“What can one expect from a mongrel?” the boy said, shrugging.
Fen drilled his gaze into Bianca and sighed heavily. Then spoke:
“Someone explain to this dumb girl what Subjugate Mind is. I’m going to take a shower in the meantime, I need to get clean… I’m still not used to rotting alive in Dis.”
* * *
“Forgive me, Mr. Mochou!” Fen lowered his head. “I will correct the error, I promise!”
The former top player in the world felt like a child caught being mischievous as he stood before Crooked Tooth. Fen Xiaoguang had become a category-A citizen, a billionaire and a global celebrity, but he still withered before a single dark glance from Du, who had also changed.
In the years that had passed, the small-time gangster from Shenzhen had become a Triad boss, and Fen’s career in Disgardium had been no small help. Du no longer limped, he had new teeth — not a single one crooked — and even a new heart and liver. His lungs were also new, but they would soon need replacing again: Crooked Tooth had eradicated old habits and adopted aristocratic airs, but had never given up smoking.
“Cocky fool!” Du rose, approached and breathed han odious cloud of tobacco smoke in Fen’s face. “To let such a chance slip through your fingers! Have your brains soured? Are you on that shit again?”
“Forgive me, Mr. Mochou, forgive me!” Fen muttered his apologies with his eyes stuck to the floor. Fortunately, the Accelerator was still in the flyer, but Crooked Tooth could check his blood too, that would be just like him. “No way! I’m not using!”
“This is unforgivable, fool,” Du muttered, returning to his seat. Fen could tell from the subtle change in intonation that Mochou was moving past his flash of anger. “Tell me how you plan to correct your missteps. How will you get out of the Threat’s prison?”
Fen cast a glance at the window. The view of San Francisco bay from the skyscraper penthouse suite reminded him of a still not fully formed idea for leveling up his character. But the task required a non-trivial solution, and Fen didn’t want to broach the subject with Du too soon.
“My character is locked in the cellar of the Widowmakers’ former castle. That’s Eileen’s clan. She works for the Gallaghers.”
“I remember her,” Crooked Tooth nodded. “What about it?”
“She knows how to switch off the force field and remove the block. The goblins control the castle right now, but we have a couple of Armageddons, and Eileen will sell us three more.”
“What does she want in exchange?”
“Scyth’s head, her castle, and…” Fen’s mouth snapped shut.
“Speak, boy! Did you promise something without discussing it with me again? Like with those two elf girls you’re sleeping with?”
“Mr. Mochou, the Nucleus chose them! I had nothing to do with it!”
“Is that so?” Du frowned. The old man was paranoid about everything in his old age, and since there was no way he could verify Fen’s words, he pressured him with authority in the hope that his ward would mix up his words and admit to wrongdoing. “If I didn’t value your brains, I’d send you for a memory scan!”
“Please don’t.” Mogwai shivered. Scanning didn’t just capture memories, it killed neurons. “I swear on my life, Mr. Mochou! The Nucleus chose!”
“We’ll see,” Du said gravely. “What does Eileen want?”
“To become the ninth legate.”
“Acceptable. But you must hurry if you want to claim the prize for the class-A Threat. The United Cartel has found Sheppard. They have a man close to him.”
“What? Have they taken him?”
“They were a mere ten or fifteen minutes late. Sheppard managed to get away, but the Cartel’s source knows where he went.”
“And the Triad…”
“The Triad is searching!” Du interrupted him. “We are searching! I am searching! There is a chance that Sheppard will take our agent in. But if we fail, then your chief task is to capture the Threat. Our eggheads predict that the rewards for eliminating this Threat will be unprecedented.”
Du brought up a number on his tablet with so many zeros that Fen’s head span. To hell with those analysts, Fen thought. We don’t need their help to know there’s a trillion at stake.
“Got it? The First Trio got so carried away that they were ready to send a military fleet to the Moon just to capture Sheppard’s parents.”
“Snowstorm will cancel the rewards,” Fen shook his head.
“I explained that to the bosses. So we’re doing this delicately. Me in real life, you in Dis. Any ideas?”
Thinking, Fen decided not to reveal the ace up his sleeve. Du would take his head off if he found out that Mogwai not only knew the location of the Threat’s base and the sole remaining temple of the Sleepers, but that he had also let Scyth go. In the future, he could always say he only just learned the Awoken fort’s location.
“I had four encounters with Scyth, Mr. Mochou. In the first ones I was above his level, but he was invulnerable and possessed Path of Reflection.” Fen paused, Du nodded, showing he understood. “Now I am invulnerable. Although this time he is higher level than me, far higher. If I don’t take control of him, he’ll escape. I need a few days to level up and overtake him. Then, next time we meet, he won’t have a chance.”
“You think he’s going to stop making progress?” Du frowned and lit a cigarette. “He won’t be sleeping.”
“But he has nowhere to grind! He’s higher level than almost all the mobs of the inhabited lands, and he lost Immortality.”
“And how will you find him?”
“I can’t say, Mr. Mochou. But I will find him! I swear! I’ll find him and destroy him!”
“May it be so,” Du murmured and turned away.
Fen
