The Headless Sportsman had acted fast. A few seconds of contact was all it took to add two levels to Kara's Death Discount. Worse, it had reset the timer. She was stuck like this for the entire tutorial.

  "You look like shit," I said, offering a hand.

  Kara took it and hauled herself up. "Thanks! I feel like it!"

  "If there's a way to remove Death Discount, nobody's found it," Chaz said worriedly. "This could be bad."

  "It's okay," Kara said. She stepped into the Toys B. Goode safe zone and stood in the entrance triumphantly, hands on her hips. "I made it to level 4, so I won't die today. All I have to do is stay here! Oh, and I'm getting a message that says this safe zone is up for grabs now. See? Totally fine."

  "Unless Zeddie changes the rules on us again," Chaz said.

  "...Why would you say that."

  "We can figure something out," I reassured her. "How much health do you have?"

  "Ten HP, max seventeen."

  "Can we get that up?" Lex asked.

  "The necro shakes can do it," I tried.

  Kara shot that down. "You couldn't hold yours down for ten seconds before spraying it everywhere. Pass."

  "Sussy might have HP food," Chaz said. "Not sure what our other options would be."

  I shrugged. "We can go find out. Are you actually staying here, Kara?"

  "At least until the way is clear," she said. "There are still Expired around. Besides, someone needs to find where these losers stashed all their loot!"

  "And the elves downstairs are nasty," Val added. "We can guard you 'til then. We kinda owe you anyway."

  "For what?" I asked.

  "For not being dicks? You must've noticed half the adults here treat us like crap."

  "I think I might have," I said. There was a certain type of person who, if they saw a group of young people in a public space, would immediately dial the national security hotline. Gateway attracted a lot of them.

  "There's a lot you haven't seen," Val said. "Since we moved up to the food court we've had an old lady say she's watching us five times already."

  "When Baz and I went to the OddBotz store, a security guy followed us around in case we shoplifted," Red said.

  "Troy told us like seven people came up to him to report a drug dealer," Baz said.

  "But youse have been good to us," Val said. "We're just returning the favour."

  I held up a hand. "Hold on. Is that why you ran off and got yourself kidnapped earlier?"

  Val flinched. "...We thought if we took care of this side of the mall you wouldn't have to worry about it."

  "And then Will here wouldn't get weird about it," Kara said, nodding. "Smart!"

  "Besides the part where you got captured," Lex teased.

  "Hey, shut up!" Val snapped. "You haven't met the elves yet! If we leave them alone for much longer we'll be fucked!"

  Right. The elves. They were supposedly all over Level One of this plaza, but they'd ignored the upper two for now. Either they thought the Expired were gross, or they were committing their forces to gathering shoplin bodies instead. Defeating the porcs hopefully made things easier for the shoplins, but If we couldn't cure Kara soon, we might have to go without her.

  "Let's figure this out quick, then," I said.

  Chaz nodded. "Sounds like a plan, bro."

  "We'll stay here and keep an eye out," Val said.

  "Oh, yeah. One more thing..."

  I pointed at the teens. There was one more thing I had to make clear before we left.

  "No more risking your life just because we weren't jerks. I didn't ask for pity, and I'm not taking responsibility if something happens. Okay?"

  "Also we appreciate you and we're thankful for your help," Kara added.

  "That too."

  Val folded her arms and grumbled. "It wasn't just for you. The sooner someone came over here, the better. ...But sure, we'll be careful."

  "That works for me," I said. "Can we borrow Red though? There's another alkemist we thought you should meet."

  "Oh, Kara mentioned that," Red said. "Good idea. Let's go."

  I looked around for Boris. "You want to come too, or—"

  While we were talking, Boris had walked over to Rick's remaining ally, the guy with the furry arms, and... dealt with him. He was walking back to us now.

  "I will stay," he said, cleaning his knife with a handkerchief. "There may be others who recognise me. I wouldn't want to cause problems."

  "..." I mentally filed this under Not My Problem. "Cool. See you later."

  As the largest safe zone, the upper food court was becoming the de facto hub for the remaining survivors. Now that nobody was out picking an OddBot, the place was much livelier.

  People were chatting in groups, making plans, trading items. Those who knew how to work the kitchens had started cooking with whatever ingredients hadn't gone bad yet. A larger group of people were gathered around a chicken joint, its sign covered by a bedsheet with "ITEMS" written on it.

  Nobody could be bothered tearing down the barricades, but they'd been pushed around to create a permanent opening. Our juicy friend Cosmo was leaning against it when we arrived, enjoying a cup on his lonesome.

  "Hey, Cosmo," I said. "You alright?"

  "Welcome back, Will," he sighed. "I don't know, if I'm honest. The porcs killed some of my party. We might be done."

  "Sorry man," I said awkwardly. "If there's anything I can do..."

  "No, it's fine," Cosmo sighed. "I just need some time to process. I'll try to help more when I can... juice?"

  "...Apple-mango okay?"

  Soon Cosmo was pouring our drink orders into paper cups.

  "Overall, things are looking good," he said, trying to sound cheerful. "We've got a lot more people, we've got better gear... I think we've got a shot at surviving this."

  "Is that what that's about?" Lex asked, pointing at the ITEMS banner. As we watched, the guy behind the counter brought a customer a spear and let him walk off with it.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  "Some of the other guys are distributing gear," Cosmo said. "If you've got gear that you don't need or can't use, take it there. If you need something, they'll try to fix you up."

  "It's a good idea," Chaz said. "I might try to trade some stuff."

  I agreed. "It's good to see everyone coming together. Do we just talk to the guy at the counter?"

  Cosmo nodded. "They used to just let you take what you wanted, but some guys tried to clean them out and open an item shop."

  "Ah." That made more sense. "Is Dale still here?"

  "He should be over by the dinosaurs," Cosmo said, pointing.

  We could see Burger Haven from here. Dispensaur had managed to squeeze out of the burger outlet despite his size, and now he was chilling out with a robotic triceratops the size of a small car. It wasn't making the space less crowded.

  "Alright. Uh... let us know if you need anything, okay?"

  Cosmo smiled a little. "Thanks."

  We headed over to the dinosaurs. Where Dispensaur had a bit of a plant theme, the triceratops was leaning into the robot thing, with Tesla coils instead of horns and rows of blinking red lights. It had a crafting table on the inside like Dispensaur's too, but this one looked like someone had dumped some electronic tool kits inside. Manaia was hunched over the table in big safety goggles, soldering a gadget. He lifted his goggles and waved when he saw us.

  "Hey, you're back! Congrats on not being eaten! Dale will be back in a minute."

  "Thanks, man," I said, and gestured towards the dinosaur. "This yours?"

  "Sure is, bro! I've been meaning to show you. Meet Teslatops."

  [ < TESLATOPS >

  Rare Lightning Help-Bot — Janka Robotics

  Powers: [Tinker], [Overclock]

  Unlocks Crafting: Engineering early! ]

  "Hello," Teslatops said. She sounded like someone doing an impression of a robot.

  "There's a lot I can't do in the tutorial, but it's fun," Manaia said.

  I looked at the gadget. I had no idea what it was, besides a paperweight with lights. "Have you done this before?"

  "I was a sparky for a few years," Manaia said. "Before this I was a radio host. I tinkered with my tech all the time to get the sound right."

  "Really? What'd you host?"

  "Only the most popular Posadist radio show in New Zealand, bro," Manaia said proudly. "There's a lot more competition in that niche than you'd think."

  Lex briefly debated touching the gadget, but decided against it. "So what are you crafting?"

  "Oh, this? A hydrocoptic marzlevane," Manaia said.

  I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't an engineer, but... "That's gibberish, right?"

  "Total nonsense," Manaia said cheerfully. "But I can make one out of parts from the shops here, and with a few more I can start putting together some choice gadgets."

  Lex perked up. "You need electronics?"

  "If you have anything to spare," Manaia said. "Don't give up your phones or anything—"

  Lex opened Snakpak and started with six toasters.

  "Oh, right." Manaia clapped. "Sweet as! Give me some time to take these apart and I'll see what I can do."

  "You wouldn't happen to be able to make anything that cures Death Discount, would you?" I checked. "Kara's got it at a hundred percent."

  Manaia sucked air through his teeth like a tradie about to tell someone that they just destroyed their toilet in a very expensive way. "That's not good. I don't think I have a schematic that helps with that."

  Dale returned, sipping a coffee. "Hey, folks. How's it hanging?"

  "Hey," Chaz said. "We got another alkemist for you to meet, and Kara has a potentially fatal amount of Death Discount."

  "Any ideas?" I asked.

  Dale sucked air through his teeth. "Damn, dude. That's not good. I don't think I've got anything for Death Discount specifically, but give me a few minutes..."

  "Thanks," I said. "Do we have any other crafters?"

  "A few," Dale said. "We made our own channel in Zettachat. We've got a chef, a scribe, a soap-maker..."

  Chaz frowned. "Wouldn't making soap be a kind of alkemy?"

  "Oh, no, soap making is way more complicated," Dale said. "It's actually kind of scary."

  "We'll ask about Death Discount when they get back," Manaia said. "I think they're taking a nap."

  That worked for me. I'd already met too many people in this mall anyway.

  "Alright, well... if you could ask the other crafters, we'd appreciate it."

  "I'll ask, but don't get your hopes up," Dale warned. "There are dozens of people with Death Discounts by now, and I haven't heard of anyone removing it except by time-out."

  "Is Kara in trouble right now?" Manaia asked.

  I shook my head. "She's in a safe zone, and Val's party are guarding her."

  "Oh, that's where they went," Dale said. "You know if they have any weed? I heard rumours that they're dealing, and my stash isn't going to last the tutorial..."

  Red rubbed her temple and sighed.

  "Then how about you take a break, bro?" Manaia suggested. "Grab a late lunch. You look like you're about to sweat out all your water."

  "It's still a real scallops day," Lex agreed.

  "We should ask Sussy anyway," I said. "He's a Zettamall veteran. I bet he knows how to fix it."

  Sussy's speakers translated the alien octopi's wobbling as a sort of sucking-air-through-teeth sound.

  "That is not good," he said.

  "I know," I said patiently. We'd already ordered a round of scallops each and some Swordfish Skewers, just to pump our damage higher.

  "I'll confess I'm not very familiar with Death Discount," Sussy said. "I know that absent a mechromancer or an adjacent class, it is hard to remove. Perhaps a plate of my Healthy Haddock could grant her temporary health as a stop-gap measure? It's infused with motivational peaches."

  That was one of three-hour buffs on the menu. "It's better than nothing. We'll take one of those to go."

  "All we have to do is feed her a whole plate of fish after every fight," Chaz said.

  I made the purchase, and Sussy added a box of peachy fish to our order. That went in Snakpak for now while we ate.

  Chaz spoke first. "Don't worry, we'll work it out. We can just bench her until the end if we have to, right?"

  "I don't know about that," I said. "I think you were right before. Zeddie's going to screw us over."

  "What are you thinking?" Lex asked.

  I shrugged. "I don't know, but... look, he didn't tell us about the safe zones until the last minute, right?"

  The others nodded.

  "He also waited until this morning to tell us we'd die if we didn't level up. And what the hell is a Headless Sportsman? He didn't warn us about that at all."

  "The system sort of did," Chaz said. "It said we'd revive as Expired."

  "But it didn't say there were special types! We didn't know until Kara got a face full of dead guy. Point is, I think we need to assume Zeddie's got more surprises for us. Maybe the safe zones turn off, or we have to be level five tomorrow, or something."

  Chaz frowned and fell silent, thinking. He knew I was right.

  Lex paused, scallop to her mouth. "Um... that Headless Sportsman happened because of Death Discount, yeah?"

  "Yeah," I said. "I think it's a random chance thing. Maybe the more Death Discounts you have the more likely—oh, for fuck's sake."

  I'd just realised what Lex was getting at.

  Chaz hadn't gotten there yet. "What's up?"

  Lex explained. "Dale said that tons of people have Death Discounts already. So, if we get more Sportsmen..."

  The survivors in this food court had been fighting Expired since last night. "Dozens" could be underselling it. There could easily be a hundred or more debuffed by now. If they started dying...

  "They die, we get more special Expired, they debuff more people... Shit, this could spiral."

  "And the more debuffs there are, the more healing we need to survive," Chaz said. "Hold on, I gotta warn Zettachat."

  Lex looked sorry she brought this up. "You reckon we're cooked?"

  I tried not to say 'yes'. "If we can't cure it..."

  "Or buy everyone a crapload of haddock," Chaz said.

  I paused, a fork of fish halfway to my mouth. An idea had leapt into my face.

  "You know what, maybe not," I said. "You don't need to cure it if you don't die. That's something we can help with."

  "You got an idea?" Chaz asked.

  I nodded. I already knew it was a great idea, because it made this someone else's problem.

  "We're pretty loaded compared to everyone else," I said. "We've got Healthy Guts, and we've probably been in more fights. So we buy them some gear. Make some real beasts. The better they do, the fewer deaths we have. How much do you have on you?"

  Chaz's eyes gleamed. "Enough."

  "Same here," Lex said.

  I rubbed my hands together. "Well, we're trapped in a mall. Let's go shopping."

  [ STATUS

  TIME: Day 2, 6:10 PM

  CUSTOMERS: 526/1167

  ODDBOTZ: 435/526 ]