The Tenth Wave… I could feel the game world unsubtly pulling its gloves off. Every Gacha gamer knows this moment. The game got you invested. It’s showered you with endless boxes to open and free junk which looks amazingly impressive to the newbies. They are into it. They have the rhythm now. And then the game changes the beat dramatically.

  It’s the cliff. It’s what the game designer has been building towards this whole time.

  Everything would take longer now. Every battle would be massively harder. Resources would stop flowing so quickly. They would still reward regular interactions. Got to have a lot of opportunities for the players to press a button, see shiny things and hear a dopamine fresh *Ding!* But it wouldn’t be enough. Free-To-Play just turned into Hard mode. Only the whales would thrive.

  The whales… and those of us spherically significant sorts. Those of us with more blubber than even the plumpest harbor seal. We greasy palmed, slick fingered brethren and sisteren, are simply above the gormless masses. We are the true grinders. The ones with calendar reminders for system events and login bonuses. The ones who uninstall and reinstall games until we draw that SSR ranked hero we wanted. Humanity’s apex. What all those apes have been marching towards.

  It’s lonely at the mountain top, but there is no view quite like it. I tipped my spiritual fedora to my comrades in the struggle, then locked back in on the battlefield. Smiling like an angel at the stream of workers flowing out of the gatehouse, off to labor for me on Hidden Moon Mountain.

  We build roads around here.

  I was promised a tyrannical rule spreading across the countryside, and by the Goddess I would have it no matter how much other people have to work. The key seemed to be connecting everything with roads. No problem. We had stacks of road building material packs. More concerning was the fact that I had limited places to connect with roads.

  Hidden Moon Mountain was the obvious first choice. It gave me zero Runed Bones per day, which was thematically appropriate but still irritated me. On the other hand, the announcement made a point of specifying that “specialties of the mountain” refreshed daily. And then refused to elaborate.

  Logically, not all territories will be created equal. That makes complete sense. And I get the impression that once a mine is built, the amount of resources we can extract will be determined by the level of the building and the number of workers in the mine, not the actual amount of metal in the ground.

  Which is wild. Hypothetically, given enough time, I could build an entire city out of Purified Moon-Forged Mithril. Either there is a cap I haven’t discovered yet, or this is a “Fire the QA Manager” level exploit. You really can’t call Hidden Moon Mountain a bad territory. It’s just… flat money every day is really, really appealing. Maybe “mountain specialties” is a fancy term for “hiring demons.”

  Connecting the Faerie Pond was kind of interesting. I could now purchase the bulwip berries in both the Gradden March Floating Quarter, and at the Goblin Market in my throne room. No need to spend an order just to buy a fairly weak buff. Normally that would rate a polite “Oh. Neat.” and then I’d ignore it, but once the road link was made a tool tip popped up.

  Would you like to upgrade the Faerie Pond-> Magic Glade? Costs 5,000 Runed Bones and 1 Frozen Diamond.

  At those prices, I’d be crazy not to upgrade!

  My treacherous right hand was moving before the thoughts had fully formed. It was intercepted at the very last instant by my left hand and my brain.

  This is how they getcha. “Oh, it’s just one Frozen Diamond, you have six of those now. You can’t eat them, what are you waiting for? Spend to accumulate. Early investments lead to long term wealth.” Then BAM! All of a sudden, everything costs Frozen Diamonds. I don’t even know if the Glade would give me anything good!

  I gave myself a serious talking to after that. I was right to- once the Bluestone Quarry was connected, you will never guess the tool tip that popped up.

  Would you like to upgrade the Bluestone Quarry-> Ocher Granite Quarry? Costs 10,000 Runed Bones and 2 Frozen Diamonds.

  See? It’s things like this. More and more places for you to spend your premium currency. So far, I had seen Frozen Diamonds used at some of the in-Tower merchants, Cutthroat Clothiers, Hattie’s Hat Shop to buy buffs at the final battle in Gradden March, and now they were necessary to upgrade the field resource sites.

  Nothing happened when I connected the Beast Den. Good to know, though I had a suspicion that it wasn’t that simple. The rug and totem it provided were a little too specialized in their usage. I’d bet they plugged into a mechanic I hadn’t come across yet.

  The game had been running for who knows how long. The number of mechanics and systems that must have accumulated is simply mind boggling.

  I gently sighed. We hadn’t even started repairing the roof and the damage to the walls. The work was frankly beyond my non-worker awakened, and my workers were needed to build roads.

  The sky changed and the bloody countdown appeared. I didn’t let it get past 9 before I gave the kill order. And just like that, it was the eleventh day.

  It had been a while since I summoned my Council. I got comfy in my reclining throne, reached for the bell, then jumped up like I had been electrocuted. “The Wave loot! Perfect clear bonuses!” I dove on the treasure chest, and was blessed with a cheerful explosion of resource packs (some even common grade!) stone tapes (a few with a fancy purple border that practically screamed quality goods) armor packs, weapons upgrades… and zero Frozen diamonds or resonance crystals.

  “You little theiving bastards. That was a boss battle. A boss battle! Don’t you know that you have to give unique rewards for boss battles?!”

  I tapped on the little glowing “Perfect Clear” reward. “Plus 5% resistance to Air Element attacks? Great, super. And you are going to make the elemental alignment mechanic relevant when? Or even explain it? Hmm, Devs? HHHHHMMMMMM?!

  I threw myself back into my microfiber throne and settled in for a good sulk/brood sesh. Then exploded out of it again.

  “THE BOSS LOOT! Good Lord! How could I forget that? VERSAI! What loot did we get from the boss monster?”

  She came jogging in. “It’s… a crafting material, but don’t ask me what you can craft with it.”

  Versai handed the thing over. It was a bit of… it kind of looked like… I groped for words. It wasn’t creepy or anything. It was just odd. Like a bunch of thick gauge curly wires had been brushed kinda straight, but they still bent around each other some. There was some electricity arcing between the wires, but it seemed to be cosmetic.

  I read the description, which didn’t help. Ruseh Beard- Crafting Material. And that was it.

  “Versai, let me clear everything up for you. Ruseh Beard is a crafting material. In other words, it is a material you can use for crafting.”

  “Oh? Amazing. I thought you could only use it to make stuff.”

  “I’m as shocked as you are.” I nodded gravely. I prodded it a bit. The material was surprisingly soft to the touch. I hesitated then looked over at Versai. “There is one possible person who springs to mind that could use this.”

  “Oh?”

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Hattie. She said that I should come back when I had more interesting materials for her to work with. Right now, I still have that attack twice material we got from the two-headed monster, and now we have this.”

  “Not sure how you attack twice with a hat, but sure. Always a memorable experience at Hattie’s Hat Shop.” She grinned at me.

  “My intentions are entirely pure!”

  “Are hers? Tower Master?”

  I briefly lost the ability to speak. She took advantage of my incapacity to keep on talking.

  “On a somewhat related topic, there is a new shop in the Tower.”

  “Oh? Where?

  “Right across from the dorms. Tower Master.”

  Versai should not be allowed to use her voice that way. There are certain forbidden intonations. Forbidden for good reasons. I shouldn’t have to explain why, and I will therefore not be taking any questions.

  “I have a lot of questions, obviously.” Versia said. I silently agreed with her, but she was still in the breathy voice penalty box. It is now confirmed one hundred percent that my Six Stars can mess with me. The road to tyranny is a long one, it seems. A road that runs through a department store. Or an oversized convenience store.

  I’m not sure what to make of this.

  “Angels don’t seem on brand for this game.”

  “Pardon?” Versai gave me a look and I shook my head. The Awakened didn’t really seem to be able to hear or understand that they were in a game. Probably best not to force it.

  The sign for the shop was plastic, back lit, done up in soft blues and whites, with powder pink accents. Soft Feathers was written in a non-threatening font with a chibi six-winged cutie welcoming you in. I guess they were supposed to be a little bit of a clumsy mascot or something because the top two wings were covering their eyes and the bottom two seemed to be wrapping around their feet.

  The view through the window was lots of low-ish metal shelves and bright convenience store lighting. Refrigerator cases lined the walls. I would have just said “convenience store” and been done with it, were it not for the fact that it seemed to be quite a bit larger than should be possible. Larger than the internal volume of the Tower, in fact.

  I walked in. Automatic sliding doors, I noticed. Every shop seems radically different. I’d have said they all came from different games, but maybe it’s that they were plucked from different worlds or universes. There was a soft blast of cool AC as we entered, and row after row of shelves stretched out.

  Little sealed plastic bags of all sorts of things filled the shelves- gloves, ice scrapers, batteries, pictures of what must have been saints or kings. An old fashioned stick broom, reduced to the size of my hand. A plushy corgi. Two eyeballs floating in a yellow fluid.

  In the refrigerator cases was every kind of food I could imagine, and thousands of times that amount of food that I couldn’t have imagined. Gourds. So, so many gourds, mellons and presumably tropical fruits ranging from hovering golden spheres to bright green tentacular explosions. Meat too- whole carcasses hung behind glass doors. Fish, snakes, animals with legs starting at one and running up to the dozens.

  And that’s what I could see from the front door. It took me a minute to process.

  “Tower Master? You are smiling, Tower Master Why are you smiling, Tower Master?”

  “Sorry, you are still in the penalty box. Let’s find the shopkeeper.” There was some kind of Gregorian chant playing on the store music system. Not really my jam. It should be some cutesy J-Pop to match the theme. I must file a complaint.

  “Welcome to Soft Feathers!” The clerk poofed into existence in a little burst of golden light. It was a fist sized eyeball surrounded by a dozen tiny wings, all fluttering to keep the eye in the air. The voice was a bit squeaky but not too grating. I nodded politely at it. The store owners thinking angels were eyeballs with multiple sets of wings was more in line with what I expected from them.

  “Great to be here. So glad you have joined the Tower. Say, do you have a list of what’s for sale here?”

  “Sorry, dear customer! Our shelves are for display purposes only. Here is what we have available today! Please come back often, as our stock is constantly changing.”

  I should have known. The usual store interface popped up. It ran for two pages, and seemed to be an insane grab bag of, to put it kindly, junk. Just the most random crap- left handed hammers, a single stick of gum, a pack of candy cigarettes, toeless socks, a stuffed animal that looked like the answer to “What if Cerberus was a Pomeranian?”

  “What does “Loyalty Level One” mean? I see it at the top right here.”

  “Dear customer, our store makes more products and services available depending on how much you have spent here, as well as the average relationship level with your Six Star Awakened. At Level Two, you get a five percent discount. At Level Five, you can put in special orders for specific products.”

  And here. We. Go. I had been wondering for a while where I was supposed to get all those products my Six Stars apparently liked. Now I know. The relationship gift shop- Soft Feathers.

  Which, now that I think about it, is exactly cutesy enough to be a relationship gift shop. A little on the nose, even. I’d have to go back to my office… err… the Hall of Records, and force myself to read their bios.

  I had been avoiding it. Like I was invading their privacy and damaging my peace of mind at the same time.

  I spotted one item in the middle of page two and smiled. “I’ll buy all five of these.”

  “Fifty Runed Bones please, Dear Customer.”

  Soon enough they would be charging Frozen Diamonds for the higher level gifts. If I was really unlucky, the highest level of relationship levels would be locked behind a VIP pass or something. I’d take the good where I could. Trouble would come on its own soon enough.

  The Hall of Records had lost most of its charm for me once I got my throne. It only had a single hard backed wooden chair- a very distant second place compared to the deep plush of my microfiber recliner. My six stars were preserved in resin on their display shelves. I had four of them now. Versai, of course, then Carousel, Othai and Mrs. Hungry. Each in their charming poses.

  I took a quick look at Versai’s sheet, just to refresh my recollection.

  Versai- Vanguard, Six Stars

  HP: 1,005

  Attack: 480

  Defense: 292

  Block: 400

  Speed: 217

  Resistance: 300

  Level: 16

  Relationship Level: 1

  Weapon: Sergeant, 2/5

  Armor: Sergeant, 1/5

  Special Abilities: Inherent Superiority, ???

  Friends: ????

  Rivals: Carousel

  Elemental Alignment, Earth

  Part of the Palace Defenders Set.

  Ever since she was a little girl in Gradden March, Versai knew that she would grow up to be a knight, defending Queen and Country. Who could have guessed that a Marquess' second daughter could become the Queen’s personal Bodyguard?! And if rumors are to be believed, maybe something more…

  Likes cool jelly desserts and comfortable socks, dislikes rowdy crowds.

  More or less how I remembered, but she had been making upgrades. I still had no idea what the stats mean in any kind of meaningful way. The numbers were going up. What else really mattered? If she had an extra 50 in resistance, would it have killed the Tree Boss faster? Would it have been a better use of resources than making the moat a foot deeper? I honestly don’t think so.

  Nice to see some of the blanks filled in, though. No surprises about Carousel. A lot of history in Gradden March.

  My eyes were drawn irresistibly back to one particular line on the sheet- Part of the Palace Defenders Set. Not Gradden March. Palace Defenders. Could they all be from the same world as Gradden March? Or was it a set made up of Awakened from different worlds who all defended palaces?

  So many questions. I’d have to just add that one to the heap.

  I Picked up Carousel’s figurine. Gorgeous in soft lilac, with her tall magic staff and its sparkling crystal, with a hint of mystery added by her wide, floppy hat. Slender and thick in all the right places.

  Not, for example, a short, stout woman of around fifty five or sixty, bearing evidence of a hard lived life who sacrificed every single thing she had to give her people a chance to go out fighting. To not be reduced to food or animals. To die a human being. A woman who died on her feet.

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and just breathed for a moment. Then I read the sheet.

  Carousel- Direct Damage, Six Stars

  HP: 490

  Attack: 500

  Defense: 50

  Block: 0

  Speed: 150

  Resistance: 1500

  Level: 7

  Relationship Level: 0

  Weapon: Sergeant, 1/5

  Armor: Enlisted, 1/5

  Special Abilities: Final Revel, ???

  Friends: ????

  Rivals: Versai

  Elemental Alignment: Arcane

  Part of the Blue Roses Set.

  She’s always been a people pleaser at heart. She loved her time in the Royal Mage Corp, so when she retired, running a bar was an obvious choice! She even hired dancers and singers, to make sure everyone was just as happy as they could be. She might be a little greedy, a little cheap, sure, but just look at how happy everybody was. Everyone singing, dancing and laughing, spinning round and round the Carousel.

  Likes: Magic books, big candles, music boxes.

  Dislikes: Slavers, Monsters, and snooty types.

  I smashed my fist into the case. It didn’t do any damage, but it was instinctual. HOW DARE THEY! HOW DARE THEY!

  The room seemed to go dim as my vision narrowed, tunneling down on the words “cheap” and “greedy.” The snide “people pleaser” was a real gem too. I gasped over and over, my body trying to convulse and laugh at the same time, locked up in the insanity of that character summary.

  I was building roads now. Roads. That was one of the things in 4X games- you knew you were up against a real enemy when they had a beastly road network. The Romans built roads. Imperial China built roads, the Emperors and Shoguns of Japan built roads, America was famous for its highways. Roads meant you could move stuff around easily. Trade, and troops.

  I’d kill them all. I’d start with this demi-plaine. I’d spread my tyranny and paint the map in my colors. I’d lead my Sky Realm to conquer in every direction. And once I saw there were no more worlds to conquer, we’d kill our way out, and take our battle to the Devs.

  A weeb could hide in his room. He could avoid conflict. Keep it on the internet. Dream of violence without ever facing it. Not here. Fear and killing were everyday things here. This realm made killers. Made people brutal. It was making me brutal.

  They chopped up bodies and souls, stitched them back together and reanimated them. Gacha Frankensteins raiding interdimensional graveyards. I hope they like their creations when I introduce them.