"…we took care of the two headed crocodiles. Charlie led the way with Damsel trailing behind us, but we didn't know she was Damsel at the time. We all performed well, no casualties at all, but Fletcher was the weakest of us, only getting one hit on the baby croc. That was enough to put a target on his back."

Voss crossed his arms. "What happened then?" he asked, raising his voice so the crowd could hear.

The soldier peered at Logan's face and flinched, hunching his shoulders. "Damsel revealed herself… she was pretending to be a lower ranked user. Observing us the whole time. Then Charlie and Damsel got together and they told us that Fletcher wasn't going to cut it. And unless we wanted to be next, we'd have to take care of it."

"What does 'take care of it' mean?"

"Kill him."

A person in the crowd threw a rock, followed by others bellowing and shouting.

"Bunch of lies, that," muttered Charlie, sneering.

Voss looked from the crowd to the soldier, pacing. Despite the man's physical appearance, Logan was starting to suspect that he'd been a trial lawyer or a politician before the Integration. He was way too confident and persuasive in front of a crowd.

"But mate," said Voss, "that choice wasn't given to all those who attended the fighting party, was it? Come on, be honest."

That was Logan's cue. He narrowed his eyes and blasted his aura, shifting his grip on his sword so the blue light reflected a glare on the soldier's face. He knew he was intimidating; that was the point.

The man gulped. "Damsel then asked for volunteers. Whoever killed Fletcher would join her elite soldier group. I only did it to survive! Everyone knows soldiers receive more food for their families and receive better treatment."

"I see." Voss turned to the woman in her 60s who was at the edge of the crowd. Her hair was speckled with gray, deep lines of sorrow on her face, her eyes moist.

"This is Fletcher's mother, everyone. Mrs. Bradford, what do you say to his response? What should we do with a man like him?"

The mother approached Voss and then spat a glob of phlegm onto the soldier's face, before she sneered and turned up her chin. "Kill him. Kill them all. Fletcher was the sweetest child you'd ever know. He did everything for his family. He was trying to protect them. To learn that this despicable supposed soldier took him down for points? Kill the lot, I say."

Behind her, the crowd jeered. Several people had already thrown cans of food at the soldiers, expressing their anger the only way they could.

Logan had been skeptical when Voss had first proposed this method of turning the crowd around, but it had born dividends. All Logan had needed to do was line up the soldiers in front of the crowd and then extend his aura in a debilitating way, giving them a severe look, before they'd admit their sins and condemn themselves with their own words.

He'd decided to give Voss an hour to turn the crowd around; he could allocate that much considering that after satisfying the 100-purchase item requirement, he had a ton of time left:

[Build an Empire! Craft ten lodestone access points and sell 100 items within 48 hours.]

[Quest Progress: 65% complete. 19 hours remaining.]

That hour was now up.

Logan shifted his sword, the weapon glinting with a faint blue light. His mouth in a grim line, Logan strode towards Charlie and the other soldiers.

If he did this, it would be a big step. And yet, when he began to doubt, all he had to do was think of the innocents these people had killed. Charlie and these soldiers were unarmed, true, but together with Damsel, they'd killed people who were just trying to help their families. People just wanting to survive.

People like Lachlan.

Logan licked his lips and flared his nostrils. The rage that had exploded out of his belly during the fight with the soldiers surged anew. Just thinking of Lachlan made him want to kill those soldiers all over again.

Charlie took in Logan's sword and his expression. He paled, taking a step back as if in spite of himself, and then looked to the crowd, searching for help. But unless Damsel could suddenly upgrade her portal skill, no help was coming. "So that's how it is, huh, mate? Not even going to give us a weapon so we can defend ourselves?"

Logan raised his voice, booming over the area. "Did you give the other people weapons before you killed them? How many, mate? How many people did you kill under false pretences? Tricking them into participating in a fight that was rigged all along?"

The crowd booed.

Charlie sneered at the booing people. "So if a few died, so what! Look at what we created! Shelter for the young and old. If the price for their protection is a few weaklings who weren't worth the air they breathed, then I tell you what, I'll sleep soundly! Sleep soundly any day of the week!"

Logan flexed his fingers on the handle of his sword. "You're despicable."

Charlie snorted, before his gaze grew faraway and his expression hallowed. "I was only trying to survive. If you want to blame anyone, blame the System. If it hadn't given out triple XP for killing other people, do you think things would be as bad as they are right now? Either we did it, or someone else would. I have people relying on me, and I needed to advance to protect them so I could help them into the one percent. Mate, I can't believe you're judging me—you! Someone who's a high ranker. There's only one way you advanced that high. Don't tell me you didn't do your own killing!"

"There are plenty of monsters out there," said Logan. "There are other ways to level up. The System created an incentive for killing other people, fine. I'll give you that. But it didn't mean that you had to take it."

Charlie's gaze was desperate as he glanced around as if searching for escape. "You can't do it. I won't let you." He peered into the crowd. "Lily!" he shouted. "Where's Lily? You can let a man have his last words, can't you? Talk to his sweetheart? You can give me—"

Enough was enough. Logan raised his sword. Charlie's eyes widened in alarm, and he made a motion as if to slap his hands together to deploy his percussion sound skill, only to let out a whimper when it aggravated his broken arm. Growling, Logan kicked off with his backfoot, feinting right, while going to the left as he swung for Charlie's neck.

Ding!

[You have defeated Charlie Nguyen! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]

[You have leveled up!]

The other soldiers watched Logan kill Charlie with shocked, frightened looks, before they turned on their heels, faces white with panic as they tried to flee.

The crowd screamed, and several people took up arms and began running after them.

Logan nodded at Voss. "Do you want me to take care of this?"

Voss shook his head. He seemed relaxed as if a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. "Aussies have their own brand of justice, mate. Let the people take them down. These men aren't getting away."

Logan watched one senior pick up a farmer's rusty metal hoe and lurch after the soldiers with bowed legs and a hunched, frail back. He had murder in his eyes.

Logan smothered a smile and then wondered at his sense of humour. But hell, if you couldn't laugh about an old man going after a murderer with a farming hoe, when could you?

Running his hand over his stubble, he eyed Voss. If he left, although the crowd would serve their own brand of justice, there was no guarantee that once Damsel returned that she wouldn't take it out on Voss. The man was in danger. A riled-up crowd wouldn't provide protection against someone vindictive like Damsel. "I can take you home with me, back to Canada. It's nothing like here, but it has access to fresh water, food. And I have a good group of people there that I trust."

Voss shifted his injured hand, licking his lips, and then looked at the buildings, the tables full of food, his gaze drifting to Logan's monster tree, before his lips tightened. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm an Aussie. A proud Aussie. I won't abandon my country."

"You have to know that you're in danger. Damsel will return."

"Yeah, mate. I know. But I also know that she isn't crazy. A murderer, yes, but she loves her countrymen. The crowd will protect me."

Damsel didn't strike him as someone who would forget a grudge.

"I won't force you. But try to survive. Besides, I happen to know that I'll be meeting Damsel again in less than six days. Hold out for that long and I might take care of your problem for you."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

***

With the Voss problem taken care of, Logan could return to what was most important, completing his Build an Empire Quest. First, he made sure to grab Charlie and the others' bodies and willed them inside of his spatial collar.

Charlie had been carrying a spatial collar pouch inside of his pocket, but it was like the others he'd found so far, C Grade, the capacity barely big enough to fit the contents of a large backpack. Inside, he had food, condoms, and a stick of deodorant. Logan rolled his eyes. He couldn't even—

Hold on.

Holy shit!

Logan let out a whoop of excitement, feeling energized and ready to take on the world. And it was a silly thing like a six pack of beer that did it.

Charlie had beer! It was Australian, not anything Logan would choose to buy, but it was better than nothing after his dry spell. Logan wasn't an alcoholic; he could take it or leave it, but he couldn't deny that after a good fight, kicking back with a beer and letting himself unwind would be a hell of a mood booster. It had been almost two weeks since the Integration had started, and not once had he run into beer.

Chuckling, he put it to the side, sorting it towards what he considered the 'priority' section of his spatial collar, and then willed out the necklace he'd taken from Damsel.

[Gem of Subterfuge. B Grade. While touching the user's skin, this gem will hide the user's level, characteristics, and hidden name. You may change these items at whim.]

Logan ran his hand over his chin and scratched his stubble.

He felt like a kid in a candy shop.

***

Logan's excitement originated from one place.

Two weeks ago, the System had invaded and transformed Logan's world. Due to the influence of the glitchy AI minion, he'd never gotten the chance to pick his own hidden name like everyone else. No, instead, the minion had labeled him an 'Idiot,' turning every System message into something that might as well have come from a satire.

With the addition of the Gem of Subterfuge, he could change that. Mask his hidden name, and the threat of violence from the Silverdagger Clan bounty would all but cease. Not to mention that if he dropped his listed level, people might be more inclined to trust him. In this shitty world, high rankers had become notorious as XP harvesters, and although Logan didn't fit that mold, there was no way to prove that to others.

There were positives all around.

Logan examined the necklace. It was a long and silver chain, a garish looking thing that would drop to his stomach if he wore it like a regular necklace, but Logan was betting that the chain wasn't what triggered the gem. Collapsing his talons, gloves, and the armour around his torso and chest, Logan pinched the gem between his thumb and index finger and then held it up so he could examine the links between the gem and the necklace.

Just as he suspected.

There was a thin strip of silver, a loop inlaid in the gem attached to the end of the chain. Scrunching his nose in concentration, Logan held the gem in one hand and then delicately pried the loop away from the necklace. At first, the metal warped, but then the connection broke which allowed him to sever it from the chain.

Logan willed the necklace into his spatial collar and then peered down the empty street. He'd used [Threshold Shift] to move three blocks away from the complex, but he was still too close. Someone could observe him. He didn't want anyone else witnessing this process.

So far, Logan had encountered spatial storage devices that were connected to bracelets, and the pouches that looked like a magician's bag, but he'd yet to encounter anyone else who had a… well, a cat collar. There was no reason to give out intel. Half the reason he'd never had any issues with his collar was due to no one expecting that a frigging cat collar could be an S grade spatial storage device.

To make double sure, Logan deployed [Life Fabricator] and scanned for anyone who could be staring at him through one of the buildings.

He was in the clear.

Logan reached for the latch on the back of his collar, unclasping it, and then examined his spatial collar with [Idiot's Inspect]:

[A spatial storage cat collar. Quality: S Grade. This is for a cat. And yet not.]

Once he finished the Build an Empire Quest, he could return to his Tree Fridge and clear out the contents. He was convinced that things like the paperclip had to be worth their weight in gold.

Logan rubbed the pad of his thumb against the tag, staring down at the IDIOT label on the front, and the text on the back: A large male human.

But more importantly, it was a cat collar, which meant there was a pretty solid loop which would allow him to attach the gem. Fixing the broken clasp on the loop was child's play, but Logan was concerned that by loosening the clasp, he might have made it prone to breaking. There was nothing worse than finding a System sourced item and then losing it by pure carelessness.

Logan thought he had a solution for that.

If he could use [Lodestone Creationist] and [Mimicry Armour] to craft a lodestone, that meant he should be able to manipulate metal.

Holding back a smile, Logan concentrated on the small clasp and then took out a handful of metal from his spatial collar. Using [Mimicry Armour], he forced a shard of steel to hover in the air, furrowing his brow as he warped it, twisted it, like melting it over a smithy, but unlike in a smithy, he was doing it with his mind.

Concentrating on that flexible steel, he let it drift to the clasp, forcing the metal to wrap around it, making it solid, a clasp that would take serious force to break.

Logan bit his lip.

He wanted more than serious force. He wanted this thing to be unbreakable.

Willing out the black chains that he'd grabbed from the strength trial, Logan used his spatial storage to cut a link, a piece of metal the size of his fingernail, and then willed the rest of the chain back into his collar.

The metal was black, small, barely anything, but it radiated with an aura that was System sourced. Redeploying [Mimicry Armour] once again, Logan raised the metal into the air, and then slammed it against the steel link, wrapping it around it like wrapping wire around rope. The steel wouldn't change, but the wrapped System metal would make it unbreakable.

Holding up his spatial collar, Logan examined it. The IDIOT tag was still there, but he'd positioned the red gem underneath it. Underneath it so that the bare gem would rest against his skin.

That way, he'd hide both the spatial collar and the gem at the same time.

Putting the collar back on and clasping it at the back of his neck, Logan felt his excitement surge as he tucked the tag and the gem underneath the collar of his shirt so that it pressed directly against his chest.

Ding!

[Gem of Subterfuge detected! Would you like to activate the Gem of Subterfuge?]

[Yes.]

[No.]

Logan mentally hovered over 'yes' and confirmed his selection.

[Please select:

[The user's level: ___.]

[The user's characteristics: ______________________.]

[The user's hidden name: ____________.]

There were a couple of ways that he could approach this. Already, he knew an aura and a presence was something that you couldn't always get around. Even though Damsel had screwed with his mind, Logan was sure that at times, he'd picked up on the fact that she'd seemed… off. It was like trying to tell a person that a cat was a dog. There was a limit to what you could disguise.

So, he couldn't go too low leveled. And for that matter, he wasn't sure that was a wise decision. If he appeared too low leveled, others might think he was easy XP pickings and try to steal his lodestones or who knew what.

Logan mentally hovered over the level option and then inputted level 75.

As for his characteristics, he had no idea what they said right now, since there was no way to see your own stats via [Identify] or [Idiot's Inspect], but one thing was for sure, he didn't want to sound like a pushover. Make people wary, but not to the point where they would have to be on alert around him.

Or he could approach it in a different way. He still had seven other lodestones to craft around the world, and if he encountered people, he wanted to encourage them to buy items.

Logan ran his fingers over his chin, staring into space in consideration, and then finally decided on the following:

Profit is the way to this user's heart. Hand him money, and he'll deal fairly with you.

Logan was worried that it might sound too complicated, but then again, when had he ever read someone's description and wondered if it were manufactured? Only when he'd thought someone had a stealth class, but that suspicion had nothing to do with the person's description and everything to deal with other factors. And in the worse case scenario where his new description did the opposite of what he wanted, he could change it. That was the beauty of the Gem of Subterfuge.

Now for his hidden name.

At this point, Logan would consider any name other than 'Idiot' a miracle, but he could have fun here. He'd seen many people who'd chosen to go with their regular name instead but changing his hidden name to just 'Logan' seemed like a waste of an opportunity. For a second, Logan considered calling himself 'Lucille,' the baseball bat from the Walking Dead, but for those not in the know, it would come across as an… odd name. To say the least.

No, nothing too absurd.

Badass?

Kickass?

…I'll fuck your shit up?

Logan snorted. Well, just like with his characteristics, if he chose a name that didn't work, he could always change it. There was a name he was considering, but was it too conceited? Logan was vulnerable to teasing just like any man, and he'd hate to see what Lara would say when she saw it.

But…

Hadn't he wanted to Build an Empire? And according to his quest, he'd received a distinct reward once he completed it:

[Reward for completing the Quest: Lord status. Lord status will allow you to declare yourself the lord of your community, receive pledges of loyalty, and Karma tax.]

That did it. With a grin, Logan entered LORD LOGAN into the options.

Ding!

[Choices confirmed! Until toggled off or changed, the user's [Identify] screen will appear as follows:]

[Level: 75.]

[Characteristics: Profit is the way to this user's heart. Hand him money, and he'll deal fairly with you.]

[Hidden name: Lord Logan.]

All right! That's what he was talking about! Beaming, Logan deployed [Mimicry Armour] to reform his Logan exoskeleton around his torso and chest, and then he hesitated. If all went well, he'd be visiting cities for monetary reasons and not to fight, so using [Threshold Shift] to travel to a place with his talons fully deployed and his facemask up might not be the best look. Not if he wanted to appear normal.

But… Looking down at his armour-covered legs and chest, Logan hesitated again. By now, his armour felt like a second skin, and going anywhere without it felt beyond odd. An uncomfortable sensation sloshed through his stomach, as if he were about to enter a restaurant without any clothes. The Lord Logan with no clothes.

Huffing, Logan decided to hell with it, and then crafted his faceplate and mask. Rather than travelling without his armour, he'd activate the mimicry effect, turning himself invisible. That way, he could scope out the area first and then if it were safe, collapse his armour and approach civilians with his regular clothes instead.

There was only one problem.

Where to go. Although it felt like an age since he'd arrived in Australia, in reality, it had only been a few hours. Back home, it was night, early night. That meant that either he continued crafting lodestones in this part of the world, or he'd have to wait until morning.

But then again, did he need to?

He'd already sold the items he'd needed to satisfy the quest, so advertisement wasn't a problem. Advertisement would be good if he wanted to sell a ton of items, but wouldn't that occur naturally through word of mouth? There was no reason that he couldn't return to Canada or the US, and craft lodestones in the dead of night.

And if he took that approach, he'd finish the quest in minutes, not hours.

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