Mai was stunned to see the motley crew that Andries had put together. Despite nanites being freely available to Sewer Workers, at least three of them had scars, missing eyes, fingers, even a limb. All of them were much older than her and Andries, at least in their forties or fifties, and all of them looked like they knew not only how to kill her quickly, but also how to get rid of her body in such a way that no-one would ever know.

"That's Bob," Andries pointed to a man with a bulging body and a facial scar that made him look as though he was permanently sneering. "To his right, is Virtus. She's a longer-term shift supervisor of my old crew, the Blazing Fifties, Bob was a foreman. Winston, formerly of the Twelfth, and now supervisor elect of the Thirtieth."

He continued to speak, but Mai's attention wandered as she stared at the first three. They were the ones she truly felt were going to help them with this mission. Of all of them, they looked the most battle-hardened of the bunch. Their eyes were cold, like those she'd seen on the most experienced members of the street gangs. There was absolutely no mercy in them. And they never stopped moving. She'd been sized up and categorised in under a second by all three as soon as she and Andries had entered the Wandering Inn.

Andries had been expected to pay for the rice wine, three large carafes sat in front of them, and he'd done so without even blinking. It was a miracle, as he'd never reach into his pockets if he could avoid it.

In all there were ten other workers that he'd recruited. He'd worked with all of them at some point and she was surprised that he'd moved across Sewer Companies so often. Although looking at the scars these workers sported, it might have been due to heavy casualties. She'd heard of the Blazing Fifties, they were legendary amongst workers.

Having been trapped by a methane explosion in one of the sewers they had not only dug their way free, but they had also put out the blaze and rescued several other companies whilst doing so. As a result, they'd been given the honour badge of the number fifty wreathed in flames. All original members had it emblazoned on their uniforms and some even had it hovering above their heads as an Honour Glyph.

Not these members though. Aside from their company numbers there was nothing to indicate they were considered to be elite.

Maybe that was the best way to go about things though. If no-one could see you were something special, then they'd be certain to underestimate you. She filed that thought away for another time. Wool-gathering in the presence of people such as these wasn't a good idea. Her stomach knotted at the sudden pressure she felt. If she'd had the balls to SASS them, she was sure she'd find skills she'd never imagined existed, and levelled up to the max. All that just before they killed her with their thumbs.

"So," rasped Bob once Andries had finally lapsed into silence. "You and your little one 'ere went into remote sewers to find a bunch of lost workers. You found and fought jiangshi and a ghoul. Got your arses pretty much 'anded to you, then returned back 'ere following the same fucking route you took in?" His huge hands cracked as they formed into fists. "Didn't I teach you nothin' of use?"

"Yes," said a very much subdued Andries. Winston chuckled, his whole body shaking.

"Man, you fucked up. And you were this close to getting out too!" he pinched his fingers so that they almost touched, shaking his head, lips pursed.

Mai shot a glance to Andries, who had hung his head.

"How close were you?" she asked.

"I just needed one thousand to pay off my debt to the Celestial Court. After that, I'd have been a free man," he muttered, wiping his eyes.

"Only you wouldn't have been. You still owe, what, three thousand to No-Knees? One kay to Hood. And how much to Little Sue?" sighed Virtus.

"That doesn’t matter though, does it. I'd have been a free man working off debts I chose to incur. Not debts caused by my shitty family. Fuck it. Will you help or not?"

"Only when a bounty has been offered. None of these pussies," Bob jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the rest of the canteen, "would even dare to attempt it. And it'll take the urbexers a little while to get here and sort their bearings."

"But we can't just let them keep killing people!" gasped Mai.

"Yes, we fucking can. Nearly everyone here is here because they made shitty life choices. They could have changed their minds and improved their lot, but no. They had to be dicks. And not even clever dicks at that. Most people are able to do good and bad things, soak up the punishment and keep going. I mean, just look at you. You're barely an adult and you're indentured. Your choices put you here. As did mine before you try and point that out." He glowered at her.

Mai closed her mouth with a snap. His glower was enough to make even the bravest of the brave balk.

"And so," Bob continued when he was certain he wasn't going to be interrupted. “We wait until there's a bounty. And it has to be a good one. There's twelve of us in this party. We're going to split it evenly by the way. No negotiation."

"Fine," sighed Andries. "Even shares. Shares of dead members go to their families if they have them, if not they get split between the survivors. And we wait."

***

It turned out they didn't have to wait long. Panic spread like wildfire after a whole sewer party of ten workers was found massacred in a relatively well-used part of the sewers. The hallmarks of jiangshi and ghouls were there. A particularly popular boss was also killed.

BOUNTY MISSION - HUNT THE HUNTERS

500 UC PER BEAST

DO YOU ACCEPT YES/NO?

TRACK PROGRESS ON SCOREBOARD

There was a collective gasp in the canteen Mai was in as the message popped up. Everyone present knew that if they were able to solo the bounty there was the chance they would be able to clear their debts. Looking around, Mai could see people already selecting the YES option, hope shining in their eyes.

They're dead and they don't know it, she thought as she opened up the scoreboard. It was filling quickly. The first set of names were solos. It listed the first and last name of each signed up sewer worker along with their number. Then parties started to appear. Bad Apples, Blazing Unicorns, Extra-terrestrials, Scavs. She blinked it off as it started to flicker, updating so quickly she couldn’t track it.

ANDRIES LOUWS, #32059234 HAS INVITED YOU TO JOIN HIS PARTY - DESPERADOS

DO YOU ACCEPT

YES/NO?

She selected YES.

WELCOME TO THE DESPERADOS, YOU NOW HAVE ACCESS TO PARTY CHAT.

DO YOU ACCEPT BOUNTY MISSION - HUNT THE HUNTERS?

YES/NO?

Again, she selected YES. A guideline, purple in colour appeared, showing the fastest route to get to Andries and the party. Opening her minimap she saw other members of the group already heading towards him. Taking one last look around at the people in the canteen, she set off.

***

"I don't understand, with everyone signing up, how's the work going to be done?" she asked as the party entered the sewers.

“Those that aren’t going on the bounty hunt mission will be reformed into work parties and sent to deal with the worst of the fat bergs. Everyone else will be docked pay for every day they take off,” replied Bob. “I guess they think the reward is worth the risk.”

Mai looked at the others with her, they looked utterly amazing. Bob had a shockingly vibrant pink and white armoured hazmat suit with cat’s ears on the top which he’d said doubled as comms antenna and cameras, whilst also wielding a Fat Cutter he'd called Sue.

"Take a look," he'd said when he spotted her ogling it. Somewhat gingerly she'd taken it. It vibrated gently, blades at both ends. It was also much lighter than the one she used. Her retinal HUD listed it as FAT BANE. Opening up her menu, she did a quick search.

Fat Bane

An unrivalled tool which is marvellous for carving through fat - and mythical beasts - as if they were made of paper. The dual blades vibrate on a molecular level, meaning that they can cleave through fat bergs with ease, and even metal. Their lightness means a worker can harvest +20% more fat per shift. And if it has to be used to fight mythical beasts such as the fantastical Mogwai, it causes BLEED @10% PER SECOND, and PANIC.

Twenty per cent extra per shift! That meant even if she was struggling to actually carve out enough fat, she could hit target. And if she actually hit target without using that bonus, then it would give her an additional. twenty per cent which would be twenty extra credits. With this she could earn thirty credits a day. Three days of work in one. Her mouth practically watered. With that much money, she could be home and back with her sister far faster.

"How the hells do I get a tool like this!" she had asked as she had handed it back somewhat reluctantly.

"Level up your Sewer Worker's skill. That, and a few others. We don't have time now, but if you take time to look at the tool, then click on the sub-menu for REQUIREMENTS and you'll see it. Haven't you read your primer?"

She'd gritted her teeth at that and made a mental note to read the primer as soon and as quickly as she could.

"Body," Virtus' voice brought her back to the present. Originally sporting a massive Afro, she'd swapped it for a much shorter cut in order to fit her helmet on. Her suit, jet black, meant that she was nearly totally invisible in the darker sections. If it wasn't for the minimap marking her, Mai would have walked straight past her a couple of times. Virtus and a couple of others had taken point, pushing ahead of the main group by up to one hundred paces at times depending on the depth of the river. It meant that they could warn of any impending attack, and still hold off long enough for the rest of the workers to reach them.

Looking around as the party advanced to where Virtus waited for them, Mai was impressed by the skill of her fellow bounty hunters. They moved as if the river of effluent was actually water, melding with the darkness as if they were part of it, no matter what the colour of their armour. She had thought that Bob's would have made him stand out, but it didn't, he was just as hard to spot. Compared to them, she was like a Gorbull in a china shop as the old saying went.

"What we got Virtus?" asked Andries as they finally joined the scouts.

"Solo, they were scratched off the scoreboard about thirty minutes ago," Virtus' head didn't stop moving as she continued to check the area, the other workers fanning out to provide a cordon. "Good news for us is that it means we're on the right path. Bad news for them though. I'll tag the body for retrieval. She had family."

"Won’t everyone who's accepted the bounty be coming this way?" Mai felt stupid asking the question in the presence of the others, but it had been niggling at the back of her mind ever since they set off.

"No. The guidelines only point to a vague area, just like last time. And," Virtus paused, hands waving through the air as she checked her minimap, "that area's just been expanded. Heads up people, we're in the BOUNTY ZONE!"

You could have cut the tension with a knife. All around, the members of the party took on a stillness that spoke of contained violence which would explode at the drop of a hat.

"Virtus, you and your scouts push forward a maximum of twenty paces from now on. Rear-guard, drop back ten paces. If we reach a side tunnel, the scouts hold until the main party reaches it, then push forward. The main party holds until the rear guard reaches it. Understood?" ordered Bob. He was de-facto leader. She and Andries were there for the ride. Secretly, Mai wished that Bob had been assigned to her as a mentor. As much as he both scared and intimidated her, he was far better suited to mentoring than Andries appeared to be. Maybe Sun had paired him with her to help him clear his debt?

Everyone acknowledged the order in their own way, Virtus moving ahead with her scouts whilst the rest of them waited for the gap to be sufficiently large enough. Then the main body, six including her and Andries, started moving again. Shortly after, Mai heard the rear guard start to follow them. Not a word was said, everything was done by hand signals using the Sewer Worker sign language. Good thing I at least got through that portion of the Primer! Limbs shaking, mouth dry, Mai sucked on her suit's straw, drawing in the warm water.

"Incoming!" Virtus' warning went across the entire party chat. She pinged the approaching enemy and two red dots appeared on Mai's minimap. In addition, a red diamond with a red dot in the middle appeared on her retinal monitor. Moving swiftly, the enemy creatures reached Virtus and her scouts mere seconds after her warning. "Ghouls!"

"Rear guard move up, hold here," a green dot appeared on Mai's minimap as Bob marked where he wanted the rear three members of their party to go. "Main group, arrow formation, Mai and Andries left and right rear." A diagram appeared on her retinal monitor, showing her exactly where she should go. Without a word the others formed up, a gap of a couple of paces between them so that they could wield their weapons safely.

"You okay?" commed Andries over private chat as the whole group moved towards the battling scouts.

"Shitting myself, you?"

"Ditto, stay frosty."

"Always."

The scouts were making short work of the ghouls. Virtus was dual wielding what looked like small pickaxes, and she appeared to shimmer as she moved around the ghouls. The other two scouts were using a fat cutter and a strange-looking maul with a hook on its head. Both ghouls were looking the worse for wear, each one's health bar had dropped out of the green zone and into the amber, indicating that they'd already taken forty per cent damage. Mai was impressed, it had taken those three scouts far less time to fight two ghouls than it had for her and Andries to fight just one.

It wasn't all one-sided however, one of the scouts was limping, his SOAK bar firmly in the red and his health pulsing. PANIC, POISON and BLEEDING glyphs hung over him as he tried to hobble out of the combat and let Bob's team move up. Just as the point of the arrow reached him, he slipped. It took only a second for him to regain his footing, but a second was all that was needed. Screeching in triumph, the nearest ghoul launched itself onto his back, maw opened wide. As soon as it landed, its mouth totally enveloped his head. In one fell move, the ghoul bit and immediately the man died, his health bar totally redding out before his now headless body even hit the floor.

"No!" roared Bob. He dropped to his knees, sliding towards the ghoul as it spat the worker's head to the ground. Leaning back under two vicious swipes by the ghoul's claws, Bob continued to slide straight under and between the ghoul's legs. His blade flashed, white ichor filled the air, and the ghoul's nearly bisected body dropped lifelessly to the ground.

KILL ASSIST!

+50UC

She felt slightly guilty at that. So far she'd done nothing to help the party, and yet she was being acknowledged. Then again, neither had Andries and he'd no doubt received the same acknowledgement, and bounty.

"Wings, push forward!" Bob ordered. Mai blinked, unsure what he meant until the rest of the main group moved forward until they were in line with Bob, completely sealing off the tunnel.

"This bastard's mine! No one attack!" Ordered Virtus, dancing circles around the lone ghoul. Every strike was calculated to cause as much pain and fear as possible, BLEEDING, STUNNED, and PANIC, glyphs appearing over the creature's head. And it couldn't even run. Every time it tried to escape, she put herself in front of it. White ichor leaked from countless wounds all over its body and one arm hung limp.

"Just kill the fucking thing or I'll do it myself," ordered Bob. "The more we fuck about, the bigger the chance that we'll get caught by the short and curlies."

"Fine!" Virtus launched herself into the air, clearing a good three paces, pickaxes above her head. As her knees slammed into the ghoul's chest, the pickaxes descended, burying themselves up to the haft in the ghoul's face. "Done."

KILL ASSIST!

+50UC

"Buck, move up from the rear guard, you're a scout now. Everyone else, maintain formation. There isn't a Buddha's right nut chance that battle wasn't 'eard by the rest of them."

"Twelve originally. Me and Mai killed two, these two make four. That means eight left. And the Progenitor," Andries said.

"Boy's got it right. Move up, stay frosty. They're not going to attack us piecemeal from now on. We're too strong. Scouts, advance."