The rats came at us in waves, with as many as a dozen of them appearing at once every couple of minutes. But most of the time they appeard in pairs. Every so often, a level 2, Slightly Less Common Rat was in the mix. They were slightly faster and bigger than the level 1s but died just as fast as the others. Trix’s psy points didn’t regain fast enough to keep using her flame attack against the onrushing rats. But we found a metal pole in an alley that worked well against the vermin. Pole in hand, Trix could kill them without my help, which sped up our rat extermination work.

  She didn’t like bashing vermin brains, but she didn’t complain when she hit level 4.

  TRIX: How should I spend the four points from my level gain?

  WILL: Four points?

  Trix gave me an oops look.

  WILL: You get four points? Tell me again why we picked Data Pirate, the class that only gets two points each level.

  TRIX: It’s worth it. There’s equipment boosts level stat gains.

  WILL: Like what?

  TRIX: Uh, I don’t know. It’s pretty rare, but

  I shook my head.

  WILL: I get two stats, and my ring burns a charisma stat each level. So, it’s really like I get one stat.

  TRIX: That’s not good.

  WILL: That’s what I’m saying. I won’t be unlocking any of my class’s best abilities any time soon. Or maybe ever.

  TRIX: But you’re alive! That’s more than a lot of players can say!

  WILL: Yeah, maybe you’re right. And we can farm these rats until we’re tough enough to rip Mukari apart and advance to the next quadrant.

  TRIX: Uh, what?

  WILL: We’ll farm the rats for as long as it takes. And I’ll use up all my Snoops on big guards when we pass them on the street. This is easy mode. A few weeks or months and we’ll be ready.

  Trix raised an eyebrow.

  TRIX: You know we’ve only got five days before the next Big Crunch, right?

  WILL: Big Crunch? Is that a brand of cereal?

  TRIX: If you’d listened to your game guide like a normal person, you would have known about this.

  WILL: Just tell me what it is.

  TRIX: It solved the problem of players retiring.

  WILL: Retiring?

  TRIX: They’d get outta the grind and off the grid. Find a cozy apartment to hole up in and forget this is all an illusion.

  WILL: How would that work?

  TRIX: There’s plenty of movies to watch and drugs to take. And it was better than dying.

  WILL: So we have five days until, what, everything’s nuked in this quadrant?

  TRIX: That wouldn’t make for very good TV. They send in a paramilitary force and hunt everyone.

  WILL: No kidding?

  TRIX: The last purge was a week or two before I landed in here.

  We heard the sound of scampering again, and I let out a sigh of frustration.

  WILL: These stupid rats make it hard to have a conversation.

  We turned around to see a flood of rats surrounding a swarthy, hooded figure with a sword and scabrous, weeping skin. Darius, The Lord of Rats – Level 7. I snooped him immediately to get an advantage, but I didn’t get access. Instead, I got dizzy and had to close my eyes for a few seconds.

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  TRIX: Are you gonna Snoop him or what? Hey, are you okay.

  I heard the sound of a pole connecting with one and then two rats and then the dizziness passed.

  “You believe The Lord of Rats has a weak mind?” said Darius. “Curious.”

  Darius unsheathed his sword, Rat’s Tooth. It caught the light from the streetlight and reflected a green pall.

  I could still Snoop two more times today. I didn’t know if it would work, but I selected the ability twice and used it against Darius. He caught my eyes and grimaced, and I started to feel dizzy, but broke through this time.

  WILL: Watch out for his sword. It has a 6% chance to inflict poison.

  Trix smashed another rat.

  TRIX: I guessed it’d have something like that from the name. What else you got.

  WILL: His armor rating increases by 1 for every rat in close proximity to him. With no rats, he’s defenseless.

  TRIX: Then lets kill some rats!

  I could feel Darius studying us and wondered if he had his own way to see our stats.

  WILL: Keep backing away from him until we’ve cleared the rats.

  Though Darius was clearly not weak minded, his rats were dumb as rocks. Darius seethed with anger every time a rat broke from the pack to meet my bat or Trix’s pole. Still surrounded by over a dozen rats, Darius made a dangerous move, running low to the ground and then springing at me with the glowing Rat’s Tooth. I met his steel with wood and the blow took a big chunk out of my bat. He raised his wield for another blow, but I was faster, connecting with a solid swing into his side. He backed up, holding his weapon up in a defensive posture.

  While Darius was distracted fighting me, Trix killed rats. He turned to see Trix fell one of the last rats and then, to our surprise, laughed.

  “What’s so funny, Darius?” I asked, taking a step closer.

  “The Lord of the Rats has come! Soon, my companions will feast on your flesh!” He whistled loud and shrill and dozens more rats appeared. Some squeezed out of utility grates on the ground. Some scampered in from alleyways. Others formed out of thin air. Darius’ armor was noticeably bulkier now. It looked like he was wearing three full-length puffer jackets at once, with chainmail hung over top. He took small, waddling steps and looked perpetually off balance.

  TRIX: Time to cut and run?

  WILL: Maybe not. Look how slow he is now. Just keep away from him and the rats, and don’t kill more rats than you have to. I’m going to sneak around behind him.

  TRIX: Wait, you’re leaving? Can we talk about this plan?

  A rat sped at Trix and she swiped it away with her pole, knocking it against the base of a supertall.

  WILL: See, no problem. Distract Darius if you can.

  Trix shot a dark look at me, and I stepped into the shadows, circling my way silently behind Darius.

  “Your feeble friend has left you to die,” Darius said to Trix.

  TRIX: Hitting him with flame now.

  “You witch,” said Darius, as he stripped off a burning puffer jacket. “You’re just dragging things out. Rat Swarm!”

  TRIX: Uh oh.

  I was ten feet behind him now, Keel’s Knife gripped tight, and saw his horde of summoned rats rush at Trix. I closed the distance between myself and Darius and then thrust the knife between his shoulder blades. The sharp tip broke his chainmail, slipped through his layers, and found flesh. I heard him gurgle and then he slumped over, his poison blade clattering against the concrete. As he died, half of the rats he’d summoned vanished as suddenly as they’d appeared. The others scurried away, screeching as they ran. Trix was left standing alone in the light of a streetlight with several dead rats littered around her feet.

  Thinking that maybe I’d learn something useful, I used Weapon’s Lore on Darius’ gleaming weapon.

  Rat’s Tooth.

  Once upon a time there was a particularly ill-tempered but small rat named Boil. Because he was so small, all the other rats would knock him away and always gnawed on anything decent before he could push his way in. So, Boil decided to leave the company of the other rats and live on his own. He found an old, hollow tree and moved in, and there he stayed, never to see another rat again in his sad, little rat existence. He grew more and more bitter with each passing day, thinking poisonous thoughts about his hate for all the other rats in the world until he was so miserable his little rat heart stopped beating and that was the end of Boil. This weapon was made by fusing all his teeth and hate together into one blade.

  It was a little depressing to know how thoroughly useless Weapon’s Lore was, even at level 3. That had provided exactly nothing helpful beyond what I already knew from reading the weapon’s regular description.

  WILL: You should take that Rat’s Tooth.

  TRIX: Yuck, no thanks. That’s a really weird suggestion, Will.

  WILL: No, the Rat’s Tooth is Darius’ sword. The one with the chance to inflict poison.

  TRIX: Oh, right. Yeah, I’ll take it.

  Besides Rat’s Tooth and a few hundred credits, Darius didn’t have much else, and what he did have smelled like it was soaked in rat urine. I guess that’s life for a rat summoner.

  WILL: Trix, are you tired?

  TRIX: If that’s your idea of a pick-up line, you need to try harder.

  WILL: Stop. I just want to know, do people get tired in here? Because it’s the middle of the night, and I’m not even a little tired.

  TRIX: I tried to sleep the first few nights but I could never. That’s all I wanted to do, close my eyes and let this world sink away for a few hours.

  WILL: Where did you go?

  TRIX: We’d pool our money and stay wherever we could afford, usually a coffin hotel. If we didn’t bring in enough, we’d climb the fire escape to an abandoned studio.

  WILL: You miss Jagger and the rest?

  TRIX: A little.

  WILL: I’m sorry I killed them.

  TRIX: Don’t be sorry. They would have killed you.

  I noticed she said they. But she’d cheered them on during the fight. She’d even knocked me down to protect Jagger. And no sooner than they’d died, she’d teamed up with their killer—me. What did that say about Trix? I pushed the thought away. What did the past matter? We were working together now. That would have to be enough.