With Skyline back online, Dylan, Dextra, and the rest turned their attention to the death ray. Dylan whistled as he entered the item into his power. It turned out that a death ray would be more work than expected.

Death Ray

The ultimate weapon to end all weapons! The death ray instantly kills its target in one blast, eliminating any pesky interlopers who would dare thwart your rule! And the death ray can kill more than living objects. Nothing is safe when that deadly laser makes contact!

Skeleton (1)

Lava (1 cup)

Bomb (1)

Hollow Point Bullets (1 cartridge)

Hook Nosed Sea Snake Venom (1 vial)

Destroying Angel Mushroom (1)

Knife (1)

Red Laser Pointer (100)

AA Batteries (25)

Phlebotinium (10000g)

"Well, this is ridiculous," Dylan said. "Ten thousand grams of Phlebotinium."

"Jesus," Jack said. "Do we even have that much?"

"Maybe in a few months," Dextra said. "People are still using the currency exchanges, albeit less and less. Someone finally caught on to the process."

"We could get more by using Sciencium," Dylan said. "I'm pretty sure my power would let me do that."

"But can we get it done in time?" Sweet Dream asked. "I mean if we're still planning on doing this once Dr. Zlo's event starts."

"I'm still down for it," Dylan said. "But it is a time crunch."

"We could start Phlebotinium hunting," Rampart said. "That should give us some."

"Most places only have one or two grams, though," Jack said. "That's probably not enough for ten thousand."

"How much do we have on hand now?" Dylan asked. "And how much Alienite? I think we could still use that if we needed to."

Dextra opened up his power tab, finding his note listing the current material amounts.

"Roughly two thousand grams of Phlebotinium and ten thousand grams of Alienite."

"So roughly three thousand Phlebotinium," Jack said.

Dylan laughed, "Does anyone else find it crazy that we're talking about an end-game material in terms of the thousands?"

"Oh, it's totally wack," Rampart said. "But that's the nature of games sometimes. Every once in a while, we get someone who can't balance an economy. Makes this all the more fun, in my opinion."

"I'm with shield boy," Shizuka said. "Fun should always be the name of the game."

"How in the world are we going to get seven thousand grams of Phlebotinium, though?" Sweet Dream asked, directing the conversation back on track.

"Steal it?" Jack inquired.

"One to Two grams isn't worth it, I think," Dylan said.

"It depends," Dextra said. "Rampart, how many places could we hit up for Phlebotinium in a day?"

Rampart shrugged, "It takes us a few hours to get some most of the time, but it can vary depending on things."

"Give me your best ballpark estimate."

"I'd say one every three hours then," Rampart answered.

"Okay, if everyone here works solo and farms Phlebotinium, that's ten grams every three-ish hours. If we do that twice, we're getting twenty grams a day. Dylan, how many days until the new expansion?"

"Six months?" Dylan said hesitantly. "I haven't gotten a solid time yet, but that's what it sounds like."

Dextra nodded, "Okay, thirty times six is one-eighty. Multiply that by twenty, and we get three thousand six hundred. That's half of what we need."

"God, that sounds so boring," Shizuka said. "And it doesn't even get us enough!"

"Well, we should also take into account the exchange machines," Dextra said. "That might net us the rest."

"Or it could net us nothing," Sweet Dream said. "You did say people were using them less."

"What we need to do is find a workaround," Jack said. "Something that Vert overlooked in their balancing. Nothing like a duplication glitch but a super-efficient way to farm Phlebotinium. Going about it the normal way won't work. None of us have that kind of patience."

"I bet we could get what we need if we get other players involved," Rampart said. "Menagerie has a lot of upset players."

"I don't want to risk another security breach," Dextra said.

"You're being paranoid," Rampart said with a wave of his hand. "We can screen the players with your power, right?"

"Maybe," Dextra answered. "It depends on the search parameters."

"Wait," Dylan said. "Why don't we just hold more events and make the entry fee a gram of Phlebotinium? You know, socially engineer the farming method. One gram isn't that hard to get for possibly a day of fun. And we could charge more than one gram if we needed to."

"Can we even hold enough events for it to work?" Sweet Dream asked. "And would we get the same amount of people joining now that it costs money?"

"I mean, we get a thousand people, and that's a chunk of our goal," Dylan said.

"Are we going to get a thousand people?" Jack asked. "Honestly, that seems a bit optimistic."

"Okay, it might be, yeah," Dylan agreed. "But I don't know what else we could do. It's not like we could just sit around and wait for Phlebotinium to come to us."

Jack's eyes lit up, "Or could we?"

"Yeah, as if Phlebotinium will fall out of the sky," Sweet Dream snorted.

"Not out of the sky," Jack admitted, "but if I remember right, Sciencium regenerates at a set rate, even if you aren't playing."

Dylan's eyes widened, "How many characters would we need? I generate twenty Sciencium a day with my upgrades at the moment."

"One hundred forty Sciencium every seven days is one point four Phlebotinium a week. What's seven thousand divided by that?"

"Five thousand," Dextra said.

"So make five thousand characters, and we get our quota in a week. Easy!" Jack exclaimed.

"Well, six months is twenty-four weeks, which means we could do it with a total of two hundred and nine characters," Dextra said.

"That's a lot more feasible than working our butts off farming for the material," Jack said. "I say we do that!"

"We'd still need to bring in others," Sweet Dream said. "Vert limits the number of characters a player can have. Ten maximum, I think."

"So everyone needs to find one more person, and we've got this easy," Jack said.

Rampart stood, "Well, it's a better plan than anything else. And I know three people who would help."

"I could get some people too," Jack said. "I know a few crafters who wouldn't mind doing this."

"And I could find others to help as well," Dextra said. "Like Rampart said, I'm sure I could vet a few people."

"Great!" Jack said. "Now, all that's left is to play the waiting game! Get to it everyone! Make those characters! I want to see piles of Sciencium!"

"Shut up, you slave driver," Shizuka joked.

"Is that backtalk I hear?" Jack joked back. She threatened Shizuka with a gun she pulled from an inventory.

The ninja stiffened into a salute, "No, ma'am!"

"Good," Jack laughed.

Dylan stood, "Oh, I almost forgot. The twenty generation came from upgrades to the Mad Science power. So we'll need Phlebotinium for that."

Jack waved the comment away. "What's a few hundred more Phlebotinium when your goal is thousands."

"Just letting you know," Dylan said. "Didn't want to surprise anyone."

"Appreciated," Dextra said. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I have some bland avatars to create and some Sciencium to store."

The player logged out, followed by the rest of the group to complete their task.

Once the tedious preparation was out of the way, Dylan went to work rebuilding his spell cane.

"I need to find a magical locus, Cass," the villain said.

"Why's that, boss?" the butler asked.

"My last invention harnessed the locus' special powers to give my cane a boost. And once I have the cane, none can stand against me!"

Dr. Zlo threw his head back in a laugh, his mood enhancer invention following with a blast of thunder. Cass jumped at the sound, making Dr. Zlo smile.

"Don't be alarmed, Cass. I figured my presence could use a bit more drama. Which is why I made this!"

Dr. Zlo removed the small button from his suit and showed it to Cass.

The Dramatizer

This device is specially designed to track the wearer's movements. When periods of high emotion strike, the dramatizer responds with a crack of lightning, moody theme music, or thundering battle sounds!

Speaker (1)

Record Player (1)

Organ Keys (1 octave)

Sciencium (2g)

"Brilliant, boss!" Cass commented.

"It is, isn't it," Dr. Zlo said proudly. "But enough dallying! Where are my mice!"

Two of Dr. Zlo's small minions jumped out of a hole in the wall and scurried to Dr. Zlo. The villain looked on in amusement as both attempted to get ahead of the other through inventive means. The left mouse activated a rocket belt, shooting forward. But the one on the right reacted with a laser blast from its helmet, striking the rockets and sending the left mouse careening to the side. Cass winced as the mouse smacked into the wall, leaving the right mouse to answer Dr. Zlo's summons.

"It seems you have a bit of a war going on," Dr. Zlo said.