AN: Anyway, I decided not to wait two weeks... but you're going to have to wait now. :P Here's another chapter, reasonably lengthy. Honestly, I should have probably broken it into three chapters or so. Still, it gets a lot of things taken care of...

Enjoy!

Chapter 18: You Fiend!

In a land of darkness, a land where the dead walked the earth and sought to devour those who still lived, a small band of survivors had gathered in the center of the surprisingly idyllic little mountain town. A terrible thing had occurred, and no one was certain what to make of it.

"Is... Did she die?" asked a pretty-ish blond woman who may or may not be named, Mindy.

Father Harrison knelt down and reached down to the unmoving body that lay sprawled on the ground. Nearby, dozens of shoes had been strewn about. One shoe, a high-heeled thigh high brown leather boot, was held fast in the furry arms of the possible deceased.

The town elder placed his hand gently atop the unmoving kitty, only to cause her to wriggle slightly. A loud, mournful sigh, echoed through the air immediately after.

"Well, she certainly seems to be alive." said the good father. The sound had been surprisingly human, and heartbreaking.

"What's wrong with her?" asked a stout man in his middle years. The hair atop his head was thinning, but the hair on his neck had grown thick in recent weeks.

Father Harrison lightly stroke the fluffy cat, and she sighed again. "Honestly? I don't know..."

Everyone had seen how the cat had saved Scott, even the way the creature in the red robe had fled for his life upon being confronted by her. Now that same cat was lying in the middle of the road, and barely had the will to live. It was a mystery.

"Merrow." said the kitty in a long mournful manner, before she took a deep breath and sighed slowly.

**

There was a certain way that things were meant to progress throughout the course of a life. Dawn came after dusk. The harvest came after the spring. A raging headache came after drinking too much premium wine.

Scott's eye lids cracked open then immediately shut tight. The light, the hideous bastard light... It stabbed at him with the hateful burning intensity of an intensely burning thing.

It took several minutes and a great deal of effort before he finally found the intestinal fortitude to withstand the light. His eyes fluttered open, revealing the fact that they were slightly bloodshot.

"Damn." he muttered, before smacking his lips. His mouth was dry and felt like he had been sucking on cotton balls all night. "What did I do last night?"

His brain was not working properly, or he would have been able to piece together a few things. His memories all kerfuffle, he crawled out of bed then sluggishly staggered toward his fancy bathroom.

Without realizing the potential error, he opened the yawn with a loud yawn. A plopping sound echoed through the room, much to his surprise. He looked down and saw the most beautifully disturbing sight he had ever seen in his life.

Samantha Jeran stared at him, hard from her seat atop the world's fanciest toilet. Gloriously naked in her natural innocence, and rapidly turning bright red, she began to flex her jaw.

"The... Hell?" asked Scott confused. Why was Samantha in his apartment?

"Good morning, sir." said the toilet, adding even more to the confusion of the situation. "Unfortunately, I am currently attending to the needs of your guest. It shan't be more than a moment."

"I'll fucking kill you..." she said, breathing heavily, the knuckles on both hands turning white as she gripped the fancy toilet in a deathgrip.

Suddenly, his brain started working properly. His eyes went wide. "Holy shit! Sorry!"

He hopped back and allowed the door to close. However, it was not long before it came flying open, a suited up Samantha ready for murder.

"You damned pervert!" she screamed, as she started to chase him through the apartment. "I knew it! I fucking knew it!"

"Sorry, damn it! How was I supposed to know you were in there!" cried Scott.

She chased him through the kitchen, back through the sitting room. They ran across the top of the bed, and then back into the sitting room. All the while, she wanted to get some sweet revenge.

Scott ended up on the other side of the kitchen table after a short while. They chased each other around it three times before they stopped. Eyeing each other carefully, they tested each other. Scott would lean one way, and she would move to match him.

"Where do you get off doing that?" she asked him heatedly.

"Why the fuck didn't you lock the door?" he snapped at her.

She glared at him. "Don't blame this on me, you perverted bastard."

"How am I supposed to know you're in there?" he growled. "I just woke up hungover as fuck!"

Her chest heaved as she took in large gulps of air. She was obviously conflicted by what she was hearing.

Scott sighed. "Look it was an accident. You want to see me take a piss, or just punch me in the face go ahead, but can we drop it afterward."

"Alright." she said simply. "Fair enough."

He nodded to her then walked over. "So, which one did you want to—" began to asked, just before her dainty fist rocketed over and slammed against his jaw with enough force to kill a normal man.

Scott's head snapped to the side lightly due to the force of the blow then he glanced at her sideways. "Damn, woman."

She blinked at him then stared at her still closed fist. She winced a little as she wiggled her fingers. "What the...?"

Samantha looked at him once more then squinted at him. "What the hell are you made of?"

"Sexiness and awesome." said Scott without missing a beat. His jaw stung like a bitch, but he was no worse for wear. Behold the glory of hit points! Falling asleep in his armor had paid off.

Samantha snorted at him then shook her hand a little. "I was being serious." She tapped her suit clad hand. "When I'm wearing this, my knuckles don't sting like that even when I punch a bulkhead."

"Do you know what hit points are?" he asked her curiously.

Her confused expression was the only answer that he needed. "Well... Between them and the whole high-end resilience thing, I can take a punch."

"You tricked me..." she said, her eyes narrowing in the process.

"What? You want to see me go to the bathroom?" asked Scott curiously.

"No!" she said, her cheeks taking on a bit of color.

Scott nodded to her. "We good, then?"

She growled low under her breath. "I guess we have to be." An agreement was an agreement, after all.

"Alright, well... if you want, we can go visit my headquarters and you can see what sort of things I deal with?" asked Scott.

Samantha blew out an angry breath. "Yeah, fine. Let's do that."

He used his prerogative to open the door of light, from within his new apartment. He could open it at any hub location area, during his downtime.

"This... We walk through it?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it'll stay open for a full minute unless I close it. Nothing can go in unless I want it to go." said Scott.

"So, I can go in?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, you're my companion as the system calls you." said Scott.

She made a noncommittal noise in his direction, but nodded anyway. "Companion, huh..."

He grinned at her then laughed a little. "Would you prefer partner?"

"I'd prefer credits." she said lightly.

"Alright then, credits. Shall we enter?" he asked her with a smile.

Samantha snorted at him then cracked a smile of her own. "Fine, let's go see what all the fuss is about."

They walked through the doorway and into a dimly lit room. The ball floated where it always did, but other than a few doors, and a foot locker, the room held nothing else.

"Cozy." she said after taking in the lack of sights.

"Yeah, welcome to my humble abode." Scott walked over to the ball and reached out his hand. It shifted into a spectral image of his body, and various little message screens popped up. Before reading any of them he paid a few EXP to restore his hit points and health. His hangover disappeared immediately as a direct result.

"What was that?" asked Samantha, coming closer.

"That's the little ball thingy that lets me buy stuff and heals my injuries when I touch it." he said simply.

"Can I touch it?" she asked him curiously.

"By all means, touch my ball." he said with a chuckle.

She groaned loudly at him then reached out toward the floating energy sphere. It did not react to her at all, much to her annoyance. Her hangover persisted.

"Oh, that's interesting." he said after reading through a few of the message screens.

Samantha asked him what he had found out. Scott grinned at her and said, "Come with me."

He led her through the various rooms. She liked the command center, even if it seemed a bit bare. The recreation room could use a bit of upgrading as well. What interested her the most, however, was in the companion room. One thing was her personal room. The other was a little ball thingy like Scott's that floated outside of her room. It was much smaller than his, more like a tennis ball compared to a bowling ball.

Curious, she looked herself over once the ball shifted to take on her appearance. "So, this one I can use?"

"It seems so. It only popped up because you came to my Home Point." said Scott.

"I don't have any EXP, so I can't use it to get rid of this hangover." she said, disappointed.

"Hold on a moment." Scott walked over to her sphere and placed his hand on it. He used a function that he had just discovered through one of the new message screens. He gifted her with forty EXP and told her that it was an advance on her first mission.

She expended two points to rid herself of her status afflictions and immediately felt better. "Wow! That's great... I haven't felt this good in a while."

Samantha pulled her hand away then grinned at him. "Well, since you paid, I guess you have me till the job's done."

"You do know that saying it like that means that I only have to pay you five EXP a day, right?" he asked her lightly.

She shrugged at him. "That was the deal." she said, before tilting her head to the side. "Besides that, I recall you saying I could earn my own EXP."

"Yeah, it seems you'll be rated the same way that I am. I don't know how much you can earn, but I'm sure you'll be happy." said Scott.

She started to say something, but he interrupted her briefly. "I'm going to go ahead and pay the maintenance cost for a few days."

"Maintenance cost?" she asked.

"Yeah, the system's going to charge me five EXP per day to pay you. So, if I load your ball thingy now, it'll auto-debit it to your account every day when the clock strikes zero."

"Ah, neat." she said. "Is five EXP a lot?"

Scott smiled at her. "You'd have to kill seventeen low-end zombies, but no it's not a lot. You'll probably earn a lot more on our first mission."

"I should have charged more." she said with a laugh. "This place is rolling in money."

Scott laughed with her. "EXP can do a lot more than make money. Pick one of your stats and see what happens if you spend a point or two."

"Stat?" she looked at her screen. "You mean like strength and concentration?"

"Yes, exactly." he told her.

Samantha tried it then noticed that her stats increased with every point spent. "So, that means that I'm stronger now?"

"Whatever stat you increased, will go up." said Scott. "I don't know which one you upgraded."

She nodded to him then bit her lower lip a little. "It says that I can't increase my stats past six points. Is that permanent?"

"Might be. Does it tell you anything about bloodlines and lifestyles?" he asked her.

"Hold on." she said, before taking a look. After around a minute, she looked back at him. "There's a lot of stuff to read."

"You should read as much as you can. If you want, I'll leave you to that while I go take care of something with my own ball." said Scott.

"Alright." she said simply, before she turned back to the information screens.

Scott left her to her reading and went back to his main room. There he immediately upgraded his new bracelet to maximum capacity. It took twenty-eight hundred EXP, but the end result was worth it. He also bought a few random odds and ends, such as restorative items. The trauma packs that he purchased with credits would be useful, but the restorative items from the system were nigh-instant in their effectiveness.

After all was said and done, he had just over ninety-three hundred EXP left. "More than half spent already."

He still had the better part of a week left to live. There was no reason to expend EXP on his daily survival cost during his week off. However, that extra three hundred EXP called out to him. He tossed them into his daily survival cost and increased his lifespan by three days.

"Now, what does a sexy and dynamic sort of guy do with over nine thousand EXP?" he asked the air in a rhetorical manner. He chose not to make the standard joke about how it was over nine thousand, and turned back to his status menu.

"I've already bought most of the cost effective upgrades..." he said to himself. There were certain bonus feats and incredibly simple powers he could buy from the generic upgrade list. Unfortunately, a standard human was not granted a lot of high-end feats, not at this exchange.

"I could upgrade strength and vitality by a point if I buy it from the shroom soldier lifestyle list..." he said thoughtfully.

The thought of spending one thousand EXP to increase two stats by a single point each did not sit right with him, though.

Once his stats were all maxed out, it might be worth it. For the moment though, he sought bigger game.

"Here's the problem... Do I go for storage space and buy another foot locker, or do I go for the hit point upgrade and massively upgrade my base hit points?" he asked himself softly.

It was a good question. If he relied on his new piece of armor, the immediate change in hit points would be negligible. He would need to be level forty or so before his base hit points were as high as that piece of armor was after being maxed out. It did not take long for him to realize that four hundred thirty-eight hit points was not that much worse than four hundred sixty.

"Storage is best..." For the same cost as two simple point upgrades, he could buy four small footlockers. However, he had the funds now to afford something much larger. Scott decided to delve into the wonderful world of storage containers.

The biggest problem with larger containers was that he had to find something reasonably similar to match it in a game world. What he really needed was something that acted as portable storage. There was a section for such things but it only had two items available, and they were not cheap.

"Twenty thousand EXP..." muttered Scott. There was a storage container that held only water. Though, it was billed as a Flask of Everwater. He did not know the stats due to the fact that such things were hidden until the item was purchased. However, its little blurb indicated that it would provide a permanent source of clean, fresh, water. The other item was a Sack of Everbiscuits. It would provide fluffy biscuits, as many as a man could want, eternally. There was no butter provided with the biscuits, however.

"Twenty thousand EXP for bread and water..." mumbled Scott. True, it would cut down on a lot of the necessities of scrounging food for survival, but it seemed like a terrible waste when he could just stuff a bit of food in a foot locker. Maxed out, the smallest footlocker held a great deal more than it did when it was fresh out of the system.

He shook his head. "It's bound to have a purpose, but probably won't be as useful for short missions near civilization."

Scott rooted through his storage menu then settled on something interesting. He chose to purchase a storage closet for two thousand EXP. There were cheaper alternatives that, at first glance, would hold nearly as many items. However, he bought the small storage closet for one reason.

Household Item

Small Storage Closet

This storage item provides four storage units and it is capable of linking with another storage item of large trunk space or below. One storage unit offers general utility and can be used to store up to four small items, two medium sized items, or one large item that could conceivably fit inside the closet. It can also store one trunk type storage item.

If you wish to store items in the field, find any similarly shaped space, with a door, and create a [storage link] by strongly thinking of creating that link. Item transfers can be performed between worlds with no cost in EXP.

Level 1/6

EXP: 0/25

Storage: 4 Unit(s)

Trunk Space: 1 Unit(s) [No Upgrade]

[—]

The trunk space, and the fact that a small closet was more likely to be discovered in most houses, were what caught his attention. The worlds that he had unlocked were all filled with various types of civilization. Large trunks, or even stand-up storage lockers like the type used by the police or a school building, might be simple enough to locate in most places. However, a closet would appear in most buildings.

"I need to upgrade to a large trunk... but not yet." said Scott. The footlocker could be linked to his new storage closet just fine for the moment. What he needed more than a new storage unit now was to upgrade the one that he just purchased. He splurged the over seven hundred EXP necessary to max out its upgrade level then smiles. "Sweet, twenty-four storage units and trunk space..."

"That's probably going to be one of the biggest storage items I can use regularly out there on a mission... other stuff is more for base building, I'd think." he told himself after a moment. The larger storage items would definitely be harder to locate than a simple closet. Even the larger walk-in closet would be a rarity outside of the fancier houses.

Scott laughed a little. "Damn man, I could spend entire mission loads of EXP just buying storage space." He would actually need it as well, now that he could smuggle items from world to world on his days off.

A thought occurred to him. "My stuff!"

He had not checked to see if his recent acquisitions had arrived at his apartment. There was also one other thing that he needed to check as well. He lifted his arm and took a good look at the transparent bracelet around his wrist. It was fully upgraded now, and he needed to test it out.

Scott raised his arm up and concentrated on the device. He then looked left and right to see if he was alone in the room. The next part would be a little embarrassing at first. He coughed once then loudly called out, "Nano-Cloud Activate!"

Light flared outward from his little wrist treasure. His clothing disappeared in an explosion of light based fury while a slightly catchy guitar solo played in the background. A swarm of multi-colored lights shot out from the bracelet in all directions then covered his body like a thick fog, or a cloud if you will.

From the toes up, a skin tight suit began to form around him. The nano-tech swarm took several seconds to complete its task and in the end, Scott stood in the room wearing nothing but the form fitting material, and a smile. His face had not been covered by the suit, but the hit points would protect him from injury in that region anyway.

He experimentally punched and kicked at the air. The suit moved with him flawlessly. In order to upgrade it, he had chosen to increase the suit integrity twice, and the assault capacity once. He could not help but smile at the thought that his punches and kicks were now officially stronger than the force provided by his pistol. They would not penetrate an opponent to even remotely the same degree, but the pure damage potential was actually a little higher. Meanwhile, his own weapon would not even damage the suit, though it would still take off hit points if he got shot, and without hit points a headshot would probably kill him easily.

"Too bad I can't use this thing for general travel..." said Scott. He would not be able to wear anything over the suit, like a backpack or normal clothes. So it was more for direct combat. The system would not allow for it. However, he would be able to wield weapons and integrate a battle suit. So, it was a great combat upgrade, even if he had to use it like some sort of weird power up for battle. Ah well, there was always a tradeoff.

Just to be certain that the system was not lying, Scott bought a cheap gun holster from the system for a few EXP. He tried to wrap it around his waist, but a loud buzzing sound and a sudden jolt of pain told him that it was a bad idea to finish strapping it on.

Putting things into the holster and carrying it by hand seemed to be fine, though. So, he could carry bags, just not wear anything else. The arbitrary nature of the thing was irritating, but it represented a considerable upgrade for a reasonable price. It should be worth the trouble.

"Well look at you." said Samantha as she sauntered into the room. "Somebody decided to dress for success."

"I figured you'd approve." he said lightly.

"Got a power suit to go with that?" she asked him curiously.

"Nah, I want a treasure item, something really high-end from one world or another, or something from the system so I can upgrade it. That costs a lot of EXP." said Scott.

"Treasure items? Upgrades?" she asked, curiously. "I think I know what you mean about the second one, though."

"Yeah, there are items that can sometimes be found on a mission that act as treasure items. They're a bit better than a common item of the same overall grade."

"They're just better equipment?" she asked, before walking over to him.

"All kinds of things, really. They're pretty rare, though. This suit is one." he told her.

"This is a treasure item? Doesn't look special to me..."

"You've probably seen better, but compared to the crap I typically have to use it's amazing." he said lightly.

"Fair enough." she said then lifted one hand up and made a slightly dramatic gesture. "What now?"

"Well, we should see if my stuff came in while we were discussing lesbian spaghetti farts." he said amiably.

She snorted at him in a friendly way. "I suppose we should..." Samantha noticed something in the corner of the room that she had not seen before. "Was there always a door there?"

Scott turned to look then smiled. "I just bought a storage closet."

"You just..." She blinked then looked at him strangely. "You can even buy that sort of thing?"

"You probably can too, for your room." said Scott.

"I'll keep that under advisement." she said.

The small talk went on for a brief few minutes as Scott explained how his storage options worked. Her eyes lit up at the idea of being able to transfer items across the battlefield in that way, and considered buying something similar in the future. Her room had limited options compared to what Scott could do, but every little bit helped.

Scott pulled his foot locker over to his storage closet and placed it down on a glowing golden rectangle on the floor inside. The rectangle shrunk to fit the foot locker, and he was given a message that let him know that the link had been made. Afterward, they went back to Bounty Star, to check on his newly purchased items.

Upon arrival, they immediately went to the door. The moment that Scott's hand touched the door panel a little symbol popped up. "I have mail?" he asked curiously.

He tapped the get mail button and then tapped at the options listed. Several boxes appeared one after the other. "So there is something like a sub-spatial storage..."

"Yeah, transporters and sub-space storage are useful." said Samantha. "Usually can't carry much in the portable storage devices, though."

Scott nodded. It certainly wouldn't be that easy to get his hands on something that made closet storage obsolete. He discussed it with her for a while, and he learned that he could probably afford a space pack with his current funds, but they usually sell that sort of thing at major ports.

Hellespont was considered a tiny backwater space port. It was on a major trade route, but it was nothing special. The way she talked about it gave Scott the impression that Hellespont was the equivalent of a gas station with a sign in the window that offered the last chance to fill your tank for twenty miles. A godsend if you needed gas and a few emergency supplies, but most travelers would just pass the place by if they had no need for either.

It was like Christmas when he opened his boxes. Medical supplies, and sci-fi weapons were for the good little boys. Samantha pulled out a few of her handheld lesbians, rather the grenades and a few other explosives. She had a look on her face that one might mistake for a mild orgasm.

"What's with that face?" asked Scott curiously.

She laughed at him then bit her lip a little. "What? Explosives make me happy."

"Good to know..." said Scott lightly.

Samantha snorted at him, but her smile never faded. She had grenades in her hand right now, all was right with the world. "Don't think a handful of grenades will make me that happy."

"I have like a hundred of the things." he pointed out.

She gasped a little then made a bizarrely feminine giggling sound. "Oh, really..."

He eyed her curiously for a moment then chuckled slightly and went back to cataloging his items. It wasn't as much as he would like to have bought, but it should do for some testing. Besides, he had several reasons to purchase so many items.

"Alright, let's start storing and transferring some of this stuff." said Scott.

"Right." she said with a nod of her head. However, she clutched two high-explosive grenades to her chest and seemed reluctant to let them go.

Scott ignored her grabby nature, and let her play with his grenades all she wanted. There were other things to do at the moment. The first thing he did was store all of the medical items in the cabinet. Despite the storage space provided, he nearly filled the thing in the process. The trauma packs counted as medium sized items, for some reason. He also tossed in three of the least expensive photon pistols, and his high-end disruptor to finish out the left over storage.

"This is a good start. This is the least expensive stuff. If something happens to it, I won't cry about it as much." said Scott.

"Could we put more stuff in that foot locker?" she asked.

"It's full at the moment. The stuff in there is mostly food and water that I bought from the system. I know it can be removed at any time. Though, I already emptied out most of it for the last mission."

"Ah, emergency rations. Still, can't we use it now?" she asked him curiously.

"Yeah, but the best thing to put in there would be the grenades." he said.

She pulled her hand back and pouted at him. Clutched in her suit-clad fist was a freeze grenade.

"If we don't store them, they'll be destroyed when we try and take them through my home point." said Scott.

"Oh..." she sighed heavily upon hearing that. "I suppose it's alright then..."

He shook his head. He would have to be careful with his storage permissions, or he'd wake up one day without any grenades left.

"Let's go see what happens." he said with a smile. She nodded at him then reluctantly put the grenade down. Work was calling.

Back at the home point, Scott checked his closet to be certain that it really linked up with his Bounty Star closet. After being certain that it did, he took Samantha on a journey to another world.

The Evergreen Community spread out before them as they stepped out of the doorway. Nothing much had happened to the place since he had left, but he had not expected much. It had been slightly less than one day.

Their arrival went unnoticed for a moment. Scott looked around then glanced over to Samantha. She did not seem to be too unsettled by the sudden location shift. "I'm not sure where everyone is. Be on guard in case something happened. If it looks bad, we'll pull out and come back better armed."

"Right." she said.

As it turned out, the missing survivors were all gathered in one place, the town square. Father Harrison and Jed were having a group meeting.

"Now is the time to make certain we can defend this place!" called out Jed. "If we wait too long, we'll get comfortable and won't want to leave."

It did not take long before someone noticed Scott and Samantha walking up to the crowd from a side-street. Strangely, it was neither Jed nor Father Harrison who noticed the first. It was one of the younger children. "Holy Crap!" exclaimed a little sandy haired boy who had been looking everywhere, but at the people talking.

Everyone turned to see Scott and Samantha. Their surprise turned to smiles and then then nervous cringes. Mothers covered the eyes of their children, and grown men gawked like fools.

"Welcome back, champion." said Father Harrison gently. "I see you and your unknown companion are quite healthy."

Scott waved at the good father, causing a few women in the crowd to make a bit of noise. He was not certain what their issue was for a moment, but then turned to Samantha. She hand her arms crossed over her chest and a sour expression on her face.

He connected the dots quickly. It was what they were wearing that was the problem. Surprised men could barely keep their eyes off of her, and more than a few of the women in the group had a hard time looking him in the eye.

"Ah, sorry. It's my day off. I forgot we were... dressed... like this." said Scott slowly.

Samantha rolled her eyes at him. "I don't see what all the fuss is about. People walk around in bodysuits all the time."

"Mama, she's really pink." said the boy who had alerted the crowd.

"Hush, now." She put a hand over his mouth and led him away. "Sorry, he's just a little boy..."

Scott looked at Samantha. "Are you able to wear normal clothes over that?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she asked him sarcastically.

He turned back to the crowd. "We'll uh... just go change into something and be right back."

Scott pulled her around the corner then took off toward one of the clothing stores. Jed blinked twice then shook his head. His mighty mustache had slightly curled at the ends, like it was trying to smile but did not want anyone to know. "Well, alrighty then..."

A few minutes later they returned. Scott had disengaged his cloud suit, and returned to his normal equipment. Samantha had thrown on a simple cream colored halter top, and similarly colored skirt. She also snatched up a wide-brimmed hat and a few earrings for her trouble. She rarely wore normal clothes, or jewelry, but she loved the price. Free was her favorite price-point after all.

"Ah, that's... Alright then." said Jed. His mustache had uncurled once they left. It was simply not one designed to curl, as it was the type typically assigned to police officers and 1980s television era private detectives.

"Sorry about that." said Scott. "Didn't meant to scar anyone for life." he said amiably. Truthfully, the bodysuits looked like sprayed on latex, a thick coating perhaps, but still latex. Only the gloves and boots were thicker and slightly different in color from the main suit.

"No, don't worry about it... It's really good to see you." said Jed. "We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you."

"Well, that's something I wanted to discuss with you all as well." said Scott before he walked over to where Jed and Father Harrison stood. "I may be able to help you out more, if you're interested."

"Brother, we can use all the help we can get!" called one of the men from the crowd.

Jed sighed loudly, and then nodded. "It's true. We've already had a couple of zombies try to climb up the side of the mountain. They didn't even come close to getting to where we were, but it is a bit unnerving."

Scott nodded then glanced over to the good father. "Well, once I finished my mission I was given the opportunity to purchase your town."

"Buy the town? What do you mean?" asked Jed, his tone suspicious.

Scott shrugged. "I'm not really sure what it means either. I assume it would allow me to do some stuff here that can't normally be done, but I have no idea."

Father Harrison spoke up. "So, that is what god meant when he whispered to me earlier... Fascinating."

"Father, god spoke to you again?" asked Jed.

All eyes were on the good father once more. "Uh, yes. He said that if the champion returned, he could help us survive indefinitely if he was willing to pay the price."

"You mean, that god told you that me buying the place would help?" asked Scott.

"That is not the exact thing that he told me, but he seemed hopeful that you would understand." the father sighed softly.

"Unfortunately, the corruption in this world has to be destroyed to a great degree before he can completely wrest back the controls and correct the situation."

"God, is pretty chatty." said Scott lightly.

Father Harrison smiled beatifically. "I asked him much the same once, recently. He told me that he was always chatty, it was just that few people took the time to listen."

"Plenty of time now." said Jed with a sigh. They certainly had plenty of time to listen now that the world had ended.

Scott rubbed his chin. "It'll cost me a lot."

Father Harrison nodded then looked down. "Yes, he did say that the cost might seem a bit high."

"Well. I've spent more than that already today, so why not?" said Scott with a smile. The gathering had taken place in the town square, and as it turned out, that was where he needed to be.

He walked over to the fountain and raised his hand. Much like when he had bought his apartment, a point-of-sale contract was initiated.

The world turned various shades of grey and the people froze in place. He was shown the same information from before about the community. Scott spent five thousand EXP to buy the place, hoping that it would prove to be a good investment. The moment that he accepted the cost, a new screen popped up.

Thank you for your purchase! You are now the title holder for this estate. If you wish to develop your land, you must first purchase the upgrade [Iconic Representation].

Upon purchase and installation of this development upgrade, a new menu will be provided for your personal usage.

Scott looked at the cost for an iconic representation then shrugged. It would only cost one hundred EXP. He purchased it to seal the deal, so to speak, and the world suddenly returned to its normal color and movement.

Before anyone could speak, a beam of light shot up from the ground. Motes of light began to whirl around the main beam, and the sound of an electric guitar began to play in the background. From out of the Earth rose a statue, a perfect marble representation of Scott striking a heroic pose with his hand to his hip and elbow pointing out. His pistol was held in his hand but down at his side. He had a warm smile on his face, and wild eyebrows that spoke of hidden danger.

At his feet another smaller statue appeared that bore an incredible likeness to the kitty that had helped make things happen. She sat at his feet, her head tilted slightly to the side.

The statue stood atop a solid marble pedestal with an engraving on the front that read. "The answer to your prayers."

The moment the light died down and the statue stopped rising, golden words appeared in the air above the statue of Scott and kitty. "Salvation Point Online." spoke a soft masculine point.

Father Harrison's eyes widened, and hot tears began to trickle down his ancient cheeks. A joyful smile rose up on his lips as he warmly asked. "So this is what god meant?"

"What? What has happened? I don't understand?" asked Jed. She looked to the crying priest and then to the statue. It was a beautiful statue, but he did not see what was so wonderful about it.

Scott reached out his hand to see what that new menu was supposed to be. His eyes widened considerably and he wasted no time in using it.

Father Harrison gasped loudly then fell to his knees. "This... can it be true?"

"Sure. Feel free to do it if you need to, but try not to overuse that gift. Tell people to be careful." said Scott.

"What's going on? What did you just do?" asked someone from the crowd.

"Why's the father crying?" asked a man who was also crying for some reason.

Scott glanced down at the elderly man then nodded. "Go ahead and tell them the good news."

Father Harrison took a moment to collect himself, and then slowly rose to his feet. "Our champion has... He has..." The elderly man had to take another breath before he said the wonderful thing that had just occurred.

"What has he done?" asked Jed.

The priest closed his eyes briefly, took another breath, and then slowly opened them. "He has granted me... He has granted me the power to restore life to the recently deceased."

Everyone went silent. They all stared openly at the elderly man. Even Samantha's eyes widened at what she had just heard. It was hard to believe.

Scott looked around at the gathered people then back at the old priest. He reached out and hand and lightly placed it on his shoulder. "Let's hope you never have to use it."

"How can... How can you?" asked Jed, his tongue refusing to work.

Several other people in the crowd surged forward wanting to know how it might be possible. A few wanted to know if they could resurrect lost loved ones.

"Please! Please, try to remain calm." said Father Harrison.

It took quite a while for people to calm down. Scott had to explain to them that the good father, now a high-priest instead of a basic one, was simply not powerful enough at his current level to do more than resurrect someone whose body was not within thirty feet of the statue. Each day that someone had been deceased would require an additional use of the resurrection power.

At present, Father Harrison could only cast the spell once per week. He would need to increase his level and choose to upgrade that divine boon, instead of choosing other spells. Anyone who had been dead longer than a day could not be resurrected at the moment. If anyone was resurrected, Father Harrison would not be able to do it again for an entire week.

Still, the possibility that it could be done at all was a great boost to the morale of the survivors. Scott did not have the heart to tell them that the main reason he had granted Father Harrison that divine boon was because he could not self-resurrect using items or spells. Father Harrison was the closest thing to a sudden death insurance policy that Scott had at the moment.

There were also other things to reveal. The statue of their champion could completely cure any disease or heal any wound. Though that effect only worked during the first three hours of dawn. It also produced a constant protection from evil effect up to one hundred feet away, and could be used as a safe fallback point in case the undead made it into town.

Once they calmed down, Scott told them what it would take to provide even greater effects for the little band of survivors. Basically, he had to give them jobs. A job only required him to expend EXP if it was highly specialized, such as the priest job. A new priest would cost him one hundred EXP, and he could assign them one of two powers. They could have the protection from evil ability, or they could have a basic healing spell. He could assign basic jobs such as farmer, hunter, militia, and several others for free. He worked with the people and helped them choose jobs that they wanted.

"The town will produce Town EXP that I can use to develop it, based on how hard you all work. Now that you all have jobs, just doing those jobs will earn you small amounts of EXP. Over time you'll gain a level and become better at what you do." said Scott.

Several people asked questions and he answered them as best he could. He did not know everything, but he also did not want to lower their morale. For the first time in a while, these people were truly looking forward to the future. It was like a massive burden had been taken from their shoulders.

"Alright. We're good to go. We have our two priests now." said Scott. Surprisingly, Smug Guy had found religion. Scott had assigned him the healing ability, which was what the man had wanted. He would work with the hunter's group as a healer and backup fighter.

There was no restriction on combat weapons for priests, but Scott opted to pay ten extra EXP during the man's class change so that he would be able to cast his basic heal five times per day at the expense of not being able to learn skills related to firearms. Smug Guy had no problem sticking with baseball bats, spears, and similar objects. At some point he would be able to use holy magic to heal the injured and to slay the zombies. That made him feel a lot safer than a gun.

He would have to earn his way into becoming a high-priest, however. Unlike Father Harrison, he would require twenty-two thousand EXP to achieve that class upgrade. There was something to be said for a lifetime of experience and the true faith it inspired, apparently.

Scott made Jed the militia captain, just an appointment and not a class change. He promised him that he would upgrade him to a commander officially once the town had earned enough EXP, or he had three thousand points to spare. A militia commander would provide physical boosts to the militiamen under his command simply by being within the town's walls.

Most jobs had at least one upgrade, but there was no point in trying to upgrade too quickly. There were only twenty people. They needed to learn and develop their own abilities over time. The town EXP would grow as their own knowledge and life experience grew. Once a month, it would appear in the menu screen attached to the statue. That's the time Scott can use it, sort of like monthly taxes or donations.

What did Scott get for spending so much of his EXP? Well, outside of the possibility of being resurrected if someone dragged his dead body back to this statue, there was also the services. He claimed a few of the unfinished buildings in town. They would become his personal areas.

He would be able to upgrade them so that he would have a workshop for his future engineering attempts, a house for his personal needs, and a few other things he might like. Plus, one percent of all Town EXP would automatically be converted into the sort of EXP he could personally use. If the town grew, he could gain a lot of EXP simply by stopping by once per month. Even if it did not, he would still eventually get his initial investment back. At one percent of twenty people's efforts it would take a long while, but the possibilities were there.

He did wonder why he could not make someone a mage, or a ninja, however. The priest job seemed to be the only magical profession allowed. As with most things, he chalked it up to an arbitrary game system, or something that needed to be unlocked.

As the day wore on, Scott eventually brought out the items that had been stored in his storage closet. Thankfully, they did not disappear. Scott gave one of the pistols to Jed and told him that he would bring more later. At the very least, he wanted to bring enough for the militia and hunters. The ammunition was far from unlimited, but easy enough to buy. So, they would all soon have weapons that would be a decent upgrade from the gear that they had.

The medical supplies were an even better gift. The trauma packs were basically a first aid kit on steroids. They included simple things like cause, but they also carried nine doses of nano-tech medical sprays that could heal surface wounds and cleanse simple status effects. They were only able to help with moderate wounds, or less, but that alone was an amazing gift during the apocalypse. Nothing of that world compared to it in the slightest.

He kept all of the grenades, however. He did not want to risk coming back to find that some numbnut had decided to play around with them and frozen someone else's grandma, or something. Giving them sci-fi weapons that they actually understood as weapons was as far as he would go at the moment. The grenades would require a bit more trial and error. The guns were the simplest ones available. The just required the safety to be off, and a trigger to be pulled.

It was quite a while before someone finally got around to mentioning something to Scott that bore mentioning earlier. He looked at Jed in surprise. "The cat's sick?"

"Yeah, she just collapsed earlier and refused to do anything but make those weird little sighing noises." he told Scott.

Samantha was still chatting with various people. As Scott's companion, they wanted to know more about him, and to be honest many people wanted to know more about her. The men were especially interested until she knocked the teeth out of one middle aged man's mouth. Things became more civilized after that, and the statue's healing power was tested in the process.

He left her where she was and headed off to check on his fluffy little savior. Kitty had been moved into the shoe store, the only place she did not sigh constantly. Scott went in to see her, and the moment he said, "Hey, cat." a loud rrowl echoed through the room. The sound of what he would swear was a woman crying was heard from where the cat was laying.

Scott moved closer and knelt down next to her. "Kitty, what's wrong?"

A sniffling sound was her response, just before she pawed at the air a little and rolled over. Uncertain what to do, Scott reached out and lightly rubbed her belly. "Hey, are you sick?"

She meowed once more then curled up into a little ball. Scott kept rubbing her, but she refused to do anything but cry and meow.

He picked her up as gently as he could, and held her. "Is there something I can do?"

Kitty sighed once more then casually bit him on the arm. It was not a hard bite. There was no pain and she did not pierce the flesh at all.

"Why bite me?" asked Scott while he stroked her back. "I'm worried about you, you know?"

The cat looked up at him then sniffled. Her eyes widened a little then she looked away. Kitty made a weird snorting noise, as if to say that she did not believe him.

"Hey, don't be that way. As soon as I heard that you were sick, I came to see you." said Scott softly.

She made another strange noise, one similar to an annoyed woman murmuring her disbelief. Her tail swished a little, however.

Thinking that he might be able to make her feel better, he lifted her up and blew a raspberry on her furry tummy. The cat's eyes widened and she started to squirm. "Nyao, nyao, nyao!"

"Who's a pretty kitty?" exclaimed Scott. He blew a raspberry on her tummy. "Who's my pretty kitty!"

"Nyao!" she wailed, her tail lashing in the process.

"Kitty! Kitty" he blew another raspberry on her belly. "Kitty! Kitty!"

She gave up being sick, or pissed, or whatever it was that she was, and turned quickly toward Scott. Kitty licked him on the side of the face then rubbed her cheek against him.

Her rubbed his nose against hers then started in on the ridiculous baby talk that people speak when they're chatting with their pets. "Whoshur boo, whosur boo-boo."

Kitty made a cute sounding noise that sounded suspiciously like a happy girl giggling. She licked his chin and whisked her tail from side to side.

"Feeling better, Kitty?" asked Scott lightly.

The cat rrowled in a noncommittal manner. She was playing it cool. Her tail, however, continued to whisk from side-to-side.

She nuzzled his cheek briefly then snuffled his neck. Having taken the time to actually sniff him properly, she noticed a strange aroma. "Merrowl?" asked the cat in a curious tone. What was that scent she was smelling against his skin?

The tinkling of a store bell alerted them to the presence of someone else entering the room. Samantha stopped short and stared at the odd image of Scott snuggling a cat.

Kitty ignored the newcomer for the most part, she was busy trying to discern something. However, as the blond haired woman drew closer, a certain scent caught Kitty's attention. She sniffed at the air then made a curious little merrowl sound.

Samantha smiled at Scott. He smiled at her. The cat's eyes widened and she looked from one to the other then sniffed the air once more. Suddenly she pushed away from Scott with her forepaws and unleashed a loud feminine gasp. If a cat could look scandalized, that would be the expression on Kitty's face at that moment. Suddenly, the cat cried out in an angry feminine tone, "What was all that pretty kitty talk, you sex fiend!"

Scott stared openly at the cat. Samantha looked to the cat, her eyes wide, and then to Scott. Kitty, for her part, breathed in and out heavily and made angrily little huffing noises.