Sky checked in on her small group of friends. None of them knew what to do or where to go, preferring to wait and see what happens. All of them had been selected. With liberty at just the tips of their fingers, they found themselves trapped.
Escaping the Undercity had always been a dream, but now, suddenly, it was a very possible reality. The only problem lay in how to do so. They needed to get to the portals, but the entitled pricks above were blocking them. They needed to inform Lord Dante what was happening, but nobody was able to add him to their contacts.
It was a real and unfortunate problem.
Sitting among Ma Gentry and her brood of orphans, Sky looked around her old home and smiled. Even in her dire situation, it was nice to be home. Being here stirred up memories, but not all of them were bad. Ma’s gap-toothed smile. Her fellow Orphans and the adventures they’d had. The first time she’d stolen a wandering noble’s purse. They were happy times from her past.
But that was where her memories lived, in the past, and something else had her attention for now.
These chatrooms were interesting. It was a weird thing she’d never expected to see. Just another addition from the System Administrator; blessed be their future. There was one in particular she couldn’t take her eyes off of.
A passing orphan from Ma’s newest brood had suggested it to her in an offhand manner. The chatroom was called the Liberated Ones, and the things they talked about sounded too good to be true. In fact, it all sounded similar to what was promised to her with Symphony—something about the power of the One. Independent strength.
Just when she was about to call it a day and attempt to scout out the elevators again, a new message appeared in the chatroom.
Joff: Is anyone on Luck’s Haven?
Sky couldn’t believe it. The chatroom only had a couple thousand members. In the ever-numbered count of the multiverse, that was nothing. Curious as to what this was about, she replied.
Sky: Yes?
A few seconds went by before she received a response.
Joff: Hello, Sky. So, what do you think about this whole Lottery thing?
Sky: I don’t know. Almost seems too good to be true.
Joff: I know, right? It’s all a little crazy.
Sky: Yeah, and the blockade doesn’t help.
Joff: True.
A few seconds went by again before he said something interesting.
Joff: Hey, can I add you to my contacts?
Sky didn’t see any harm in that. Even if she added them, they couldn’t track her location that she knew of.
Sky: Sure
What was the worst that could happen?
Walker
With twenty-three hours to go, Walker stepped out of the portal, touching feet on Luck’s Haven for the first time and quickly being shoved to the side as the platform returned to its exiting position.
He wanted to take a moment and scope out the area, but instead, Walker was immediately and audibly assaulted.
“Tours of the Undercity! Best tours on the planet! Five resources!”
“Feeling a bit lonely? Head over to Lady Luck! We’re absolutely certain you’ll not find women like this anywhere else in the Rendition!”
“Suites on discount!”
“Khlavkalosh!”
“Dice!” “Hover-sale!” “Exchange emporium!”
Everywhere he turned, it was neon lights, screaming vendors, salesmen, or creatures dressed in what probably passed as a provocative manner. He swore he saw a two-hundred-pound crab in lingerie.
Needing to get away from the overwhelming noise, Walker spotted a glowing sign labeled Entry Inspection. Curious about how they did things, he headed toward the long lines of people waiting to get in, stopping behind a pair of fellow travelers.
The two people in front of him were a humanoid man and woman in fine robes that sadly put his to shame. The clothing held a natural shimmer, forming to their bodies in a bespoke manner only tailored clothing could match. Both stood straight, a few inches taller than himself and decked out in large, flashy jewelry that drew the eye. He listened in as he rarely got the chance to pick up on the happenings of the Multiverse without Virgil turning it into a history lesson.
The man tilted his head to the woman beside him, “Where would you like to go first, dearest?”
“Oh, you know why I’ve been pushing you to bring me here. I want to see the debt market! You know Jameana hired her Kacey here?”
“Really? I knew you wanted to visit Luck’s Haven, but you never told me why.”
“Of course! Jameana said he was expensive, but we both know he’s fully worth the cost. The contract enforcement is utterly binding.” She gave a tittering laugh, “I bet they gobbled him up from that filthy Undercity. For all his genetic faults, Kacey is quite the entity.”
“You’re telling me. Her husband Mathieu wouldn’t stop talking about how docile he was the last time I’d seen him. You’d think they’d beaten the spirit right out of him.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“If only that were possible,” The woman sighed, “I wish our world had its own market. You really can’t find a good contract debtor nowadays.”
“No, you can’t dearest. But just maybe, we’ll get lucky here. After all, it is-”
“Luck’s Haven?” She interrupted him with another tittering laugh, the sound grating on Walker’s ears in a way he couldn’t explain. “I cannot wait to see it! Oh, the line has moved; we better move along with it.”
“Ah, you’re right. Come along, my sweet.”
Walker let the crowd from behind move past him. Jostling, pushing, and sporadic curses he didn’t understand slid over and through him. He hadn’t known what to expect with Luck’s Haven, but thus far, he knew one thing. Something wasn’t right here. A dark thought entered his mind, one he tried to shake off.
But was that the play here? Did he really need to go full…Dante?
He didn’t know, but he stepped to the side of the crowd and made a few minute changes to the Lottery system. First, Walker connected it directly to the Communication system, creating a visual notifier that would identify those who had signed up to join Symphony. Then, he went through and lifted everyone who’d been approved and put them into a special part of the minimap section. A second later, they all populated at once as his map became a sea of gray with a solid green underneath it.
As he got a handle on where they were all located, he found only five hundred had been approved that weren’t currently within the undercity. That made this easier than he’d thought it would be.
With one last change to the Lottery system, and the benefit of creating portals being cost-free, he was ready to start transporting them. Stepping away from the crowd after deciding he did not, in fact, want to see more of Luck’s Haven, he walked over to the nearby Portal machine and placed his hand on it. Luckily, he’d learned the Earth’s code from the Grand Auction during his visit.
It took a few minutes to find it within the system, but as he finally did, Walker’s opinion on the planned operation further soured.
All portals to I4959826 are currently blocked.
Locally designated planet: Earth: Is currently undergoing the second phase of the Omega Protocol.
…
Master Portal Key Detected…
All portals created by the keyholder are automatically approved.
Walker didn’t know what the Earth entering the second phase meant, but as he’d told Virgil, it would only be for a short period of time. Yes, his homeworld was a fucked up place right now. Yes, it was dangerous to initially send them there. But it had to be better than the horrible living conditions spoken of in the city beneath the bridges. And he promised to himself, feeling the oath from the Book of Souls kick in with it, that he would get these people to Symphony. As many of them as he could.
Walker felt an odd expanse in his soul on that oath. As if something should have happened, but it was blocked. What was left after burned, leaving a gaping feeling within himself. While he wanted to explore what was happening, he didn’t have much time as two blocky creatures wearing dark uniforms began to approach him.
He stepped away with a light smile at them, took two steps toward the edge of the platform the portal was situated upon, and then stepped off. Falling through the clouds and into the fog below, he tried to mentally brace himself for why so many of these people had signed up to escape from this world.
Sky
Sky had spent the better part of an hour speaking to Joff in private messages. Sometimes, he’d seem like an old man, giving long-winded speeches that could’ve been better expressed with a simple sentence or two. In others, he’d give a clipped response, like when she’d asked what he’d put on the third question of the Lottery system.
It was very strange. Strange enough that, as she approached the place where he’d asked to meet her, she took even more precautions than usual.
Life in the Undercity was rarely pleasant when walking the streets. You’re just as likely to get robbed as you were to find a piece of bread for sale. Because of that, she’d learned a few things to keep her safe. An education she readily spread to Ma’s eclectic orphans whenever she could.
- Never enter a dark corridor without knowing who had entered it recently. It was far too easy to get killed by those who’d grown a taste for it.
- Never assume someone was just a face in the crowd.
- Movement is life, observational skills, oxygen.
- Don’t buy the food from Randy’s cart. Nobody can figure out where he gets the meat from.
Thus, when she stepped toward her targeted street, Sky paused and entered the darkness of an area she’d been watching for several minutes. The meeting itself was obviously a trap, but a trap by who is what she was now questioning. Settling against the wall and making sure the hood of her cloak thoroughly covered her face, Sky sat in wait to see who wanted her dead.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Five large men entered the street she was supposed to be in. Each had the kind of uniform on that screamed money and privilege. They were too clean, too shiny, and without a rodent bite to be seen. Not the type of people that should be down here in the darkness of night. That meant they were some kind of enforcer.
Behind them stood a small, weasely-faced man with the beginnings of a beard. He didn’t look like much, but with another five enforcers following him, he didn’t need to. Money could buy you all kinds of privileges.
The problem was, she knew that man. He was a debt bondsman. He could be seen sometimes in the Undercity, offering money to the families of those who would sell themselves to a system contract to balance out their debt. But from what she’d heard of them, the system wouldn’t allow them to be forced to sign.
So why were they here?
Sky waited in the dark long enough to grow sleepy before they exited the trap street. The weasel was complaining loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Another bust. Why do they think these chatroom meetups will work? Why are we even in this fucking place? They can’t get to the portals. Just let the time run out and let’s move on with our lives.”
One of the big men with a slightly shinier suit spoke up, “Your family believes those we’ve captured so far will lead us to the Liberated Ones faction.”
“Why?”
“They didn’t say, sir.”
They passed her by, close enough to sneeze on, but she remained. Sky was more than smart enough to understand what was happening here.
The Chatroom itself was the real trap. A way to get people who thought they were meeting up with the Liberated Ones faction, only to be somehow forced to sign a debt contract with the system. She didn’t doubt it was written so well that there was no way out of it without loss of life.
She was preparing to leave when a commotion lit up the night, and even more interesting, it came from the direction the enforcers had gone. Loud bangs and explosions cast yellow and red glows in the fog of the Undercity.
Sneaking toward the corner and double-checking it didn’t hold anything seedy, Sky looked over.
The enforcers had walked into a trap not of their making, as dozens of people fired blasters into their group, ferocious smiles on the few faces she could see. The once shiny suits now belonged to corpses littering the ground, and common scene in the Undercity. Only for once, the dead belonged to those who lived above.
A skinny man holding a blaster looked over at her. Taking a sudden step back, he then burst forward with a shout, his weapon left on the ground.
“Sky!”
It took her a moment, but then she recognized him. Long ingrained instincts told her not to be too loud while moving about, but she couldn’t help herself as she saw her friend, “Alaran!”
They embraced quickly as a big man holding a very large cannon on his shoulder stepped over. In a deep voice he said, “Whose this one, pip?”
Alaran stepped in front of her, inadvertently blocking her line of sight, “A friend, not one of the Evolvers.”
“I see.” A moment later, Alaran moved, showing her that the group was stripping the bodies on the ground of their equipment as the man with the cannon called out commands. It was all done within seconds as her friend started bouncing on his toes.
“Sooo, what do you think? Pretty cool huh?”
“But you killed them. I mean, they’re dead, right?”
Alaran laughed, “We’ve been killing them for the last few days now, Sky.” He paused, looked over his shoulder at the others, then back at her, “So, now that you know about us. What do you say? Wanna join us?”
“Join who?”
“The Liberated Ones.”
“But,” Sky paused, collecting her thoughts before saying, “But I want to go to Symphony. I won the lottery.”
“Sure, we all did.” Alaran replied with a thumb over his shoulder at the group, “But getting there’s the problem, right? Well, we have a plan, but it’s going to be pretty hard-”
“Not anymore.” A deep voice said from overhead, causing Sky and Alaran to instantly tense up. Craning their necks, they found a man gently floating through the air towards them. Knowing it to be an evolution and that only the nobles had access to those, Sky tried to run while Alaran began to bring up his rifle with a shout.
Then, the weight of the world seemed to press down on them so heavily that each collapsed to the ground.
“I’m sorry for doing that, but I didn’t want you to shoot me. I’m here to help.”
“Why…would you help us? Who…are you?” Alaran said with gasped breaths.
The man stepped under an overhead light, light gray streaks through his hair and bright teeth reflecting the world around him, “My name is Walker, but you might know me as Dante. I’m going to get you out of here.”
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