When they reached the other side of the tunnel and climbed onto solid ground inside of the perimeter of the block wall, Logan glanced around, scanning the soldiers stationed at intervals who were placed against the wall. They stared at the crowd with bored faces, their eyes glazed.

Inside the perimeter, there was a mix of odours, from the smell of sweat to the sweet scent of meat roasting on a… a barbeque. Oh fuck yes. Logan licked his lips, a hungry gremlin surging inside of his stomach. After a non-stop diet of nothing but green beans, the smell was mouth-watering.

They had slabs of beef hanging from hooks, and a line of barbeques, twenty at least. On the opposite side, people were lining up, holding plates. And that was just one area. There were so many people that Logan couldn't count them all. Half a city squeezed into one area.

Worst of all, most of them had leveled up, although Logan saw a few level 0 people amongst the crowd, but of those that had leveled, there were only a handful past level 10.

Logan had been worried that the group would be vulnerable to XP harvesters, but it wasn't XP harvesters that was the problem. Pinging on his radar was a sense of urgency. He could still sense hundreds, perhaps thousands of auras underneath the ground. Whatever was burying its way to the surface would use this group as a smorgasbord.

"General," said Logan.

Hawthorne glanced at him but kept powering forward, winding his way around a path lined with soldiers. "This way, son," he said, giving Logan a dismissive glance.

"General," snapped Logan. "You're about to be under attack."

The soldiers froze and turned to face Logan, their mouths in grim lines, eyes on his hands as if Logan were the one threatening them instead of giving a warning. Hawthorne gave Logan a sharp glance and raised a white eyebrow. His voice was grim. "Oh?" he said. "And by who? You?"

Logan frowned. He was getting sick of being treated like this; subjected to nothing but suspicion when he'd done nothing to deserve it. Yes, he'd used the Gem of Subterfuge to hide his level and hidden name, but since then, he'd been nothing but cooperative. He'd even cleared out a swarm of rats on their behalf.

The other soldiers were scanning their surroundings, their mouths in thin lines, peering from Logan to the top of the wall, glancing into the crowd, and then peering back at Logan.

"There are monsters underneath our feet. They're digging their way towards this crowd. Hundreds of them."

As one, the soldiers peered at their feet and the dirt, some taking out their guns and pointing them straight down. When nothing happened, they looked up at General Hawthorne, their shoulders tense. "Sir? Should we get into a defensive line?"

Hawthorne ran his finger over his chin, scratching his stubble. "Defend against what is the question, soldier." He looked at Logan. "What kind of monsters?"

[Life Fabricator] didn't necessarily tell Logan what he was sensing, not unless it was an animal or a person he'd examined in the past. He couldn't say exactly what, but it had a tinge of similarity to the rats he'd defeated back in the warehouse, only… other. Either way, he knew it was a massive swarm, and they were literally underneath their feet.

"Rats," said Logan.

Hawthorne sneered. "Those rats live in the sewage system, crawling through pipes and drains, but they don't dig, son. Trust me, if there's anything a New Yorker knows, it's rats. We have nothing to worry about."

Logan held back a scowl. Was he for real? "I'm telling you that there's hundreds of monsters burrowing upwards. Monsters don't tunnel towards people for a stroll, man. Once they burst through the ground, they're going to go after these civilians." It would be a meatgrinder.

Hawthorne's mouth turned into a slash of disdain. "Or maybe you want my soldiers distracted why you try something, hmm? I don't trust you, high ranker. Not after what you pulled." He raised his voice. "Sergeant Garcia! Sergeant Rawling!"

Two men straightened, their shoulders up. "Sir!" said one.

"Sir! Yes sir!" said the other.

"Take twenty men and make sure they watch the perimeter, keeping special attention on the ground. Alert us if you see anything."

"Sir! Yes sir!"

Twenty men patrolling an area this large? If the monsters ended up being level 10 rats, then they might have a chance, but based on what Logan had sensed, there was no way these things were that low leveled. Well, there was only so much he could do. If Hawthorne wanted to disregard Logan's advice because he thought he knew better, then so be it. Logan's purpose here hadn't changed. He'd found a group that was large enough to satisfy his remaining lodestone. He'd craft and get the hell out of dodge.

A trickling feeling of what he suspected was guilt swirled through Logan's stomach as he followed Hawthorne further into the population, passing women who gave him suspicious glances, and children chowing down on barbeque.

Logan scanned them with [Idiot's Inspect], wincing at each person's level, and the guilt got only worse. It was all well and good to say that it wasn't up to him, but by now, Logan had learned something about himself. He couldn't sit idly by while others were in danger when he knew that he could do something to save them.

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

"You're about to be under attack," he murmured to a woman with dark hair. "Take the children to shelter. Pick somewhere with a concrete or stone ground."

The woman blanched and stumbled away from Logan, her expression at first confused and then panic-stricken.

Hawthorne hadn't caught what he'd said, but he'd observed the woman jumping away from Logan. He narrowed his eyes. "We've got it under control, son. Don't go scaring the civilians; you'll create a panic."

Logan ground his teeth. "You should be preparing them for a fight. How can you just pretend that nothing's—"

"On who's say so!" Hawthorne roared, his face flushed an angry red. Around them, the soldiers gave him alarmed looks. "I'm supposed to take what you say at face value when you've proven to be a liar? You said you meant us no harm, that you wanted to help us. Well, if that's true, do what you need to do and get out."

Logan's fingers twitched, a muscle in his jaw jumping. Was it stupidity? Bluster? Hawthorne had seemed like a sensible man when they'd first met. How could he take in Logan's warning and then brush it off as if he were giving a weather report? This was the System Integration; it was life or death. The man should have learned that by now. Christ, if Logan didn't know better, he'd expect Hawthorne to be the victim of a mind attack. But to have a skill that let him tell if someone was telling the truth, he had to have a high constitution stat, surely.

Wait.

"If you don't believe me, then take my hand," said Logan. "Use your skill. You'll see that I'm telling the truth."

Hawthorne looked at Logan's upraised hand with a blank expression.

"Sir," said Emily behind him, her voice tentative. "Wouldn't it make sense to at least find out if he's telling the truth? He killed those rats for us. What reason does he have to lie?"

"The question is, what's the truth?"

"Sir?" asked Emily.

"Some people, high rankers especially, are good at convincing themselves that something's true. Anything's true. True to what they perceive, but it's not actually the truth."

Emily shifted from side-to-side, her gaze worried, taking in everything around them with wide eyes, paying attention to the ground as if it were about to jump up at her.

Well, it wasn't a complete loss. Hawthorne might be acting like an idiot, but the soldiers were starting to believe. If he got their buy-in, he might have a chance to get them into a defensive position before the first monster burst through the ground.

Talking about monsters… Logan deployed [Life Fabricator] and scanned for that same swarm of life underneath his feet. He almost took a step back in shock when the aura pinged like feedback on a microphone, screaming into his senses. The burrowing mass had gotten closer, and they'd spread. No longer concentrated around the tunnel, but underneath the tents and food tables. They had to be no farther than ten feet underground.

Shit. What was the point of crafting his lodestone if no one was left to buy items?

Logan scanned from face to face.

A senior with a cane.

A group of children playing in front of the food tables, their faces smeared with barbeque sauce.

A woman clutching a baby and cooing to it as other women crowded in close, making silly faces at the infant.

"All right," said Logan underneath his breath. "All right." There was only one decision that made sense, only one decision that he could live with. Technically, Logan wasn't responsible for these civilians. And if it had just been the soldiers on their own, he would have told them to shove it. But these people didn't deserve to be wiped away. The System had already killed billions of people, and if he let this play out without intervening, it would take thousands more.

With a blink, Logan willed out a bucketful of sand from his spatial storage collar and reformed his helmet and faceplate. Then, taking out a handful of diamond dust, he sculpted his talons, making them extra long.

"What are you doing, son?" questioned Hawthorne, his voice sharp.

Logan disregarded him. Cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, he removed his sword from his spatial storage, hefting it in his right hand.

"Stop right there!" said Hawthorne. "Men, put him in your sights!"

The soldiers backed away from Logan and raised their rifles. It was only Emily, Dean and Zachary who didn't react, taking in Logan with a glance before going back to studying the ground, their fingers on the triggers of their rifles.

"What I can't abide is stupidity," said Logan. He could wait until the monsters showed themselves before taking action, but he also had another card up his sleeve. [Life Fabricator]. He could use the skill to suck life from a monster, and best of all, he didn't have to have it in sight to activate the skill. All he needed was to narrow in on an aura for the skill to work.

But the problem was, he may be too late.

Out of the corner of his eye, something flashed, there and gone. Logan narrowed his eyes, focusing on an area behind the food tables. The longer he stared, the more it came into focus.

It was as if it was wearing its own version of camouflage, making it invisible unless you concentrated with all you had. Unlike Logan's exoskeleton, it must have been a mind-based skill, collapsing underneath anything but a cursory glance.

Logan scanned it with [Idiot's Inspect]:

[Sewage Rat. Level 92. A sewage rat that gorged itself on sewage and waste that was flush with battery fuel. The fuel warped it and caused its ingrown parasites to surge. A bite from the sewage rat will spread its sickness to its prey.]

[Highest Stat: Wisdom. Characteristics: Good at camouflage. Hidden name: Harriet.]

The hell? The last one's name had been Henry. Logan suspected that this thing hadn't come out of the ground; rather, it had been here all along. Rats were good at climbing, and the only thing keeping these people safe was a tall stone wall and the soldiers that patrolled it. If the rat could climb the wall while invisible, there was no telling how many of these things were already inside.

With a blink, Logan willed out the Cursed Rope. He had no problem taking care of the rat on its own, but the rope might be the only thing that would snap sense back into these soldiers.

Too much put away, too much put away, complained the rope as it inflated in the air and crackled with electricity.

Sorry, Rope, said Logan.

Hunger hunger hunger. We hunger. The rope will feed.

The soldiers took in an indrawn breath, pointing their guns from Logan to the rope, their faces panicked.

"What the fuck is that?!" one of them shouted.

"It's…" Logan paused. What the hell could he say, anyway? It's a length of rope? Logan snorted. Well, if anything, it no longer resembled a frayed rope. It kept advancing as Logan leveled up, and now, its face might as well be a reptile. Or a dragon. Its body was the size of a medium anaconda, which would double in size once it soaked up the blood of its first victim.

Might as well go for broke. "It's my familiar," said Logan. "Don't worry, it won't harm you. It eats rats."

Come to think of it, he needed to remind it of just that.

Rope, sent Logan, you were very good the last time I took you out, and I'll continue to reward you if you obey me. Remember our bargain. I want you to kill the monsters and rats, but don't hurt the people. The people are off limits.

The rope can be good, the rope can obey, it crooned.

"Then go get that rat!" said Logan out loud.

Glee glee glee. With a crackle of blue electricity and an unhinged laugh, the rope jumped towards the hidden rat.

And all hell broke loose.

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