I had spawned, along with the 9 other survivors from the 2nd Floor game, in front of a building labeled the Captain’s Office. Looking around, I quickly spotted Barnett, Darrin, and Caleb.

They spotted me just as quickly and headed toward me. “So, how are we going to play this? Are you three going to cooperate?”

“I said I’d be your ally in the last round,” said Barnett, “there’s every reason to keep that going now.”

“Before I joined the game, I’d always survived by hugging the thighs of the powerful,” said Darrin, “changing that now would be a losing strategy even if you are a human.”

I looked at Caleb. “You can’t eat pride,” he said, “and you can’t heal your wounds with it. I’ll do what I must to survive.”

“All right,” I said, “I’ll trust you, because I know that you know what I’m capable of should you betray that trust. I’m going to head into the Office. Unless I miss my guess, there should be things there that will help me figure out how the hell to work this place. While I’m doing that, do your best to get the other six to agree to cooperate too. Our first main objective is to win through this round with zero deaths, so no teamkills if they argue or whatever. Got it?”

“As you say,” said Darrin.

“Got it, boss,” said Caleb.

“Right!” said Barnett.

“Less of the boss stuff. We’re teammates. You can’t eat arrogance either, or use it to win this game.”

Caleb nodded. I headed into the Captain’s Office. Actually, I already knew the mechanics of this place from Bruzigan’s briefings, but I needed privacy for what I was really about to do.

I opened my game screen. The tab for viewing the audience chat, which had been absent on the 2nd Floor, had returned.

Along with my private message from AzurePrincess, the scammer. I cast Imbue Persuasion and spoke. “Princess, are you listening?”

[AzurePrincess: Yes. As promised, I’ll help you through this round, don’t worry.]

“Actually, I have a humble request in regards to that.”

[AzurePrincess: Oh?]

“I came to the agreement with you because I wanted to level the playing field. That’s what I want for this round, and the next—a level playing field. I want to be treated like any other participant, no more, no less.”

[AzurePrincess: That’s asking a lot. I’ve already invested quite a bit in you, to get you the Inquisitor role in the last round. And now you’re asking me to refrain from protecting my investment?]

“I’m going to be your bodyguard, right? Would I really be worthwhile as that if I need you to protect me?

Besides, it’ll be more amusing for you if you let me struggle, right? That’s what this whole hobby of yours is about, isn’t it? Your amusement?”

[AzurePrincess: You’re not wrong...]

The chat didn’t update for over a minute. When it did...

[AzurePrincess: Very well. As long as I see you are handling things adequately on your own, I will not intervene.]

[AzurePrincess: Just remember, I’ve already bought you from the game organization, pending your survival. This gesture is nothing but refusing my kindness.]

Yeah, that’s the entire point. I’m sending a message, and not to you. My objective was to catch the eye of a human resistance movement that, according to known data about the scenario of the first 4 floors, existed within Throskart society. One that had no use for a human who really was willing to be a slave, but if I showed that I wasn’t the sort to hug the thigh of a master, that I was willing to fight not just for my life but for my freedom, I was hoping that would be another story.

Still, it was a long shot. I’d wracked my brain trying to come up with anything else I could do to prevent or mitigate the betrayal on the 4th Floor, but I had nothing so far.

That done, I sat at the desk in the Captain’s Office. There was a touchscreen here. Using it, I confirmed that the outpost was as my briefings had described, and took a look at its layout, using a map screen.

The Captain’s Office was situated in the epicenter of the compound. The power generation facility was nearby, underground. Also nearby, above ground, was a building that acted as a storehouse/vault for our supplies and whatever treasure we found. Living quarters and a kitchen were located a ways south.

A communications center—which would give the outpost access to the “shop” as well as provide us with ways to communicate with each other remotely, if we purchased them, was in the east sector.

In the west sector, there was a building that held the controls to certain defenses that would prevent monsters from assaulting the compound’s protective dome, which they would otherwise do during the night. Finally, the north sector held an airlock of sorts from which expeditions to search for treasure could set forth.

The entire place was set up so that, excepting the airlock, a certain menial task had to be performed regularly, or else we would lose the benefits of that area—benefits that ranged from highly inconvenient to lose to absolutely vital to continued living. And instead of having a sensible system for this, I had to assign a single teammate to each task with the touchscreen every day.

Some tasks would need to be done every day, but others wouldn’t. And there was one final wrinkle: I had to assign people to each day’s expedition too. At least with that one, I could include myself. But I could only assign as many team members as the outpost had sets of cold weather gear.

When I left the office, looking at the rest of “my team,” I had a question. “So,” I said to my trio of allies, “they seem scared of me.”

“Well of course,” said Caleb.

“You guys threatened them with how strong I am, didn’t you...”

“Is that not what you wanted?”

“I mean, not necessarily, but I guess I should have anticipated this is how you guys would handle it. So, then.” Now, I turned to address the whole team. I cast Imbue Persuasion again first, then this time, I also activated the Active trait ability Aura of Intellect:

Passive: Floor natives are more likely to perceive you as a civilized person.

Active: Floor natives become more susceptible to attempts to reason with them. Lasts 5 minutes. Cooldown: 8 hours.

“Okay, guys, look. I don’t know what they were saying about me exactly, but as long as nobody does something really stupid or tries to sabotage the group, you won’t have to worry about any of that. I’m actually a pretty amiable guy...except when I’m not. I don’t want to show you guys ‘not’ any more than you want to see it.

I get it. Y’all hate me, because I’m human. But I’m a human who more or less knows what he’s doing here, which I’m sure is more than a lot of the other outposts have right now. I don’t intend to boss you around or throw my weight around or whatever. What I intend is simple: that the ten of us get through this alive. Not just alive, but through to the next round in excellent position.

The team captain can’t be replaced if they die. And in this game, if the captain dies, you’ll be screwed. I don’t expect you to like the situation you’re in. But I do expect you to do what is necessary for all of us to stay alive, and that’s cooperate with me.

Those are your only choices right now. Hate, or live. Don’t screw us all over just to screw me over. That’s all I ask. For now, you all can take a short time to check out the living quarters. I’ll check our starting supplies, then we’ll discuss the first role assignments.”

The charisma effects seemed to work, thank goodness. All the others, some grudgingly some not, seemed willing to keep from making trouble for now. I turned to the trio. “Now, let’s check the storage vault, see what we have to work with.”