Blake rested on the couch in his mother’s office, one of the few items that survived his temper an hour before. While he lounged, she summarized the events he missed over the last twenty-four hours while he conversed with the Architect.

  “So far, about eight hundred people from the Apache Nation have arrived here since your speech yesterday. They’re still getting settled into the bunkhouses with their belongings, but I’ve invited all of them to the faction.” Donna took a breath. “Chairman Tessay asked about the potential of creating a town specifically for the Apache people. I told him I’d have to talk to you.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Blake nodded. “He’s already in a position of leadership, he trusted us enough to help us out, and we need a third chancellor for our next expansion anyway. I say we see how well he follows our rules over the next few weeks. If he’s a team player, I’ll make him Chancellor.”

  “About the rules,” Donna frowned. “Are you sure we shouldn’t make them more detailed? They’re kind of vague.”

  Blake shook his head. “That’s on purpose, people already know right from wrong. We just need to let them know what the punishments will be for breaking them.”

  “I don’t really feel comfortable acting as both judge and jury,” she admitted.

  “Chancellors are the ultimate authority in a town,” Blake replied. “And, dispensing justice is your most important job. You can delegate a lot of your duties to others, but not that one. You’re the only one besides me who can remove people from the faction, or fine them.”

  His mother still looked uncomfortable and frowned at her notebook. “Can’t we create a new position that has access to that?”

  Blake shook his head. “No, and I wouldn’t want to. I made you chancellor because I trust you completely. That, and you have experience managing people and projects.”

  “Managing people, sure, but this is deciding whether they live or die. I’m not sure if I can do that.”

  “Is it the death penalty that bothers you?” Blake asked quietly as he shifted on the couch.

  Donna nodded. “That and banishing people. They’re essentially the same thing.”

  “No, they’re not,” Blake disagreed. “We offer shelter, food, and safety, and all we ask is that people follow basic rules of decency. If they can’t do that, then they can take their chances outside. It’s also not a death sentence. Remember, I lived on my own for weeks before I joined a faction.”

  Donna smiled. “I’m not sure other people are as capable as you.”

  “Back then, I wasn’t either. I was pissed off and desperate. I had no clue what I was doing, but I still survived. People are stronger than you think.”

  “That’s fair,” she reluctantly agreed. “But, why do we need the death penalty at all? Why not just banish them, too?”

  Blake looked his mother in the eyes. In a soft voice, he replied, “Because some people are just too evil to live. They do things so horrible, it would be a crime to unleash them on others.”

  Donna massaged her temples and sighed. Blake saw how uncomfortable she was and changed the subject. “So, the Architect said it would create some kind of social media section of the interface.”

  His mother raised a brow. “Finally ready to talk about your trip? Is that what you talked about for twenty-four hours? Social media?”

  Blake laughed. “If only. No, I was only there for about thirty minutes total. You can tell because my body still hasn’t healed.”

  “That didn’t seem to stop you from destroying my office,” she looked pointedly at the kindling that used to be her desk, and then to the giant holes in her wall.

  Blake blushed. “Sorry. I got a little mad when it forced a new title on me.”

  “A little mad?” she shook her head. “That’s an understatement. I thought you were going to try to control that temper of yours?”

  Blake snorted. “Check my name on the faction roster, what do you see?”

  Donna’s eyes glazed over as she navigated her interface. A moment later, she read off, “Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity, Ambassador to the Architect.” His mother turned to look at Blake in confusion. “Ambassador? What does that mean?”

  “It means once per threshold, I can meet with the Architect,” he explained with a scowl.

  “What’s a threshold again?”

  “There’s one between level nine and ten, twenty-four and twenty-five, and then who knows what’s after that. In order to pass through it, you have to complete a bunch of directives, get materials, and then have an alchemist make you a threshold elixir.”

  “So, you can’t exactly call it up for a chat,” she replied dryly. “Did your meeting count towards that limit?”

  Blake shook his head. “No, the skill says it’s available.”

  Donna leaned forward. “What’s the Architect like?”

  He shrugged. “I have no clue, it’s all about manipulation, and it made itself look like a British guy having tea. Said it chose that avatar to calm me down.”

  His mother laughed. “I don’t think it worked.”

  Blake smiled. “No, it didn’t.”

  “It sounds like that title could be useful. Why are you so mad about it?”

  “Because everywhere I go, everyone will know I’m tied to the Architect. I can tell them all day that I hate its guts, but who’s gonna believe me when I’m its Ambassador?”

  Donna frowned. “You think people will attack you because of the title?”

  “They might, but I don’t really care about that. I can take care of myself. I’m more worried about them attacking my faction when I’m not around.”

  “Won’t the shield keep us safe?”

  “Sure, but Jessica doesn’t have one yet, we want to build another expansion, and people will have to leave town sometime. There’s going to be lots of scavenging going on.”

  His mother nodded and then asked, “So, why is the Architect attacking Earth?”

  “It claims we made our own AI that was about to kill us all, and it saved us so we could fight some other aliens from outside the galaxy. Evidently, they’re intent on destroying everything.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “You sound like you don’t believe it,” she remarked.

  “It could be true,” he admitted. “But, even if it’s all bullshit, it doesn’t matter. It can kill us all any time it wants. We’re essentially it’s playthings, we have to do what it wants, or we die. It literally took control of my body just to show me it could.”

  Donna swallowed nervously.“What does it want?”

  “For us to grow strong enough that we can fight the alien invaders.”

  “The other alien invaders?” she clarified. “The ones from outside the galaxy?”

  He snorted. “Yeah.”

  “Well, at least our goals align,” she pointed out.

  “Not really,” he disagreed. “If we don’t make it happy, it’ll turn us into scenario fodder like the Goblins, Stoltar, or any other failed species.”

  “Why would it do that?”

  “To make some other species stronger,” he answered.

  She frowned. “So, what will you do so that doesn’t happen?”

  “Well, first I’m going to heal up a bit more. It’s still kind of hard to move around right now. Then I figure I’ll say hi to the new people, organize some scavenging teams, and then head out to see Jessica with some trucks.”

  “To escort our people back here?”

  “Yep,” he confirmed. “Pretty much everyone that worked here except Montgomery and Jeff.”

  “Are you leaving them behind to protect the walls?” After she saw his nod, she mentioned, “They aren’t going to like that.”

  “No, they won’t,” Blake agreed. “But, they need someone strong there. Monsters may not appear for another two days, but people are still a threat. I’m sure looting has broken out by now, and some gangs might have formed.”

  “So, what’s the difference between looting and scavenging?”

  “When we do it, it's not looting.” Blake grinned.

  His mother snorted and then smiled.

  “In all seriousness, though, most people are going to be scared. Some of them will have guns and won’t hesitate to kill others for their food. I just want to make sure that doesn’t happen to our people.”

  “What will you do if people shoot?” Donna asked.

  “That depends,” he shrugged. “If they shot by accident because they were scared, I’ll just take their guns away. But, if they were intentionally trying to murder people for their stuff… Well, they’re no worse than the monsters.”

  His mother grimaced, but did not disagree.

  After a quick knock, Peter walked through the office door and joined them. “Sorry it took so long for me to show up, but it took a lot longer than I expected.”

  At the sight of his father, Blake slowly rose from the couch. He did his best to hide the pain, and embraced the head chef. After a moment, Peter glanced around the room. “What happened here?”

  Donna smirked. “Evidently, Blake lost his temper, or he didn’t like the decor.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Blake waved the snide comment away.

  “So, your mother said you had a talk with the Architect. What did it have to say?” his father asked.

  Peter joined Blake on the couch as he repeated the conversation he had with his mother.

  “So, all that, and it just gave us social media?” Peter asked in disbelief.

  “Well, that and a couple of other things.” Blake scratched his scalp and looked at the floor. “I think I may have promised the Architect we’d figure out time travel.”

  “You what?!” both Donna and Peter exclaimed.

  “It was gonna kill us all, so I had to say something,” he defended himself. “It had decided humans were useless!”

  “So, unless we can build a time machine, it’s going to kill us all?” Peter clarified. “How long do we have?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m not even sure it cares if we figure it out. It admitted to bullshitting me to see if I would just lie down and accept defeat.”

  His mother smirked. “It obviously doesn’t know you very well.”

  “No it doesn’t.”

  “So, how will you go about ‘inventing time travel’,” his father asked sardonically.

  “I won’t do anything. I’ll just recruit the people who figured it out last time and let them do everything.”

  “Do you know where to find these people?” Donna asked.

  Blake nodded. “Yeah, they all came from Arizona State University. They all survived last time when no one knew what was going on. I figure this time, they have an ever better chance.”

  Peter frowned. “Isn’t that where Rajesh is? He went back to his dorm, right?”

  “Good point!” Blake grinned. “Maybe I can get him to help me out. That’ll make it even easier.”

  His parents exchanged a look, and then his mother mentioned. “He didn’t seem too happy with us when he left, are you sure he’ll cooperate?”

  “Rajesh may be an asshole, but he won’t endanger the human race. If anything, he’ll help me out of self-preservation.”

  His father sighed. “Anything else we need to know?”

  Blake shrugged. “Nothing important, it granted us general skills for stuff we already knew, and let us pay people through the interface remotely.”

  Peter checked his status. “I don’t see anything new.”

  “That’s because they’re almost entirely combat skills or convenience stuff like Analyze or Spatial Storage.”

  “What about you, did you get anything?” Donna asked.

  Blake opened his interface and read off his list of general skills.

  General Skills -

  Summon Companion

  Spatial Storage III - 11%

  Analyze III - 1%

  Request Audience

  Unarmed Combat Mastery IV - 97%

  Sword Mastery VI - 82%

  Spear Mastery VI - 88%

  Bow Mastery II - 14%

  Shield Mastery III - 57%

  Axe Mastery IV - 1%

  Knife Mastery II - 34%

  Tracking IV - 11%

  “That seems like a lot,” she remarked.

  Blake shrugged.

  “So, it took ten years to get your Sword and Spear Mastery to level six?” his father asked.

  “No, it was at level eleven and twelve before. Some of the others were higher too.” Blake scratched his scalp through his singed hair. “I guess I must have forgotten some stuff.”

  “That seems like a lot to forget,” Peter pointed out.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Although, the Architect did say it would fast track mastery of skills you already know.”

  Peter grinned. “If that’s true, I might master my own class a lot faster.”

  “Really?” Blake smirked. “You have a lot of experience with Mander steaks in your past? Maybe some Lupus stew I don’t know about?”

  His father raised his hands. ”Okay, okay, I get it.”

  “Speaking of food,” his mother interrupted Blake’s teasing. “When do you want to start charging people for food and other services?”

  Blake tilted his head to the side while he considered. After a moment, he answered, “I think we should get a real economy going as soon as possible. That way, we can motivate people with money. If everything’s free, why should they bother?”

  “To upgrade their attributes?” Peter reminded him.

  “Yeah, but that’s too abstract,” Blake disagreed. “Most people won’t care about that. Not at first. But, food and rent are things everyone understands. The same goes for healing potions, new clothes, or a treat at the cookhouse.”

  His father’s eyes lit up. “I just made the most amazing appetizer. I call it Lupus in a blanket. I made some flaky, buttered croissants with jalape?os and the Lupus sausage I made yesterday. It practically melts in your mouth.”

  Blake licked his lips. “Yeah, that’ll work for a treat. Do you have any left?”

  Peter laughed. “Just two. My cooks and some of the laborers smelled them cooking and just had to try them. Next thing you know, most of them were gone.”

  “I bet,” Donna smiled.

  Suddenly, the door flew open, and Oliver raced inside. He was out of breath, and leaned against the wall while he recovered. “Why the hell don’t you answer your messages?” he whined.

  What messages?

  Blake frowned and opened his interface. Sure enough, he had new notifications. What surprised him, however, was how many.

  “How do I have thirteen thousand notifications?” Blake asked in disbelief. “How is that even possible?”

  As he scrolled through them, he found that almost all of them were friend requests. Even as he dismissed the notifications, he saw that more were added, faster than he could remove them.

  “It doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to search for ‘Scion of Humanity’, or ‘Blake Summers’,” Oliver replied dryly.

  I’ll deal with this later.

  Blake closed the interface and addressed his brother. “So, what did you need?”

  “Jennifer needs our help!” he exclaimed.