The blimp was big and wide.

  With two metallic wings at either side, both styled after swan feathers made of steel and other metals.

  Blades spun at the points where those metallic limbs faced forwards. Carrying the blimp closer and closer to us.

  “Howdy hee boys! We got ourselves some more tall one to play with!”

  The amplified voice called out.

  “Those two monsters are gonna see what’s really good after we skin these guys in front of them! Yes siree! That’ll teach them lessons three!”

  The rhyming made no sense whatsoever, but I could tell that all the gnomish minds inside the blimp thought it was the height of cleverness.

  In fact, they were almost as happy as Mittens was right now.

  “Yes! Yes! Siree! Gnomes for Mittens and gnomes for thee! Mittens will open bellies with glee! Mittens is here!”

  I could vaguely sense Luigi making for any space that wasn’t close to Mittens, but I wasn’t focused on that at the moment.

  My Telepathic senses flared. My focus going from my parents and the ensuing drama, to all the lovely little signals now coming back to me.

  I inhaled. Taking them all in as if all those thoughts and emotions could be contained within my lungs.

  There were so many gnomes.

  So.

  Many.

  Gnomes.

  I inhaled and saw a family of 16 being evicted from their two-bedroom apartment.

  “Come out Perisprinkle! I know you’re in there!”

  “What do you want! Dob! I’ve already paid my rent this month!”

  One of the gnomes, the one leading a group of armed guys and gals, laughed in front of the door.

  “Yeah, ya dumb fart! But ya didn’t pay for the window repair and the extra family tax and the euthanasia for your pet!”

  “Bucky’s dead!?” One of the child gnomes called out in horror.

  “Of course she’s dead you little runt! And you should be thanking for doing you all a favor! I was nice to put your dumb pooch out its misery after it decided to run in front of my tires when I was driving drunk! That kind of lack of responsibility on your part is why your mother left! Now open up and pay yer due! Then get out!”

  The dad gnome opened the door with a growl.

  “Okay. Fine. Show me a contract and how much yer paying for each little snot. I warn you I won’t be ripped off though! I’ll go out and get a second opinion if you’re not offering enough!”

  “Dad!?”

  “Daddy!?”

  “What!? I did my time in the mines when I was your age! Everybody does it! It puts some hair on your chest! You’ll see! Besides, they’ve got all kind of…”

  He turned his head aside to take a drag out of a cigarette. Before putting it out on one his children’s heads.

  “Of new fangled safety measures these new city council guys have! When I was your age, my brother Pauwinkle got lost in a tunnel and fell down a darkened mine shaft when the owners didn’t pay the electricity bill. And my other brother Herwinkle left a lamp running too long in a shaft without ventilation and filled the whole tunnel with carbon monoxide. Lots of things happen back then, but they get you new kids obedience chips these days to shock you into doing your job right. They save money and you get to live and work longer. Everybody wins!”

  He smacked the closes kid.

  “Besides, as much as I hate Dob, he’s right. You’re all the reason why your mother left!”

  He looked back at the contract. Huffed and puffed. Then signed it with a pen he pulled out of his stained shirt.

  “Pleasure doing business with ya. Now give me my money!”

  Dob threw him a sack filled with coins and the father gnome stepped aside to let the thugs grab his kids. Then the father gnome hopped down the stairs chuckling to himself. All while his kids all cried out for their papa.

  My focus shifted and I saw another scene.

  One where an old gnome lady was trying to cash in her late husband’s life insurance.

  “Wha-wha-what do you mean there isn’t any money?” She half-wept.

  “It’s just like I told ya madam.” The fat gnome spoke while blowing a plume of smoke into her face.

  “There isn’t any money for ya here. After all, the policy ya got doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions.”

  “My husband died in a shooting!” She complained.

  “Yeah? So? Ya can’t know for sure if the bullets were a pre-existing condition. What if your husband had several bullets in his organs when he made the policy and he just lied when signing up to get lower premiums huh? What if he tried to swindle us out of our money by not disclosing he was allergic to bullets? Do ya think this job is easy? Huh? Do ya?”

  He blew another plume of smoke into the older gnome’s face.

  “Maybe this is all your fault? Maybe you told him to go out and get shot on purpose so ya could cash in his life insurance? Or maybe ya killed him yourself!”

  “Aha! You just admitted he died from the bullets!”

  “From a pre-existing bullet-related condition!” The insurance gnome clarified.

  The older gnome shot him in the face.

  Then she walked over to his corpse and shot him a bunch more times.

  “How’s this for a pre-existing condition! Ya twat!”

  She reloaded and emptied another clip into him.

  Then she pulled out a cellphone.

  “He stupid. It’s me. No, they didn’t fall for it. Yes you alcoholic rock muncher! I know we needed the money! What do ya want me to do? They didn’t buy it! No, don’t try to pin this on me! If you’d just done a better job of shooting up those stores and killed more people around ya, then we might have been able to get into a class-action lawsuit, but noooo! Ya were scared of anyone with good aim shooting back! Yes. Yes I know. We’ll just go on and sell some of our grandkids into the mines. About times those dirty leeches earned their keep. Yes. Yes I know. Love you too.”

  She blew a kiss into the cellphone and ran out of the office. Shooting at anyone who came out to stop her.

  My focus shifted again and I saw yet another scene.

  “Thank you all for being here.” A gnome spoke up inside a factory. “As you all know, we’ve been having some production issues lately. People just don’t seem to be getting the message that this ain’t a daycare. You know what I’m saying?”

  One of the children in front of him began to weep.

  “Ah! What a lovely demonstration of exactly the kind of lazy mentality I was talking about. What’s your name little one?”

  “Co-Collin.” The gnome child spoke through sobs. “And what are you crying about Collin?”

  “I bu-burned my hand. Yesterday. Th-the lady told me to clean the ma-machines a-and then when I said they were hot, she said that wa-wasn’t her business.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The child sobbed some more.

  “She said, it was ja-jammed a-and I ha-had to clean it up.”

  He broke into tears.

  “My friend had fallen in! He-he was dead! He was the only friend I had but… but…!”

  He could not get the words out.

  The head gnome continued regardless.

  “And that’s what I’m talking about folks.” He wagged a finger in the air. “Yesterday, an unfortunate accident caused the T-24 to be shut down for 2 hours.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “That’s two full hours where production was completely shut down folks. Two hours where the products weren’t being made and two hours where profit wasn’t being attained. Two hours that I now have to account for when I next speak to management.”

  He turned and began descending the stairs.

  Continuing his pacing until he was face-to-face with the crying child.

  “Tell me boy, did seeing your dead friend make you sad?”

  “Y-yes.” He hiccupped between sobs.

  “Aww.” The older gnome said mockingly.

  “Well isn’t that terrible. You saw a dead orphan and you felt sad. How dreadful.” He said with a voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “Are you crying because of anything else?”

  “Y-yes. I-I miss my mom a-and my dad and my sisters.”

  “Your sisters are dead.” The older gnome said. Grabbing the younger gnome by the hair and wrenching him upwards. Even as the child screamed.

  “They got sold to a bad place. Filled with bad people. Too bad for them. As for you, you’re a little rat kid. And your job is to scurry between our machines to make sure they’re clean and working nicely. And if you ever even think of laying about crying while on shift again, I’ll make sure you have a lot more to cry about than a mere burned hand.”

  He let go of the hair and followed it up by kicking the younger gnome’s stomach with a steel-toed boot.

  Then he turned around.

  “Make sure you burn this sight into your minds boys and girls. Those who can’t work, get punished. And because the weak link in the chain couldn’t work, all of you get punished too. And the beatings will continue every time production dips.”

  He paused to make sure all the others were staring at the floor and that they were all shaking with fear.

  “And the beatings will now continue until morale improves. Everyone stand in line so the enforcers can get a good punch in. Those who cry will be beaten harder. Until you all learn your place.”

  My focus shifted again and I saw yet another scene.

  “Okay folks. Here’s the deal. We’re now charging $79.99 for the base game edition. $119.99 for the deluxe edition and $149.99 for the premium golden uber-gnome edition. We can count on 25% of our registered losers…”

  He coughed.

  “Sorry. 25% of out registered users. We can count on 25% of out registered users buying the added $19.99 per seasonal DLC. With those guys also buying the season pass for $29.99 per season.”

  He looked grim.

  “I trust I don’t need to explain myself to you all.”

  “No sir Mr. Redfair sir.” Another gnome spoke up. “It is clear to all of us that we are not making enough money.”

  All the gnomes around the table murmured their agreement.

  “We need to be able to squeeze our registered lose… users for more money. After all, they’ve already paid us 900 gnome dollars for a gaming console with no games and an extra $200 for a stand and or disk drive. That proves that they will spend money on any old garbage we make and that we can never push them too far. So, it stands to reason that we are wasting money by not charging more.”

  “Excellent point Kottika.” Another gnome told her. “You truly do have a gift for seeing the bigger picture.”

  “Indeed. Royone. Kottika is always one step ahead, but I say we should be thinking more outside the box.” This new speaker paused to titter.

  “Outside the box, Andraela?”

  “Yes, or rather, perhaps I should clarify that we could be thinking inside the box. The Lootbox that is.” She tittered once more to herself. Her tongue going out of her lips as if she were a snake tasting the air.

  “Currently, we are selling each…” She smacked her lips loudly. “Lootbox. For $9.99 each. For a chance to unlock new outfits at rates of about 12%, with the rest of those odd giving some kind of cheat emote or sticker. Well, I had some ideas yesterday while taking in my fluids.”

  “Your fluids?” Someone else asked.

  “Yes, my fluids. Oh, I don’t know if I told you. I’m all IVs now. I can’t drink normally on account of my teeth. I get infusions of freshly hydrate blood from the kids at the mines. The new arrivals of course. Makes me feel young and fresh. Now, where was I?”

  “You were saying something about ideas?”

  “Yes, yes. Of course. My ideas. Well, I thought that, since we control the consoles and the games studios, then we could set the standard practices as whatever we wanted! So here it goes, we offer up 10 additional Lootboxes for anyone who pre-orders our games and that way, they get early access to the Beta of the game and they can play it intensively. Thereby finding the most egregious bugs and acting as our QA department for free! Then, we make up the loss of future sales by secretly decreasing the odds of getting anything good to 1.2% and then add in an extra layer of exclusivity for super golden premium skins at chances of 0.02% per box! With some boxes having boosted percentages if they are bought in packages of 200 or more! That way we can incentivise large purchases at once!”

  The other gnomes stared in awe and began clapping.

  “And, and! This is the best part, if they find that they can’t pay all of the sudden or if they have any modicum of self-control, we can advertise the Lootboxes directly to children! With subliminal instructions on how to use their parent’s credit cards to buy our Lootboxes! At the same time, we’ll finance marketing campaigns with online personalities where they host Lootbox opening scenes over and over. Until bullying other kids who don’t have premium skins becomes acceptable! That way, we can train those children who aren’t sold off or who survive the mines to see Lootboxes as a way of distinguishing themselves from the poor and the other losers , so that those same children will buy even more Lootboxes when they grow up!”

  There was another round of clapping.

  “Yes, yes! I know. I’m excellent.”

  One gnome huffed.

  “Yeah, I know you think that. But I still think you’re aiming too low.”

  He waited until he had everyone else’s attention.

  “Now hear me out. Two. Words. Paid Mods.”

  There was a gasp of shock.

  “Paid Mods!? That’s insane! No one in their right mind would ever pay for mods! You sir have gone too far!”

  “Is that so?” The gnome’s smile widened. “Then how come I was able to take down this modding page and sue all the creators into giving us access to their work, before charging $9.99 apiece for every mod?”

  The one who had been speaking earlier looked stunned. Then, they pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away a tear.

  “That has got to be the evillest thing I’ve ever heard. I… I think I’m in love. Will you…”

  She paused.

  “Will you make me your mistress? We can kill your wife later if it works out.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  The head gnome smacked his hands on the table.

  “Gentlegnomes! Gentlegnomes!” He blustered. “You’re all failing to see the obvious.”

  The rest of the table went silent.

  “What is it boss?”

  “Clearly the answer is to package paid mods in Lootboxes! While setting the rate of getting mods to something like 0.002%” He spoke as if it was obvious.

  “Those clowns want mods? Then they better be ready to sell their children to the mines in order to get them!”

  Everyone looked stunned.

  Then, as one, everyone cheered.

  Whooping and hooting and getting on the table before ripping their shirts off.

  I saw all of that.

  I smiled to myself.

  “…ully….”

  Oh yes.

  There were so many gnomes.

  “….ully! Su….”

  So.

  Many.

  Gnomes.

  I was almost at the point of sobbing.

  It was so beautiful…

  “Sully!!” Dusty yelled. Smacking me upside the head at the same time.

  “Wha..? What!?”

  “You were getting that look again.” She said with a worried expression.

  “What look?”

  “That stupid grin. The one you get when you see a gnome walking about threatening people.”

  “You… You looked so happy.” Dad commented. His face a mask of fear.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that happy before.” Mom added.

  “What? No! I’m fine! I was just, thinking of something in the future. Yes! I was predicting a future where we all got along and we all came together to save humanity across the multiverse and forming a big, happy family. I can see it now. We would get a big house in Human city or back in our world. We would keep Mittens all nice and snug inside the house in his own little corner. Me and Dusty would have a few kids and we would bring them over to meet you and mom and grandpa and I’d buy them presents and stuff. Yeah.”

  The lie was coming more easily as I said it out loud.

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  I turned to Henry, and saw that he was cowering against a tree some dozen meters away. Luigi was behind him. Also shaking and somehow managing to look even more afraid. His knees making sounds akin to maracas while the air smelled of ammonia.

  “Guys! I’m fine! Everything is fine! Okay! Now, we should really focus on the giant blimp holding all the gnomes.”

  They were threatening us again. Dropping ropes that other gnomes used to descend rapidly towards the earth.

  I saw them. All of them. Every single gnome inside this miniature world. Thanks to [Limited Omniscience].

  I was only able to keep myself from licking my lips thanks to [Social Hunter].

  ‘I don’t need it.’ I chided myself.

  ‘I don’t need it.’ I thought while seeing a bunch of gnomes whipping their own children in the mines.

  ‘I don’t need it.’ I thought while seeing a bunch of gnomes abusing puppies in a pound.

  ‘I don’t need it. I don’t need it. I don’t need it. I don’t need it. I don’t need it.’

  The gnomes got closer and Charlie, Boris, Monique, Slab, Grandpa and Randall took up positions.

  With Dolce’s miniaturized form begging for permission to be freed.

  ‘I don’t need it. I don’t need it. I don’t need it. I don’t need it….’

  Honestly, bless that power. Because it was struggling against every fiber of my being and somehow managing to hold on. Managing to keep me aware of how my actions would look.

  “Now lookie here boys! Look like the tall ones’ got themselves a family!”

  They all laughed over at their control room.

  “No problem! We can gut the kids on front of the parents, then gut the parents too!”

  “Didn’t we do that with the big brute’s family boss? What was his name, Thunder Fist?”

  “Yeah! Back when he was weak!” The boss gnome agreed. “Gutted his twin sons right in front of him! Funniest stuff I’ve ever seen!”

  The power levelled up once more, before it gave way completely.

  “IIIII NEEEEEEEDDDD IT!!!!!!!!”

  I started crying.

  “Hey! Look at the big one there! He’s crying!” The leader pointed out.

  “Yeah boss! He’s already crying about all the things we’re gonna do to him!”

  ‘No.’ My thoughts echoed in their minds. In all the minds in this entire pseudo-world.

  They stopped dead in their tracks.

  ‘I’m crying…’ I choked back a sob. ‘I’m crying because… because… of what I’m about to do to you.’