Countdown until level collapse: 4 days 3 hours 11 minutes

He had a way out of this predicament. Of course Martin had some way to get out of it. The trap had been sprung around him before he opened his boxes, and it was clear that the AI was all too willing to stack the deck to get this murder cult of his rolling.

The shoes had seemed a bit off at the time, being different from the theme that his other items had been. Darryl hadn’t read their description, not when it would make him look interested in the ill-gained items before trying to convince others not to listen to Martin’s offer. And it was quite likely that he wouldn’t have gotten the relevant information about the skill or spell tacked onto those boots even if he had. Not with his low intelligence score.

But still. He could’ve known, should’ve known, that Martin would have some means of escape. Even if it had been just healthy paranoia.

Not that he could do much about it but worry, though. Darryl was with the group of dust biters, while Ben and the others with higher Dex scores left them behind to chase the also superfast Martin before they’d completely lost track of him.

There wasn’t much chance of that happening, as Martin was running from Safe Zone to Safe Zone and thus remained in already revealed neighbourhoods. He already reached and condemned a second one, and they wouldn’t make it to a third in time to stop him.

Darryl was headed in the opposite direction, to a Safe Zone that Martin would have to circle back for, both to protect it and to get some rest. His party had just been hit with the Exhausted debuff for being awake for over 20 hours. A deceptively long period of time had slipped by as they went to the French to talk, grinded some foes, and especially in the travel time needed to traverse multiple neighbourhoods.

Their time awake had been stretched further when they could’ve rested but decided to slip away from Beth and Maribelle. It turned out to be the right call, they would’ve slept through the first stage of Martin’s revolution if they hadn’t, but it also seemed rather childish in hindsight.

But that was all in the past. Right now he just needed to get some sleep in and he’d see what to do about Martin after that. Martin would probably slow down soon enough himself, the old man had been awake for about as long as the rest of them, so Darryl shouldn’t be waking up to find a massacre outside.

The Safe Zone he found had enough places to provide for all of them. Being to the south of the camp where the nearby neighbourhoods hadn’t been cleared yet, combined with it being a rather sparse and rundown place without a Bopca, made the place unpopular. As few people provided the non-combatants with an escort to keep some beds free for themselves even if it was all the way down here, the place was half-empty.

Darryl didn’t care. He took out some of his own food, shared some with those that hadn’t been stocking up on it, and then hit the sack. He left his door slightly ajar so that the others could wake him if something happened, but otherwise left it to those still well-rested.

___ ___ ___ ___ ___

“Wake up.” Thomas said, opening the door.

Darryl didn’t actually need the words, the creaking of the door and the lights flooding into the room woke him up a second before they were spoken.

“Something going on?” Darryl asked.

“Not really, but eight hours have passed. Well, eight hours and ten minutes just to be sure.” Thomas said. “You’re Well Rested now and some of the others are itching to leave.”

“You could’ve PM’d me.” Darryl groggily said.

“You sleep through those. Effortlessly, I should add.” Thomas dryly replied.

Darryl groaned and got up, reaching for his clothes only to find none. Right, inventory. He still had to get used to that, at least early in the morning.

Thomas left and Darryl followed him out a few minutes later. They had a light breakfast while Elise was getting ready, and once she emerged from the bathroom she just ate a Crawler Biscuit in one bite to completely skip hers. Once she stopped chewing, the three of them and four people from other groups huddled up to discuss their next move.

“I don’t know if everyone’s been keeping up with the developments in the group chats, but I’ll go over the most important things again regardless.” Thomas said, tactfully not looking at Elise who didn’t have Dave in her contact info.

“First on the schedule is Martin.” Thomas began. “The fast group managed to cut him off before he reached the third Safe Zone after all, presumably because of the exhaustion debuff hitting him halfway there. He headed for the nearest uncharted neighbourhood out of the blue, and they couldn’t catch up before he went off the grid. That was about seven hours ago, we assume he went looking for a Safe Zone to get some sleep himself.”

“I- I got messages from him, outlining what he did and why.” Jeremy said.

Jeremy was one of the men that fought to protect his family, in his case his wife and twelve-year-old daughter. Both had come along when they went south, and the wife was sitting within earshot while the daughter was in one of the bedrooms sleeping. Jeremy would stay here and protect the Safe Zone, no matter what the others would plan. He had been very clear about that, and no one argued against it.

The wife would stand and fight as well, but with both her hands missing she probably wouldn’t be able to contribute much. Perhaps if she had gained some good spells, or items to undo the handicap, things would’ve been different. But the dungeon didn’t hand those out like candy to unpopular folk and starters. Even if it was Borant’s fault that she lost her hands when human civilisation collapsed.

“Yes, it seems like Martin has been sending those messages to every contact he has.” Thomas said. The man breathed out in relief that his admission wasn’t taken as suspicious. “The messages stopped roughly five hours ago, we believe that’s when he found a Safe Zone and went to sleep.”

“Any response?” Darryl asked.

“People are eyeing each other suspiciously, but no one seems eager to accept it. Openly, at least.” Thomas said. “And there’s no long-range trading when you’re not in someone’s party, so he can’t distribute the tickets without coming out of hiding. Or he has to wait for people to come to him.”

“I think a few people have been reaching out in order to get his location, but he’s obviously wary of those requests.” Jude said. Her boyfriend Remy nodded.

They were the couple that helped beginners get to level two. Late twenties both, both level 6 with a good spread of gear even if nothing they had was gold class or better, and they were a tank/healer duo without much damage potential.

“Yes, burying anyone with real interest in a flood of moles trying to flush him out would prevent him from getting any allies. Perhaps we should all do it.” The last stranger said.

Carter was level 4 and referred to his fighting style as skirmishing, while in truth he was more of a scout. He served a similar goal as Martin once did, escorting people to and from the camp, and he was the scout that got spotted by those leprechauns a while back. His failure wasn't something he took well, on the way here he had worn himself ragged proving he could do better while in conversation he eagerly tried to contribute.

“Perhaps. Martin’s stats and special skills of manipulation shouldn’t apply to chat conversations, so there wouldn’t be too much of a risk to it.” Darryl said. “I won’t do it, because I wasn’t exactly subtle about being opposed to it.”

“Right, yeah.” Carter said. “I tried it myself too, but no luck yet. Hey, maybe we should spam his chat too in order to ruin his sleep!”

His suggestion was met by an awkward silence that labelled the idea a rather juvenile one, and Thomas broke it by clearing his throat.

“Martin is currently just a lone threat, and a pariah that most will not be eager to approach or join until he gains the numbers to become a real threat. Neither of which is likely to happen because no one will join him.” Thomas said. “And he will likely be asleep for a few more hours still.”

“So, what do we do once he wakes up?” Elise asked.

“Right now the consensus is to wait and see what he does.” Thomas said. “And to focus on the second problem first, as his little stunt of condemning the Safe Zones makes it a pressing one.”

“What’s this second problem?” Elise asked.

“We assume that Martin will do one of the following:” Thomas said, ignoring Elise’s question. “One, he may try grinding his levels and skills. In this case we won’t be hearing much of him for a while and can afford to ignore him for the time being, while he will be biding his time hoping someone will come to his side.”

“What about this second problem?” Elise pressed.

“The second issue will be addressed once the first issue has been fully discussed.” Thomas said with the flat tone of a teacher saying no questions until after the lecture. “Option one point two, he may try grinding a bit and then clear the Neighbourhood boss of his current Safe Zone, to have the advantage of revealing an area that we lack.”

“Does Martin have all the Neighbourhood maps of the places cleared?” Darryl asked.

“I’m afraid so.” Jeremy said. “As a wayfarer, he was supposed to wander around and guide people, so he was one of the first to collect the map of any area. He was even one of the few we immediately pinged whenever we bested a neighbourhood boss.”

“If he gets his own Neighbourhood, he’d have the advantage of a Safe Zone that we can’t use ourselves. Not for harbouring the non-combatants, at least.” Thomas said. “And a playground where we’d have to move around blindly in large groups while he knows our location and environment, making it unlikely that he couldn’t just evade us.”

“But can he, though?” Darryl asked. “Beat a Neighbourhood Boss, I mean. His items are good, but oriented at killing fellow humans. He might be woefully unable to defeat a boss by himself.”

“Ah. That’s something that has been speculated on, but as we don’t know the specifics we decided to not draw any premature conclusions.” Thomas said.

“Some of us decided.” Carter grumbled.

“And the rest conceded that his third ticket’s platinum and gold boxes may have changed things significantly.” Thomas retorted icily. “Option two, Martin will start to haunt the edges of the camp, picking off non-combatants. Even if he now has his three tickets claimed, he can still farm as many gold boxes as he can by killing people.”

“Unlikely. He didn’t strike me as someone who wou-” Darryl said, but then went silent. The way that Martin’s entire plan and demeanour had changed after the crowd turned on him, it made Darryl reluctant to claim that he had a real read on the man and his limits.

“Option three, he’ll go around giving people tickets. Trading is as simple as meeting face to face and accepting a trade request, so he might try intercepting parties leaving the camp. They don’t need to join him, just having the tickets in their inventory could be sufficient for parties to fall into bickering and arguing to push some towards his camp.” Thomas continued. “And finally option four, his daughter in law.”

“Kate has been pretty clear about her father’s actions, and you can’t fake such raw emotion.” Remy said, and Jude nodded. “She’s currently inside the old zombie coagulation neighbourhood’s Safe Zone, it might be condemned but it’s still a safe place with beds and doors. I don’t think we need to worry about her leaving to seek Martin out, or condone anything he has done.”

“The fast group is currently there, as are Dave and two of team Alpha.” Jude said. “If Martin comes for her, there’s enough manpower to stop him.”

“And those are the most likely events we expect from him. Contributions or questions?” Thomas asked. Everyone remained silent. “Excellent. Then let’s move on to the second problem. Carter?”

“Hm? Oh, right.” Carter said bewildered, unaware of what Thomas wanted of him until he remembered he was the scout that confirmed the threat to the east. “The critters are called Unvaccinated Clurichauns, and they look like those ugly stone statues some people put in their front lawn. They have no armour and use their fists and simple slingshots, but they have a status effect called Taint that blocks your healing.”

“They are led by these small ugly fairies, don’t know what they’re called or can do because they were surrounded by at least six of those snottering midgets at all times.” He continued, scratching his head and looking at the ceiling to remember as much as he could. “Those fairies were in the neighbourhood boss room with about thirty leprechauns, and left only with an escort to gather up the ones wandering about. Usually came back with a dozen or so and then dumped a few in the pre-boss room before doing another round. There was a continuous trickle of new clurichauns from the boss room, don’t know exactly but I’d say another bugger every half hour.”

“So all in all, I’d reckon that their neighbourhood is mostly empty or only with clurichauns guarding the edges to keep out their neighbours, while they are gathering a warband that might be anywhere between fifty and a hundred strong.” Carter concluded his report.

Darryl mentally re-evaluated the man’s talent and skill. He’d first heard about Carter when he heard of his screw-up of being spotted, but he had put blind faith in Ben’s conclusion that the man had to be some amateur.

This was a lot more professional intel than Ben would be able to gather, if only because the teen had neither been given the time nor patience for it if he had.

To have been peeking into the pre-boss room without getting spotted long enough for a head count, not to mention an estimate on the spawn rate, was quite an achievement. Any group returning was a big risk of getting caught and possibly being trapped between two large groups. The man had no means of darkvision either, meaning that he either had to stumble in the dark or have the skill to douse his torch before being spotted.

Not to mention, it sounded like the fairies already knew they were here to begin with.

“As we now have a large group of non-combatants evicted from the Safe Zones and thus three times as many people in need of being protected, the fairies take priority for the time being.” Thomas said. “Only question is: What will we do about them?”