick cables hung like noodles between their ankle and knee.

  "Hey," Baz said, sharing their bot's info with us. "I got one of yours."

  [ < UDON QUIXOTE >

  Limited Epic Metal Aug-Bot — Wizard's Treats

  Powers: [Quixotic Quest], [Rozinante]

  This legendary knight-errant's quest to add the broth of adventure to the melting pot of life has taken him to lands far beyond the food court. Join him and sally forth! ]

  "Ah, Sir Quixote," Khan said. "You've yet to tire of your wandering, I take it?"

  The rim of Baz's shield-shaped knee pad pulsed yellow as Udon Quixote laughed in a voice like an old-timey knight with a bad streaming microphone. "Long time no see, my dear friend! I'm afraid mine quest hath yet to reach its end, but 'tis fortunate indeed that our paths hath crossed again!"

  "...Nice to meet you," I said. "Let's work together, yeah?"

  "Of course! Together, we shall purge the mall of the fiends within!"

  "So what does he do?" Kara asked.

  Baz tapped their anti-facial-recognition scarf. It was bright red now, like something a cartoon hero would wear. "He 'imagines' this is a good item, so it is. He can 'imagine' more items if I complete these quests he gives me. Rozinante makes vehicles better."

  "Wait 'til you see what they can do with a scooter," Val said.

  "Your turn," Baz said to Red. They trusted us enough to talk more, but clearly weren't excited enough to keep it going.

  The waifish, red-haired Red had traded her clothes for some kind of techwear hoodie dress with a lot of unnecessary tactical buckles. That wasn't the bot though. As she snapped her fingers a wide hologram halo and some bent lines appeared around her head, forming the outline of a crooked witch's hat. Little hologram eyes floated inside like boba pearls.

  [ < BOBA YAGA >

  Limited Epic Water Wear-Bot — .CYBERCULT

  Powers: [Pearls of Wisdom], [Spellbook]

  Unlocks Crafting: Alkemy early!

  The C0V3N's strongest cyberwitch travels the Zettamall in search of new ingredients for her tea cauldron. Join her and she'll give you a taste! ]

  Red counted on her fingers. "I get new spells as I level up, I can do this alkemy thing to make potions, and when I get a spell I can make copies in potion form."

  "Any spell?" I asked. "Would scrolls work?"

  "Probably."

  "Damn, we just used a good one..."

  Red shrugged. "We'll get more. I haven't even tried the alkemy stuff yet. Dunno if it'll come up much."

  "We had some alkemy crates, but we gave them to another guy who got alkemy already," Kara said sheepishly. "Sorry."

  "It's cool," Red said. "But lemme know if you get more. Actually, can I have his Zettachat? Maybe we can collab."

  "We can do that, but it might take a while," I warned. "He's in the top food court. We'll have to fight our way back there."

  Red shrugged. "I'm ready to fight now."

  "Speaking of, what're we waitin' for?" Val smacked her fist into her palm. "We got enemies to fight!"

  That we did. I grinned and pulled out my Expired-slaying crowbar.

  "You're right. Let's take everyone's bots for a test drive."

  The survivors who didn't have parties yet formed into groups, and we rolled out.

  The Expired in the concourse were still growing in number, and the safe zone shield wouldn't let us shoot at them from the inside. It was going to be a tougher fight than yesterday. But we were tougher too.

  I stepped out with my party and just started blasting. My accuracy was getting better, partly thanks to Beast Bazaar—the Expired tape gave our party a small bonus to Accuracy while we carried it around. I even managed to take a couple down before they lurched within range of my crowbar.

  CRACK!

  The crowbar was even better. Even a glancing blow on an Expired's torso knocked it down like I'd just hit it with a car.

  The other survivors were doing fine. Most of them had picked up bots that helped them fight in some way or other, and their blades, blasts, and buffs were taking down Expired well enough. Bones cracked, heads crumpled, and fluids leaked.

  Honestly, the main issue now was that they were disgusting.

  "Die, monster!"

  "Ugh, gross! Why do they stink so bad?!"

  "Fuck! A little got in my mouth!"

  I smashed Expired and kept an eye on Val's Pals. Red only knew one spell for now, but it fired some kind of glowing boba pearl from her finger that exploded on impact, so that was fine. Baz fired Red's old archery bow, unimpeded by their new leg.

  A few people picked up a Death Discount, but it was good experience. We racked up thirty kills by the time we cleared most of the concourse, and there were still more in the corridors. I took a moment to look around.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  The left corridor would take us back to Gateway, but the porcs had commandeered our barricade and were eagerly waiting for us to try something. The right wasn't much better—someone else had set up a barricade a ways down that corridor, and they'd told Val to fuck off earlier. The only other ways out were through the car park or by climbing up the escalator hole. Speaking of up...

  Speaking of up, the upper levels were thick with undead. Everyone alive on Level Two had joined us during the Mog-Aglog raid, and the Expired were shambling around up there to their heart's content. Every so often one of them would stumble off the ledge where the escalators should be and slam into the floor.

  One of Cosmo's party members jumped away as an Expired almost belly-flopped onto them. "Fuck me!"

  "How many fucking zombies are there?!" I complained as a second one landed face-first and started crawling towards us.

  "Five hundred and eighty-six total," Troy called out behind me. "It's just subtraction, dude."

  "Thanks, Troy! Real helpful!"

  "At least I can do this now," Baz said, and shot the last one with their bow.

  Baz's knee glowed gold, and Udon Quixote laughed some more. "Ha ha ha! Quest: Lay The Dead To Rest is complete! Claim your reward, champion!"

  Baz stared at their bow. As we watched, glowing golden lines raced up their side, across the arm, and into the bow's handle.

  Suddenly, Baz was holding a high-tech compound bow with red highlights.

  "Ah, I knew it!" Udon Quixote said. "The legendary bow, Fail-not!"

  Baz shrugged. "Sure."

  Lex was impressed. "Nice! Can you make more of those?"

  "It only works for me," Baz said, shaking their head. They handed Lex the bow to demonstrate—it reverted to its old shape until Lex gave it back.

  "More Expired coming," Chaz said, tilting his head towards the car park. A group of them were getting in each other's way Three Stooges style as they squeezed through the shattered glass.

  "I'm not doing this forever," Kara said. "Where are we going?"

  I looked right. "Let me try talking to them. Maybe they'll let us through."

  "They were dicks to us," Val grumbled. "But maybe they'll be nicer to an old person."

  "Hey, screw you, I'm in my twenties," I shot back. "But let's give it a try."

  "Fuck off," a guy on the barricade said.

  On Level One the space under the Mog-Aglog Lair was taken by Gateway's rival supermarket chain, Buy-Lo. The entrance was closer to the west plaza than AJ's, and we hit a barricade before we could even see it. As far as I could tell, they'd barricaded their end of the corridor and a corner of the plaza beyond.

  A trio of guards had posted up on the other side, standing on something so they could look down at us—and boy, did they look down. Their leader, a Buy-Lo assistant manager who was definitely still applying hair gel for some reason, waited until we approached and fired a warning shot from his crossbow at my feet.

  "Shit!" I jumped. "What's your problem?"

  Hair Gel sighed, as though explaining why he'd shoot at someone for trying to walk past the supermarket was a huge inconvenience.

  "Look. We've got a car park exit on lockdown, and we're trying to gather experience as safely as possible. We've got a whole system. If we just let people in, we'll mess it up. And everyone else we've met is a real shithead anyway. Alright? Go around or something."

  "That's dumb and you're dumb," Val said. "We should—"

  Kara held up a hand. "It's fine! If we disrupt their system it could be dangerous, right?" She lowered her voice. "And these guys will make it harder for that Big Pants guy and his crew to find us."

  Val relented. "Then what do we do now? Head up to Huge W?"

  I raised a hand. "I have an idea, but you're gonna hate it."

  The bus terminal was still under our feet. It had its own tunnel that passed beneath the mall, allowing people to catch public transport straight to the shops.

  The entrance was a set of escalators and stairs descending from the food court, with an elevator just beside them. All three were enclosed by a semicircle of steel bars, though they seemed wide enough for a human to fit sideways. All the lights were off down there.

  "Oh, yeah, I hate this," Kara said, peering down the stairs. "Didn't Manaia say there were wolves?"

  Lex shuddered. "Yep. Ugh, but we can't keep putting this off, can we?"

  "I don't think so," Chaz said. "There could be a Lair down there."

  "It's up to you," I said. "It's just an option."

  "Someone has to," Kara said. "I'll see if Harmony's crew wants in on this."

  "We're in if you are," Val said.

  The other survivors seemed interested too, so that was settled. We took a few minutes to prepare ourselves, drop a message in Zettachat, and wait for Huge W's survivors to join us.

  As we waited, I reached out with Khan and tried the elevator. "Maybe we could take this to the roof next—"

  An error window with a big X appeared over the button when I pressed it. The elevator did not respond.

  "Or not."

  Manaia was the first to climb down from the party room. "Hey, folks!"

  "Hey, man!" I waved him over. "How's it going?"

  Manaia gave us a thumbs-up. "Bro! I got my bot! It mostly does crafting, so it's staying upstairs. I'll show you later."

  "And he's in my party now, so we have dibs," Harmony said, following him with the rest of her group. Her irises were a vibrant red now.

  Kara waved. "Hey, Harmony! What's your bot?"

  Harmony changed. Long, blocky horns made of yellow polygons shot upwards out of her hair as matching spikes covered her hands, turning them into claws.

  "This," she said. "I used the card on myself and gave my cash to Reg."

  [ < FRYVERN >

  Epic Fire Aug-Bot — Wizard's Treats

  Powers: [Drake Form], [Fryer]

  This fry kaiju can usually be found terrorising the Food Court, but you can use his power for a better cause: destroying all monsters! ]

  My arm transformed into Khan. "Monster! You don't belong in this world! Will, we should subdue them now before they become a problem."

  Harmony's eyes flashed. They were definitely cybernetic. "What the fuck did you just say to me?"

  "Easy," I said, putting my other hand on Khan. "She's a friend."

  Khan relented. "Hmph. Very well, I'll ignore it for now."

  "Yeah, yeah." Harmony pointed a thumb at her pals. "So, I'm a tank now. Mike's a healer. Reg's bot can rearrange his stats, so he's playing flex."

  Michael gave us three thumbs-up, thanks to the two thin metallic arms that rose from his back on a harness. "I'll keep doing what I can."

  "How cool is this?" Reg said, indicating his shorts. They were brightly-coloured, with geometric shape patterns and a cartoon dog in a corner. The dog stood on its hind legs and waved at us.

  [ < HEALO FEELO >

  Rare Magnetic Wear-Bot — Slurp Nurse ]

  [ < RAD DOG >

  Epic Water Wear-Bot — Mister Sportsball ]

  "Pretty cool," I agreed. "Everyone ready?"

  We started squeezing through the bars. Harmony, Chaz, and Kara joined me at the front of the pack, and we descended the stairs together.

  The bus terminal was basically a tiled hall, about six buses long, which ran beneath the food court and the car park. The lights were off, and besides a pool of light at the base of the steps the place was shrouded in darkness. Glass window panels covered the walls above waist-height, but the tunnel outside was even darker. The Zettamall had sealed that too.

  "Expired up ahead," Harmony said. "I get night vision."

  I sniffed and covered my mouth with my sleeve. "Smells like it, yeah."

  Chaz pulled a torch out of his backpack and shone it ahead. A line of metal benches ran down the middle of the hall, surrounded by bags and blood stains. The victims were Expired, sitting on the benches and waiting for a bus that would never come.

  They blinked in the light, groaned, and began to shamble towards us.

  "Alright," I said, readying my crowbar. "This should be easy—"

  "Look out!" Harmony shouted.

  A nearby window panel shattered as the first wolf burst in.