Finished with the call to a very unhappy Mark, I decided a little cleanup was in order before getting into my pod. Yes, it seems backwards, cleaning up for the cleaning staff, but the place was a mess after the drunken night prior. Even I had some dignity.

Once I stacked the empty pizza boxes, I started going through the Arcadia swag to make piles for everyone. Everyone got a key chain, even though the use of physical keys had been abandoned for the digital variety. There were plushes and figurines that I’m sure someone would appreciate. I set them aside for people to pick which one they wanted. Tucked between two boxed figures, one of Bouchard the White himself and another of a druid NPC whose name I’d forgotten shortly after encountering them, was a slip of torn paper with a hand scrawled note:

Ask for DLC preview rights. Go to 35, 72.

“Cale,” I called, turning the piece of paper over in my hands but it was blank on the other side.

He strode over, already in his haptic suit, putting a little extra bounce in his step, and waggled his eyebrows at my gaze towards his lower regions.

“Calm your tits and look at this,” I said, handing him the note. “It was mixed in with the Arcadia merch from last night. I'm assuming it's coordinates?”

“Definitely coordinates to somewhere in the DLC, but… why?” He looked at the back and frowned when he found just as much as I had. Nothing.

“Didn’t the game just come out? And there’s already DLC?” Game development and sales never failed to both amuse and disgust me. Even worse, I was getting closer to the day-to-day life of an even more corrupt business; casinos. What I wouldn’t give for an art studio somewhere in a busy city where no one knew me by face but paid out the ass for my work. Yes, I had the payout, but that would only last so long. I needed to be realistic about my long-term stability. Ew, since when do I think like an adult?

Cale shrugged. “Most companies do it. Design nearly everything at once but set one area aside to give sales another push a few months after release. Once the base game interest starts to taper off at least. We went over that in class, it was in chapter four, The Numbers Behind Marketing Methods.”

“Oh, that’s right. I remember now. It was in between the boring bullshit that made no sense and the other boring bullshit that I didn’t care about.” I patted his chest and snagged the note back. “Glad we got that figured out. Hey, I’m gonna get in my suit. Toss the deadbolt on the front door before we get in the pods, huh?”

It wasn’t much protection, but it was the best I had available. Cale seemed to agree by how fast he moved to set it in place.

“Liz,” Salvo said, crossing and uncrossing his legs uncomfortably. His eyes drifted around the tavern like a cokehead watching for cops. He’d been that way since we’d logged on, still paranoid about how many people saw his ragged pubes, no doubt. “I love a mystery as much as the next person, but doesn’t it feel like a trap to you?”

Luke crossed his feminine priest’s arms and snorted in agreement. He too was uncharacteristically quiet after the leak. In his case, it was more than understandable.

“Log into any bad news?” I asked him in private chat.

“Lost some clients. Some are pretty pissed, I don’t blame em. Gained a few others, though. But I’m not too worried. It was time I moved on from that, anyway. Got more cash with the payout than I’ll ever need. Besides, I’m in talks with Mr. Bouchard about the bot program I created for the business. Guess I uncovered an itch he hadn’t thought to scratch.”

“Bot program?” I asked.

“You don’t think it was me doin’ all that shit, did you? I just typed in what they wanted and hit play. Once that was done, all I had to do was sit back and watch a movie or shoot the shit with other people. I explained all that to Cale. Figured he’d have told you already.”

I scoffed, “He doesn’t like talking about that stuff too much. I think he’s more than a little ashamed.” It was such a stupidly easy explanation for how he could perform all those… um, duties. I wanted to slap myself for not thinking of it before.

“He’s a good man. Just promise me that if shit goes south between you two, I’m the first person you call.”

In hindsight, I realize he was not so subtly trying to plant an idea of interest there. But all I said was, “Sure will, thanks. Doubt we’ll hit something we can’t figure out though. You’re right, he’s a pretty good guy.” I swapped back to group chat and slapped the table. “All right, I’m bored. Who wants to slaughter some shit while we wait to hear from Richard about the DLC?”

I’d given Richard the coordinates and explained the reason for my request shortly after logging on. He said he’d look into it and also look into who our courier was that delivered the gifts to the suite. Someone knew more than they were letting on and if he could contact them, we’d be another step further towards putting this whole shit show behind us.

The bad news Richard had for me was a case of a missing son. He’d given the information about who was behind the attacks to a special federal investigation team he’d been working with. After a discreet raid on Leland’s ocean side home, he was nowhere to be found. According to the home security company, the alarm had been armed since not long after the last time we’d heard from Cale’s informant.

Who, by the way, was still missing. Either he’d run off with the foot pics and used my boyfriend for a sucker or someone got to him first. I hoped it was the former and not the latter. No one deserves being tortured to death. Or whatever other fucked up shit he could be going through as a direct result of helping us. Granted, we hadn’t asked him to go so above and beyond, tailing the feds staked out in front of Leland’s house.

I still hadn’t told Richard about him and would regret that soon enough.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that Nate was the first of us to hit level 50. Shortly after we entered the dungeon with the Undeath armor, the golden lights twisted around his decaying form, alerting everyone around us of his achievement.

We’d come here for two reasons. The first, was getting our rogue a set of up to level armor. The second and slightly more sentimental, it felt like this was the place we really came together as a group. Where better to get the final few levels than there?

Besides, we knew this place like the back of our hands. There weren’t any surprises in store and no over-sized creatures outside of Frankenstein’s Monster, but he was easy to avoid.

As the witch spat her curse she’d see us again, light twisted around Cale and Salvo, heralding their ascension to level 50; with me only a hairsbreadth away.

When her banshee form fell, the full party joined in the celebrations of a newly level 50 character. I checked my skills to see what max level had given me. Outside of a few upgrades to skills I already had—extra bleeding damage on my claw attacks, 2.5x damage modifier to bite instead of 2x, etc—I also gained a passive health regeneration called Blessing of Gaia. It wasn’t much, five percent health gained per twenty seconds, but would have helped when I’d gotten myself tangled up in the thorns.

The trap door to the vampire lord’s sanctum swung open, but this time, with no dialogue. No one with a horrible accent inviting us to enter, if we dared. No evil laughter. Just quiet.

With our guards raised and Cale in the front, we entered the depths. Passed the lined walls of the dead until we found ourselves in the lair. But instead of a fight, we received achievements.

Safe Space Unlocked. Congratulations! You’ve unlocked your first personal hideout.

Vampire Lord Estate. Congratulations! The keys to the castle are yours. Get an alchemy table, invest in the creatures out front to keep you safe, go wild. As Lord or Lady of the manor, the possibilities are limitless. Find your new assistant, Igor, for more information.

Title Unlocked. Congratulations! In your character screen, you can now select a title to display by your name.

I checked my character screen and sure enough, I could add Lady of the House of Usher; making my full name, Ri0tGrrl, Lady of the House of Usher.

Maddie clapped her hands excitedly and said, “This house ain’t falling anytime soon.”

Over Salvo’s head, the title was different, and I held in a quip about it after seeing pure elation in his eyes. The rogue, now titled Vampire Lord V4mpyrL0rd, strutted around our new hideout; wearing the armor set previously worn by the boss. “That’s why vampire daddy wasn’t around this time. Got another achievement and a letter handing over the top spot in his stead. This sexy set of gear was attached.”

Fuck me, this is going straight to his head, I thought, but offered him the praise he was so obviously sniffing around for.

“Blast it,” a man said in a thick cockney accent, limping his way over to us, peering out through over-sized, too round eyes, one noticeably larger than the other. “Get rid of one prick, only to get stuck with the lot of you. Just my luck, ain’t it?”

“I take it you’re Igor?” I asked and smiled at him.

“Quick one, ain’t ya? What gave it away? The hump or the bleedin’ name over my head that said Igor?” He pointed to the air above his head and rolled his bulbous eyes.

Is it possible to both love someone and hate them all at the same time? The answer is absolutely yes.

“Are ya gonna keep starin’ or give me somethin’ to do?” When I didn’t respond in the fraction of a second he decided was appropriate, he groaned. “If I’d known you was gonna look at me like that, I’d have shined up my hump. Made myself all proper like.”

I glanced at Cale, but he only shook his head. Figures. “Well, as much as I’d love to stick around and get to know each other better, we have places to be, people to kill. You know how it is.”

Igor sniffed and pointed his nose at a table with glowing stones. “Take one, each of ya. It’ll take you straight here if you need it. And before you leave, give me some gold to fix this place up. Last lord kinda let it go to the dumps if you catch my meaning.”

“How much do you need?” I asked, looking at the sum I’d been sitting on with nothing to spend it on.

“Depends. You want just the house shinin’ or the town? Get the lot back in order and you can make some gold with the new businesses as they come in. Personal blacksmithy, inns, the like.”

This piqued Cale’s interest enough to finally interject. “How much would that cost?”

“50k per buildin’,” Igor said with a shrug. “100k for the house.”

We pooled our gold, determining we had about 300k between all of us and planned on fixing up the town first and house last.

Igor tsked at us. “House first, them’s the rules. Can’t have townsfolk settlin’ in when the Lord’s manor got zombies shamblin’ around out front.”

“Fine,” I said, more than a little annoyed. “House first, then the inn and black-”

Igor cut me off. “Don’t get a choice which goes up first neither. Townsfolk’ll come and set up shop.”

I closed my eyes, counted to ten and forced the corners of my lips upwards. “Sounds great. Thanks,” I said through my teeth.

“Got a name?” he asked.

I pointed above my head and glared.

“For the town you twit. Keep it Chillwind or custom?” He rolled his eyes again, but there was a sparkle of glee behind it. I’d walked right into that one.

“Chillwind is a little ominous but fine enough,” Cale said and put his arms around my shoulders. Probably to keep me from attacking the NPC and ruining our investment opportunities.

“Pleasure doin’ business with ya, Masters.” Igor rubbed his grubby mitts together and slunk back into the shadows.

“What are the chances we’ll see any return?” Maddie asked, shaking her head at the spot our house servant vanished from.

“Not sure. But, if he takes off with the cash, we kick his ass and take it back,” I said, projecting my voice. He’d probably already despawned, but it helped me feel better about the transaction either way. I turned towards the exit, only to have a block of text take up my vision.

BouchardtheWhite: Big win getting Chillwind there. Congrats! Hey, I got your DLC access all set up. My team wants everyone to sign an NDA before they go, of course, and then you’ll get your tokens for the ferryman in Lighthall. We scanned the coordinates on the map and it’s a giant black hole on our side. All testers have been pulled to keep them safe so you’ll have free rein of the map. Let me know when you get close, I’ll make sure to get rid of all the mobs so you won’t have to worry about fighting anything else while you’re there. Also, don’t want to spoil the fun for later!!

Ri0tGrrl: That’s great. Thanks, Richard.

BouchardtheWhite: Thanks again, Liz. It means a lot. And be careful out there. There’s a ton of interference so I’m not sure how much help I can be, but we’re working on things. I’ll let you know when we come up with more.

Panic, anxiety and excitement welled up inside me all at the same time. I wasn’t sure if I needed to vomit or log off and take a breather. “All right, guys,” I said, opening up the tab for in-game mail. “Check your inboxes. Guessing it’ll come from Eternia Entertainment legal. We have to sign some NDAs before they’ll give us our access.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Cale asked. “At least without a lawyer to scan through it first. Last thing we need to be doing is signing away our legal rights in case something happens. Not saying Richard would do that, but his legal team… I mean, it’s their job to protect the company’s ass.”

I could see his point but couldn’t see a way around the situation. What if agents struck again while we were protecting our own asses? Would I feel okay walking away knowing people got hurt while I was off doing something that seemed trivial? “Do you honestly think we have the time or Richard wouldn’t help us out, anyway? He’s already done more for us than we probably know at this point. And it’s his own son we’re up against.”

“All right,” he said and sighed. The icon displayed he was in his menus.

I opened my own and found the paperwork, skimming the legalese the best I could. From what I saw, it related only to content and not about personal protection. So I accepted.

A gold coin, about the size of the old twenty-five-cent piece my father had given me when I was younger, appeared in my hand. The edges worn with years of circulation, the image of Bouchard the White mostly rubbed off the surface. I turned it in my palm, feeling the edge press into the fleshy spot near my thumb. Suddenly disappointed I’d have to give it away. I’m normally not one for sentimentality, but it would have made a nice keepsake. Something to hold on to. To remind myself when we got through this, there wouldn’t be a damn thing that could hold us back in the future. Maybe when the storm blew over, I’d find someone who could create one in the real world. Hell, Richard might have a collection of his own.

“Everyone ready?” I asked and once confirmed, ported to Lighthall.

We made our way to the docks of Lighthall, feeling the artificial sun on my cheeks. A part of me wasn’t sure why, but it felt more like a goodbye than a quick trek off into the unknown. We’d have done all we could in the game. The rest would be up to the professionals to restore the comatose victims.

If we lost, well, at least I’d finally get to catch up on my sleep. Yes, it was a fairly morbid thought, and I admit a snicker or two might have left my throat after thinking it. But the tension was building again, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contain it much longer.

A figure in a long black tattered robe sat at the back of a gondola made of bone and stitched leather scraps. As the group approached, hesitantly and with more than a few curse words whispered under our breath, the figure lowered his hood. Milky white eyes peered at us from hollow sockets while what little flesh remained on his face flaked in the slight breeze. Downwind, I held my breath, blocking the now familiar odor of decay and blight.

Overcome with a pride at his own wit, surely whatever he had to say would be horrifying in its own right, Salvo pointed and said, “Look, Nate. We found your dad.”

“Fuck, Salvo,” I growled at him, closing my eyes to anticipate the realization of what he’d said to hit him. I could follow the red string in his brain from point a, the earlier letter discussing Nate’s missing father to point b, that very second. How he decided it was appropriate was anyone’s guess. But Salvo was thoughtless, not heartless. He’d get there, eventually. We just had to wait for his brain to catch up with his mouth.

It didn’t take long before he was backpedaling, explaining he meant it like his vampire daddy, but not in that same way either. He just kept digging himself deeper and deeper until Maddie silenced him with hysterical laughter.

“Oh, crap. I needed that,” she said, wiping at her eyes with a tiny finger. “Never change, Salvo. Seriously.”

The ferryman regained our attention with an extended hand, palm held upright, sucking all joy from the moment with his creaking sinews, and waited. “Toll,” he said through a lipless mouth. Air hissed through his rotten windpipe and chest as he spoke.

Nate took a deep breath and put the coin firmly in the outstretched hand. The gold melted on contact, dissolving into the bones of the receiver.

“Granted,” the ferryman said through a chorus of hisses. “Next.”

Maddie placed her own coin down and held her son’s hand while they got in the boat together. “Are you sure you want to do this, Nate? It’s not too late to go back to the tavern for a milkshake.”

“I’m fine, Mom,” he said and sat in the front of the boat, furthest away possible from the skeletal captain at the back.

I was the last to pay, my eyes fixed on the coin up till the last second it was whole and jumped aboard, settling beside Cale.

He put his arm around me, smooshing me into him and kissed my cheek. Instead of pushing him away, normally uncomfortable with his overly public displays of affection, I put my head on his shoulder and watched the world change around us. Clouds grew thick with storms, flickering with bolts of violet. Shadowy figures stretched out before us with fingers spread and mouths wide in silent screams.

The boat was headed towards the underworld, and we were going with it.