“You guys take the second floor,” Willy told the boys. “Any room. Alex, you’re with me. Yoshi is going to set up the access system.”
By the time he and I left Yoshi to install a capsule and returned to the lounge, Hairo had already lit a fire and switched on the holovisor. Maria was busy making dinner. Pollyanna was ‘helping’ her. The girl hung around nearby and showered the bodyguard with questions. Maria smiled grudgingly and answered while she moved around the kitchen with a catlike grace.
Her colleagues Roj and Sergei tooled up and left to check the alarm system in case of an incursion. I didn’t know whose house this was, but the security officers seemed to know their way around—this clearly wasn’t their first time here. I felt sure that if Hairo or Yoshi placed a hand on the sensor, the door would open then too.
After eating, I started preparing for the interview. I created a private room, set a timer for an hour, audio and video recording and file transfers. Then I sent a joining code to Ian. After a moment’s thought, I didn’t just upload some views of Holdest, but also the recording of me attacking the Ravager and riding it. Three million had to be earned with something more than just words.
Ian confirmed, and the agreed amount of dark phoenixes landed in my account. A third of that money would pay our new employees for a year, which was very handy. I didn’t know how it would all turn out, but they were helping us in the here and now. If it weren’t for Hairo, then I might be lying drugged in some clan’s basement right now.
I spent the last ten minutes before the interview testing my capsule. The login to Dis was standard. No errors. Waving at the guardians as they relaxed by the temple, I logged out of the game. Unless I imagined it, they were over level seven hundred! At least, Nega certainly was, because she answered my wave and my eyes focused on her, expanding the succubus’s profile.
The name of the Threat was now known, so there was no point in disguising myself for the interview. I didn’t hide, just scanned my own image with the capsule.
The interview itself flew by. Ian was always interesting to talk to, but today I felt true investment in his questions. The journalist was worried, annoyed that the game mechanics set me up to reveal my name, but overjoyed to see a ‘sixteen-year-old teenager mop the floor with the preventers.’
“I’m sure ‘mop the floor’ is far from fair, Mr. Mitchell,” I answered. “And it wasn’t really down to anything I did. The great random number generator gave me invulnerability. Progressing in everything else was just a matter of time, and not much. Half a year ago, I was stuck at level one. I could probably have been called the worst player in the history of Disgardium.”
“The worst, huh?” Ian asked, laughing.
“Absolutely. In a year and a half of gameplav, I never even got to level two!”
Ian was surprised. “But why?”
“Just wasn’t interested.”
“How did it happen?” he asked, meaning how I became a Threat.
Neither of us spoke directly about my status; the contract with Snowstorm was still in effect. It would be in force even after all this ended. But I had no plans to speak directly.
“I can’t reveal the details. All I can say is that I had help. From a man called Andrew, who is no longer with us. But everything that happened to me was possible only thanks to his kindness and generosity. And to the fact that he, like me, loved space with all his heart…”
Toward the end of the conversation, Ian asked a question that made me remember a certain handsome builder and hero. And mentally curse him.
“Tell me, Alex, does a player by the name of Gyula, a demon hunter, have anything to do with the Awoken clan? He and somebody else who remained anonymous got a First Kill in the Lakharian Desert, and it happened just a day before Nergal’s Summons. It’s clear that Gyula couldn’t have arrived in the desert, let alone got an achievement there, without your help. We all know that your clan includes Crawler the mage, Infect the rogue, Bomber the warrior and Tissa the priestess. Today their names became famous all over the world. They are all your classmates. But! The entire editorial staff undertook an investigation and failed to find a single person from among your acquaintances named Gyula. It’s a Hungarian name, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know, Ian. Could be. In any case, I’m not going to reveal anything more to your viewers and readers than they already know. You have to understand… Unwanted media attention isn’t the only thing that threatens those around me. There are all kinds of bad people who want to profit off my status.”
“Alright, then pull aside the curtain on another secret for our viewers. Our sources tell us that an unprecedented lot will be up for sale at the goblin auction house today. Everyone is certain that it belongs to you, but what is it exactly that you’re selling?”
“Someone else handles the clan’s trading operations,” I answered. “We sell plenty of things all the time, as you know. We get so much loot that we don’t even have time to go through it all.”
“Are you concerned by the preventers’ announcements of their losses? They hold you directly responsible and surely want some sort of compensation for their losses.”
“I wasn’t the one that started the so-called Holy War. I’ve been the fox in this hunt from the very beginning, and all the world’s been after me. I never attacked first.
