Just before leaving the building, I called Sofia. She agreed to meet and mentioned there was something she wanted to talk to me about.

  I didn’t press her on it, but I couldn’t help feeling curious about what she wanted to say.

  We were meeting at noon, so I headed in the general direction of where we’d met the first time. A kobold or two along the way would be fine — if I stayed out of the path of the new level eight.

  There were plenty of red dots on the Mini Map, but only for kobolds I already knew about. The level eight wasn’t showing yet.

  I did spot a level seven two streets down and dealt with it quickly and cleanly. The loot was decent: food and water packages, a Knowledge shard, and an Epic Healing Package.

  Perfect.

  Then one of the red dots changed — larger, brighter, with an 8 in the center.

  The System must have realized the dots were getting confusing.

  Thank you, System… though you might as well number the others too.

  A chill ran down my spine as all the remaining dots shifted to match — same size, with numbers inside them.

  “Thank you,” I very meekly and quietly said.

  Looking up, I just caught the kobold’s back as it disappeared behind a building a block ahead of me.

  Thankfully, it hadn’t seen me. But I’d seen it. And all I’d really registered was its size.

  It was huge. And the weapon it carried so casually over its shoulder. It was a long stick with a wicked metal head on it — part spear, part axe, with a hook sticking off the side. The blade ‘looked heavy and jagged, like it was made to tear instead of cutting cleanly.

  I didn’t get a chance to Identify it before it disappeared.

  Okay…

  I shook my head and decided to deal with that later.

  There was still plenty of time before my meeting with Sofia, so I didn’t rush. I arrived early and chose to wait for her.

  I kept one eye on my Mini Map. A level eight kobold flickered into view at the edge of it. For a second, I considered trying to catch a glimpse — but I didn’t want to risk missing Sofia.

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  I did not wait too long before I saw her walking toward me. She looked okay — not perfect, but like she was adapting.

  “Hi, Sofia.”

  I didn’t want to jump straight into whatever she wanted to talk about, so we did the normal exchange — or as normal as anything could be in the post-System world.

  “I met my neighbour,” she said, glancing aside. “The one next to Jason…” She paused, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t want to sound mean — and I know it’s a difficult time for all of us — but…”

  “That’s okay, Sofia,” I said gently. “Just tell me what’s making you uncomfortable.”

  “The man just feels… wrong. He says his name is Brandon Thompson, but something about him feels fake. And I have a feeling he isn’t doing the quest.”

  I frowned. “Why do you think that?”

  “I asked him about it, and the System muted the answer. Then he got agitated — tried to hide it, but I’ve dealt with men like that before.”

  I knew what she meant.

  Men who talk down to women. Who assume they’re smarter, stronger, or more important.

  I nodded slowly. “It is concerning if he chose not to do the quest. But maybe… his attitude made him decide he was above doing something for the good of everyone.”

  Sofia’s wide eyes and stunned expression stopped me mid-sentence.

  I cleared my throat. “Sorry. My mother taught me to respect women.”

  A small smile tugged up the corners of her mouth, but she made no comment about it. I returned her smile.

  “I don’t like a person like him here and if Jason is right the System wants us to communicate and interact… However, there is not really anything we can do about it.”

  We were quiet for a bit, both of us a bit in thought.

  “You are right, Danny. Nothing we can do.”

  “I will warn Jason about him as he is the only one who would interact with him, but I do not think this Brandon character would be able to intimidate him.”

  We did speak a while longer before saying our goodbyes.

  I walked back home, dividing my attention between the mini-map and thoughts about how we were going to handle Brandon. The people in our little “neighbourhood” were all good — and I didn’t like the idea of someone like him among them.

  Once home, I grabbed a snack and called Jason. We did our usual catching up before I told him about Brandon. I could hear the tension in his voice when I mentioned how Sofia had been treated.

  In the end, we agreed to wait and see. It wasn’t like we were in direct contact with him anyway.

  Claire was still busy with her quest. I was a little worried about her, so I put on a movie and waited for her call.

  The movie ended.

  I remembered the journal and pulled it out. I started hesitantly, but soon the pen was flying across the page. Something broke loose, and all those feelings just poured out.

  Finally, my Comm Crystal buzzed.

  Hi, Danny.”

  She sounded exhausted, but in that good way — like someone who’d reached the end of something difficult and finally let themselves breathe.

  “Hi, Claire. I hope it went well…”

  “Yeah, but it was brutal. Fighting all those monsters was… I died twice, but I did it.”

  “Yeah. Dying is not a good feeling.”

  She gave a small, tired laugh. “Danny, I’m going to take a shower, eat something, and sleep. We can talk tomorrow.”

  It was too early for me to go to sleep, and I did not have the specs for the new Kobolds, so using the Simulation would be useless.

  I had two Knowledge Stones, but I would rather use them the next day, with Claire. I did not want to do that alone.

  So, a movie it was.

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