A woman in white robes and finely trimmed hair walked down the avenue leading to the central plaza, her gaze swinging from right to left. On her eyes, a bulky, square device with hundreds of wires, some dangling, some wrapped around her symmetrical head, shone a blue light in her field of view. Tenner wouldn’t give this woman less than fifteen levels. And he’d call her one of the Priest’s Eyes.

If that white outfit doesn’t make it obvious. She stopped at an intersection and tugged at a cross hanging off her neck. Then that would do it, even for the dumbest of the dumbs.

Tenner waited in a restpit, snooping with the top of his head out. On the bench on the other end of the meter-deep hole in the ground, a katsymbus danced.

Evolution seemed to have given some cats fangs and instead of tails, slimy tentacles. The katsymbus found it as a key element to surviving in the city streets. Tenner found it disgusting.

I’d love a bite of that myself. Tenner returned to hiding and stared at a crispy dafa leg the katsymbus munched on. But this lone street scavenger worked hard for that leg! It deserves it all.

He was in the middle of a semicircle-shaped journey through half the Realm to avoid Kristus.

The priest’s church was pure evil condensed into a building and he still had more evil to unleash upon the world.

After meeting Sam Doctor, Tenner realized he needed to be as paranoid as the song, until he found who exactly were Kristus’ spies.

Ahead, a white line shot out of the Priest’s Eye’s cross, into the sky. The woman spoke and the line weaved. She stopped and it followed. Tugging the cross once more, the Priest’s Eye turned around. As the line disappeared, she walked to where she came from.

Tenner stared into the crossing, straining his eyes to make out every detail. His eyes would be shot with blood after this, but he had to find the faintest reflection of a blue cross, a guard in white perhaps hiding in the morning darkness. Ten seconds later, Tenner took a deep breath.

Not a sound echoed in the Realm. He sprung out of the respit, down the street then past the four-armed statue.

Clocks ticking over to six in the morning, a hundred-meter-long line waited in front of Centercity. A sense of grandness resonated from the district. The highrises, crisp holograms around them and the wall of neon ads protecting it all attracted Tenner.

It’s the closest I’ll get to exploring the city in the horizon of Realm 349, he thought. Once I’m the greatest bounty hunter and the world bends to my will, every part of it will be no worse than that illusion.

Chisel had mentioned getting in would prove to be the easiest part of the job. Piles of people tried squeezing through the narrow gate in the wall. Looks like they’re fleeing from a morono running wild. Tenner nodded to the bar-owner from the future. Yeah, nothing hard about waiting till they’ve squeezed in. Shame I’m not waiting.

He had the most important tasks in the world on his hands -- how could he let himself waste valuable time? The right to skip this line was as crucial as the right to deal in Stardestructor.

Tenner ran alongside the queue and a long echo of angry shouts followed him. Halfway down, he slipped in between two distracted people. At the same time, a hench tightened his belt and raised his eyes, making eye contact with Tenner. A warning echoed from his direction. Sighing, Tenner slipped out of the queue. A low caliber bullet away from the tip of his nose, a levita floated by, towards Centercity’s vehicle entrance. Tenner hopped on at the last second.

Nothing to see here, he thought, leaning to look into Centercity. Just a pilot… making sure everything’s fine with his vehicle.

Not even the wall of ads could hide the tallest structures of the district, yet the lowest ones and the streets themselves were incognito.

Tenner’s target waned on the other side of Centercity. No wonder he couldn’t see it from here.

His gaze descended to the vehicle gate. It was wide and uncrowded by hundreds of people that could waste his time. He wished he could ride past it. But Centercity makes sure it knows exactly what transport enters it -- massive scanners and armed Workers guarded it.

One look over the queue, and another towards the church later, Tenner slipped down to the side of the levita, thinking of his destination.

“Not how it seems, The Wonderful Yellow is in a not good state,” Chisel had said back at the bar. “It’s why I had to pretend to search for expired drinks to give to those three idiots at the counter.”

According to her, the bar had a constant flow of customers… and a constant flow of leaving employees. For seemingly no reason--or one she wouldn’t dare mention--half of her staff, even the old ones, had given up their professions. Many of those remaining used their bonuses a tad bit too much. The bartender, for example.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t’ve taken so long to make the drinks if not for the absolute lack of fucking supplies,” Chisel had continued, cursing somebody out under her breath. “Tenshot… Congratulations -- you are now the supply chain manager. Sounds boring? See, my bar has to remain a shadow that protects its clients. That makes your new job harder. You won’t have to get in a levita and transport some crates from another Realm: in part because you couldn’t and in part because I don’t need you to.”

Chisel had zoomed in on The Wonderful Yellow’s location on the map. “You’ll travel from The Bars to a building in Centercity. Imagine a white cube made from tiles divided by neon outlines. Now scale it up a thousand times. That’s the Harvest Headquarters and Warehouses. And it is your target.”

So it looks like that room with the robots and craboids, Tenner had noted.

Breaking into a Centercity building might seem dangerous, but he’d most likely die travelling through some of the busiest parts of the Realm whilst hunted by the church, Chisel had assured. If he was quick, none of it would happen during the busiest part of the day.

“In the warehouse, there’ll be Sections. All sorts of food and odd little creatures called Gerophoras in the 80th Section, you’ll find,” Chisel had concluded. “Get them to me. I don’t care how you do it, just be quick and I’ll be happy.”

They’d agreed on and made a deal. Credits and a way out through a secret passage.

Satisfied, Tenner readied to leave, but Sam Doctor’s request struck him. “I’ll need extra payment. Well, not payment, but you should reserve a few drinks for a certain client. One you don’t quite like,” he said.

“Damn, fuck him.” Chisel sighed. “But don’t worry, boy. You work for me, you get a tab and you can gift a tab to anybody.”

Yeah, fuck him, Tenner thought and got up, nodding. “You need speed and I’m the quickest you’ve seen. May you draw all aces. We’ll meet again soon.”

Only about twenty meters remained to Centercity’s entrance. Tenner tried hopping to another levita, slipped and almost fell under it. He managed to hold on and graciously land in the queue.His arm hit a mastermind waiting in line.

“Are you assaulting me?” the man said, raising his briefcase in front of his chest.

Tenner sliced through the mastermind with the sternest look he could manage. The briefcase changed from a thing protecting the man to a thing being hugged by the man.

Tenner turned back and rummaged through the remainder of the queue, leaving another trail of complaining people.

A large arch stood above the narrow tunnel into Centercity. In the entrance waited urchins. Trying to pick pockets and sell Gritty Thingy Row products at Centercity prices. A few Workers also waited. Scanners in hand, they’d pick people at random and take them somewhere.

Tenner’s instincts were unfamiliar with this place, yet caught on in an instant. The crowd had thickened to an impassable density. Even if he swung the axe around, he couldn’t get it to clear. That would attract attention, as well, and he tried avoiding that best as he could. He’d sneaked through half the realm and he could sneak through here too.

The only option was to wait like the rest. And to protect his pockets.

I can finish this job before Chisel wakes up, Tenner thought. I have to, else I’ll be really screwed. Though that won’t happen. No way can the soon to be greatest bounty hunter in the world mess up…

People crammed and bumped into Tenner and voices spoke all around. [Predator] tempted him, but the odd exhaustion hadn’t passed. Certainly, it weakened, but Tenner wouldn’t use it until it was gone. Fully gone. The usefulness of hyperfocus couldn’t be over exaggerated, but the side effects… they were one of the few things which could make Tenner feel even a shred of fear.

Something connected with his chest. Something more than a bump from a passerby. That feeling started crawling up and down, into his pockets. Tenner slammed his elbow into the source -- a sly hand of a man reading a newspaper. He retracted it and let out a quiet grunt. Then he adjusted the newspaper, making sure it’d hide his sour face.

Tenner slipped through the entrance and out of the dense crowd, relief that the Workers hadn’t noticed him washing over. He scouted out a spot away from anyone’s gaze and stared at the highrises.

[Congratulations! Gained perk: True Sneakiness]

Inside these walls, it was like a whole new Realm. The same feeling when I first left home. There was a clear view of the Electrical Tower: it connected with the Realm’s ceiling, creating the look of a tower that pierced the skies. Strands of wires hung off it, dividing into thousands of tiny ones which in turn connected almost all the buildings in the Realm. The antennas I saw atop this Realm must be the peak of that tower.

Back on street level, three classless sat. Arms out, holes in foreheads, they put up smiles seeing Tenner. As he stepped towards them, their expressions changed to “get out of here, you parasite.”

“Is Kristus in the district?”

Hisses came from the group.

“No and neither should you!”

“You shouldn’t be in our Realm!”

“There’s no place for you even on this planet!”

Tenner sighed. “What the preacher tell you?”

“The truth!”

“Seeing you is a sin and we must confess all of our sins!” One classless covered his eyes and muttered prayers.

“You killed! He himself will make us safe from your corruption.”

A bitter taste appeared in Tenner’s mouth. Kristus lied -- no surprise. But he sent his army of followers to chase me, scan the streets and find everything out about me.

Tenner stared over his shoulder. A blue light reflected off the building’s windows.

“You spineless spies…” He strode forward. “I don’t know what you told him. But this is what you deserve.”

Tenner kicked the classless’ chin. The beggar’s head smacked into the glass wall behind him. The glass wobbled. Blood spurted out of his mouth. Before he could open his eyes, Tenner grabbed his head and beat it into the wall twice more then stabbed the other two with a look of pure hatred in his eyes.

Now, blue light reflected off each surface -- an ad for a Frapuchnik exterminator.

“Huh.” Tenner turned back to the classless. “Don’t tell.”

In the middle of Centercity, a street wrapped around the biggest building in the Realm.

Twenty stories tall--with thousands of dark windows, pillars covered in odd inscriptions, and a pyramid shaped roof--the center of the city loomed like the clouds that hovered over the desolation.

Looks like a temple, Tenner thought.

To the right of it stood the Harvest headquarters.

Only four floors. He approached the building from its side.

A few workers, wearing suits with neon lines, entered and exited every minute. No guards or locked doors. Upon further inspection, there was something worse. Creatures.

I haven’t seen these.

[Name: Tamed Blogogo

HP: 400]

[Non-C creature]

And thank goodness for that. He backed off, laughing at the insane strength. It was a humanoid, covered in gray and black fur that went bald where its huge muscles bulged.

Chisel’s words came back to him. If he’d face one of these things, he’d have to plan the fight out. Use his CHEK to its fullest. Until now, he’d dominated every fight, but at the same time, hadn’t faced foes like this.

A caped brown cloak covered a passerby. They’d fit perfectly in a world that was drained of colors and in a neverending rainstorm. Staring at the ground, this stranger jogged down the same street Tenner stood on, then stopped right in front of the Harvest headquarters. Tenner crossed his arms. Murmurs riffed from their mouth as they overlooked the building then they slouched, turned and bumped into Tenner.

“Hey, mind not hitting me?!” He yelped, stumbling out of their way.

The person mumbled a faint apology and entered an alley, swiftly removing themselves from the street.

Tenner checked his pockets to make sure he hadn’t lost anything then opened the CHEK. A moment later, he dismissed it: another person, in the exact same coat, yet dyed red, walked by, looked at the Harvest headquarters and walked away.

Tenner’s instincts shot from his gut to his legs. He followed the stranger. I just saw what I did. Once the wannabe noir detective made a turn he waited half a minute, and did so as well. Unless the perks are screwing with my mind. But I can feel that that’s not the case.

Something weird, related to Harvest, was happening. And he’d find out what. No one wants to jump into the cage of a creature just before countless other monsters get thrown in.

A few blocks away from the Harvest building, in an alley squished between Centercity towers, the cloaked person finally stopped. The part of the passage had no turns or lights: just the musty windows into the first-floor server rooms of the towers on both sides.

Why’d he have to stop here? Tenner froze, ten meters behind the person. Don’t turn around. Seriously, you’ll have a chance at... a good ending then.

The cloak didn’t move. Lots of possibilities why -- very few in Tenner’s favor.

He’d already gone off-course, certain he would compensate for the time this little oddity wasted. Though if the person noticed…

The short moment dragged into centuries. The ten meter distance between them turned into a few centimeters. Tenner’s mind spawned a stage under his feet, a spotlight on his face and a jury that judged from a shadow out of his vision.

The hammer of justice struck.

The brown cloak walked up to the red, tapped their shoulder and brought them after themselves, to a right turn farther up in the alley. This makes as much sense as… Well, it doesn’t.

***

The alley squished between Centercity towers wrapped up in a levita lot, surrounded by buildings and cargo. A broken down levita rested in the middle. A campfire burned in front of it and bandits, wearing the combinations of cloaks and leather jackets, sat by the flame, scheming. On the vehicle’s withered walls, Tenner could make out a graffitied name -- The Rusty Levita.

Brown cloak took red’s hood off.

Thick strands of wires and hundreds of little gadgets fitted the robotic head.

Brown inspected it then threw a thumb up to the other bandits.

Fucking bandits? And robots?! Tenner gritted his teeth. All trying to break into the same place as me... The smell of rust and the heat of the fire tempted him to finish the collection of senses with the taste of blood. Then his nail stabbed into his thumb. Crimson dripped down and he gave it a lick.

There, that good enough? Tenner would have to think straight -- make compromises. These people were the scum of the earth, but they’d prove to be useful.

[Klitch Summons

LVL: 15

HP: 340

Class: mastermind]

[Perks: Frontman III, Laser Me, Baby, ????]

Klitch took his brown hood off and revealed a face fitted with a glorious moustache and long, half-white, half-black hair dripping down the left of his head.

Looks like the leader. Tenner approached, opened the perks screen and took a good look at the list. Should be easy to trick. If something went wrong, [Being vs Machine = Being] and [I Fight or I Die] would come in useful. Especially if they had abilities like [Predator] did.

In front of the fire, a bandit noticed Tenner. “Who the fuck are you?” His head was bald and his leather jacket -- full of burn holes.

“Name’s Tenshot. What’s yours?”

“Check it and answer: who are you really?”

[Gibby James

LVL: 9

HP: 240

Class: hench]

Tenner cleared his throat. “Well, a wanderer... Looking for jobs.”

“I’m not sure you actually came looking for a job in a Centercity levita lot.” Klitch waved for Gibby to go easy, walked up to Tenner and extended his arm for a handshake. “And I didn’t believe I could find someone to fill a position today, Tenshot.”

Tenner shook the leader’s hand and forced a grin.

“Am I hearing this right?” Gibby frowned. “You get how fishy he is? You just said it yourself -- a random comes into a parking lot for no reason and you welcome him with open arms?!”

“The fishier, the better. Always can trust a wildcard to bring another perspective.” Klitch shot Gibby a sharp look. “Though I’m just being humble. Maybe I won’t ever see Tenshot again. He doesn’t even know what the Rusty Levita is, who the Hoods of Centercity are, let alone what they’re doing.”

“Better keep it like that.”

“I’d rather get caught by a friend than an enemy.” Klitch turned back to Tenner. “So, why the hell did you really come here?”

“I’m really a wanderer. I’m not looking for a job as much as I’m looking around. This place just had a trail of weird clues leading to it.”

“Trail of weird clues,” Klitch mumbled while his brow furrowed.

“Harvest.”

That simple word shot everyone else’s out of their mouths. For a moment, the tongues of Rusty Levita’s bandits scrambled to find words.

“Harvest... What about it?”

“You’re planning something. I am too. Something shady.” Tenner picked his words carefully. “Something cloaked. Something that needs a robot.”

“You’re serious as the ground under our feet, Tenshot. And right. Shadiness is going down and we’ve got everything ready. It’ll be like entering through the front door, but it’ll be in the back and we’ll actually walk through the wall. That plan’s great, but not perfect: still needs one hand.”

“Get me in, set me free and tow me back exactly when you need me.”

“You’re sharp as a bullet too.” Klitch nodded as he walked to the campfire. “Sit. You’re in. But we’ve got time to burn, plans to understand and seriousness to blunt.”