Chương 77: 76-The Losers’ Parade

"Only 198 Achievement Points?" Billy exclaimed in dismay as he reappeared in the Blue Room. It did not check out. He had taken at least nineteen mid-ranking Avatars with that explosion. He had expected to get close to 1, 000 AP. He felt his panic rising. He needed those points. He had sacrificed his Timespider form, and he was going to need it back for the final stretch of his journey. He had 198 points left, not enough for what he needed to do. There was only one solution left.

Mystic Storyteller: Alpha Learning (x20): You always incarnate as a level 1 Avatar when choosing this Akashic Template. You can use Learning the Ropes to level up—each level only costs 5 Achievement Points, as long as you do not deviate from the path of the Mystic Storyteller. He could return for a measly 5 points and gain levels at an explosive rate. Unfortunately, there was also this. You must swear an Oath when you incarnate as a Mystic Storyteller.

The Oath must involve completing a significant task within one week. Failing to fulfill the Oath will Exile you to Limbo. Discorporating counts as not having fulfilled the Oath. He was basically getting a dangerous quest and temporarily renouncing his immortality in exchange for cheap advancement. Jenna was going to hate it. There was no other way, however.

"I swear that my team and I will successfully complete the current stage of our journey…" he dramatically intoned, mentally pushing the respawn button. Nothing happened. He feared something like this might happen. The module did not consider a significant task something he was going to do anyway, with or without an oath. Billy sighed.

"... today," he added, making his task considerably harder. The world around him acquired new colors as he respawned in his new form. The scene around him was total chaos. The superpowered criminals they had been fighting had been reduced to dregs, but the situation had already devolved into a no-holds-barred fight, as the assassins fought one another and the city watch while searching for the real Losers and the Icosahedron they carried.

Billy threw himself to the ground, trying to avoid being seen as a group of Vorian Centaurs ridden by Hags galloped through the square. Mobs. Vorian Mobs. What were they doing here? The centaurs encountered a group of Amazon Sisters of the Spears charging into the same square from the opposing street, and engaged them in combat.

"What the hell is happening?" he suddenly heard Bob's voice at his side. He had used Shadowcraft to stealth his way to Billy's position.

"I think a lot of my twinners came back as Billies who lost their mind when spawning as dungeon cores. That is where the mobs came from. They are summoning their armies here."

"Just what we needed," grunted Bob.

"By the way, thank you."

"Why?"

"I unlocked Timecraft while you were blinking around Multiple Jenna."

"Something else has happened, Bob," he told him.

"I built my whole strategy around getting a bunch of Achievement Points from those Avatars, but I hardly got any."

"Not surprising. Those levels were false. The Avatars you killed actually had fewer real levels than before their empowerment. Wait, please, don't tell me you came back as…" Bob left the question hanging. Billy nodded glumly.

"Oh, boy. Jenna is so going to kill you," Bob added in sympathy.

"Are those yours?" Bob said, looking at the mobs killing each other in the middle of the street. Billy nodded.

"And that one?" said Bob, pointing at a titanic Billy with three heads and six arms, wielding a sinister machete in each hand while he hacked at buildings.

"I am afraid he is," Billy answered as he watched the rampaging form of Red William.

"A corpse-camped Billy."

"Let's go to the rendezvous point to meet Jenna. Too many Billys," Bob groaned. He would have to eat those words before the day was over.

"I am so going to kill you," Jenna said five minutes later, when they met at the rendezvous point. She breathed deeply, getting herself under control.

"On second thought, I will wait until you can safely respawn. One day to complete the mission, or you go to Limbo. We'd better get moving."

"I don't think we are going anywhere, Jenna," Bob answered.

"The fight is fiercer around the tower. It is a free-for-all for now, but if we show up there and they recognize us, they're all going to gang up on us. It is the Icosahedron they want, after all."

"I know, I am trying to find a solution," Jenna said as her mind worked.

"It is you three, isn't it? You are the ones who brought all this trouble to Julta. I knew there was something odd about you as soon as I saw you," said a new voice behind them. They turned around—it was Irina, the innkeeper, and the first Jultan they had ever met.

"Look, Irina, no offense, but this is above your pay grade," Jenna told her.

"Suffice it to say that we are trying to save Julta. And the whole universe."

"By drowning it in Dissonance?" Irina asked mockingly.

"How did you…?" Jenna started.

"Show it to me, now," Irina ordered curtly. Billy did not know why, but he decided to trust Irina. They were passing the Icosahedron between them, never letting it stay with the same Loser for more than ten minutes. It was currently his turn. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. He reached inside his clothes and showed the artifact to Irina. She gasped.

"It is true, then; you really have come to end it," she said.

"Follow me," she added, without giving them a chance to question her.

"We may as well do it," Jenna sighed.

"It is not as if we have many options. Why did you trust her, Billy?"

"I don't know," Billy confessed.

"There is something familiar about her, but I can't put my finger on it."

"We'll have to trust your instincts then," said Bob. They followed Irina. She guided them, dodging among the alleyways of Julta with the precision only someone who knew the city intimately could achieve. Billy could hear the sounds of battle far to his left. Now and then, the gigantic head of his corpse-camped nemesis could be seen among the buildings. She finally stopped in front of a heavy steel manhole cover set in the middle of a dead-end alley.

"This is the closest entrance into the sewer system. If you follow it south, it will take you three hundred feet away from the entrance to the Tower. That is as far as I can help you." Jenna enhanced her strength and ripped the manhole cover from the ground.

"The sewers are usually empty, but I would be very, very surprised if none of your pursuers had found them, so take care," Irina said behind her. She turned around.

"Not so fast, Irina, we are going to need…" She stopped short. Irina was no longer there.

"You know this could be just another trap," Bob told her as they looked at the entrance into the sewers.

"This whole city is a trap, Bob," Jenna answered as she jumped inside. Five minutes later, they were trampling southwards through the sewers. They were reasonably clean, for sewers.

"Hold on a minute," said Jenna, placing Bob's light orb on the wall.

"You are level 1, Billy. We can't drag you around like that. It is too dangerous for you."

"First, you are going to switch off that dumb power that makes enemies choose you first as their first target." Billy did it promptly. He did not even try to protest.

"Second, you are going to corpse-camp. Only two or three respawns per target, beasts we can kill quickly and easily, without drawing too much attention, such as this one," Jenna said as her hand shot out, so fast that it made a zooming sound, and caught a fly in mid-air.

"We are not moving until you are at least level 50," she said, with finality in her voice. Billy did not want to admit it, but he felt relieved that Jenna had forced him to gain levels. Mystic Storyteller was a powerful but dangerous form. It was easy to rank it up, but you started out weak as a baby. The next half an hour took him down memory lane, as Jenna caught insects, had Billy inject Corpse-Camping charges into them, and killed them four consecutive times, with Bob's help.

Jenna dispatched the insects they corpse-camped quickly and efficiently, with Bob using some Harmony perk to make sure the sound they made did not carry far from their location. Fifteen dog-sized fly corpses later, Billy hit level 50, and Jenna declared they were ready to move. They followed the sewers slowly and carefully; as soon as they hit a safe spot, the process began again. This time Billy was powerful enough to bring his powers into the fray, acting as a very powerful defensive mage.

This allowed the Losers to camp the same corpse more times, gaining AP much faster. Two hours later, when they had already covered half the distance, Billy was already level 99—his highest level ever, only one level short of an Omega's. His mind and his body had never felt so powerful. Reality had become malleable—everything had become a panoply of options. He watched the corridor ahead of him.

It was empty, but at the same time, it was filled with rat-headed mobs screaming for blood, seared by a huge energy blast that came from nowhere, inundated with brackish, black water, or collapsed by an earthquake. He only had to give a gentle nudge, and the corridor would become whatever he wanted.

"For the first time, I am feeling optimistic about this," he said to Jenna.

"Hold it right there, you three," a new voice demanded.

"You had to jinx it, didn't you?" said Jenna. They turned around and faced the newcomer. Like all the assassins, his face was both familiar and strange. A young Asian man, with glowing white eyes. His body bore wounds from a recent fight. Even so, he radiated danger and power.

"Give me the Icosahedron, and I will let you go," he said in a calm, controlled tone.

"Godmode," said Billy, in a pained voice.

"Our Godmode was a friend. I trusted him."

"And it cost you your body and your mind, you idiot," Godmode mocked him.

"Give it to me, now."

"Billy, this is not our Godmode," Jenna told him carefully.

"This one never knew Peter. He is still a slave to his pride. We are not giving you anything," she said, turning towards Godmode. The Asian man shrugged.

"It's your funeral," he said. He screamed the name of his signature attack, and a coruscating beam of white plasma filled the corridor. Jenna's body shriveled and burned to a crisp. Godmode stepped on loose rubble and lost his footing. His plasma beam fired wildly, hitting the roof instead of his targets. He was buried under a pile of rubble.

"Jenna, I can only do this once every five seconds; you have to keep him busy," Billy said worriedly. He had seen Godmode fight—five seconds did not sound like much, but with Godmode, they were an eternity. Their foe erupted from the rubble, screaming in rage. He flew down the corridor towards the Losers, moving into close combat range. Billy saw Jenna intercept him, her enhanced body stopping Godmode as if he had hit a brick wall. Bob cast Gripping Vines (Woodcraft 3), entangling Godmode's leg.

Jenna fell on him with her elven sword, but Godmode dodged all of her strikes gracefully, even with one foot bound to the floor.

"Anything you can do, I can do better," he said, his voice as cool and dispassionate as if they were playing chess instead of fighting for their lives. Godmode deftly disarmed Jenna with a martial arts technique and ran her through with her own sword. Godmode tried to disarm Jenna, but she dispelled her elven sword, headbutted Godmode in the face, and threw him to the floor. Billy sweated under the pressure. This was not going well.

Even by pushing himself to the max and using his powers offensively, he could barely contain Godmode, and each time he used Flimsy Reality, he took a risk. Sooner or later, he would get a bad result, and Godmode would kill them all. -Flimsy reality x10: The Storyteller can use his powers to make the alternative action a significant one. He can mimic the abilities of one single Choice belonging to any Competency, up to level 10, to create this effect.

The proposed action must be at least theoretically possible within the chosen scenario. There is a 1-in-20 chance of getting an undesired result. Very unlikely alternative actions can produce results detrimental to the Storyteller. Godmode levitated off the ground and looked at Bob.

"Anything you can do, I can do better," he said. Thick wooden tendrils surged from the wall, grasping Bob and Jenna. Billy swore. Rewrite Reality was still on cooldown. Godmode threw himself at him like an avalanche. Billy could not negate actions that affected him directly. His greatest power was useless to him in this situation. Godmode's hands went for his throat. Billy caught his hands and stopped them in mid-air. Yes. I forgot I am level 99. My stats are as high as his.

Then, to his horror, Godmode's strength started to increase, slowly but surely. Godmode grunted as his hands slowly neared Billy's throat.

"Anything… you can do… I can…" Suddenly, a new voice screamed.

"Anything you can do, I can do A WHOLE LOT better!" The point of a spear burst through Godmode's chest. The Asian core looked down at it, astonished. Then he died. Anything you can do, I can do A WHOLE LOT better (Spear Mastery 4): Scream this while attacking a villain who does not know you are there and triple your Body for a single attack. The name of the perk must be shouted as it is activated. This perk counts as a one-liner. It will activate as a rank 1 perk under the terms of the Oath of Vaughn.

Billy stood up, panting, and looked at his savior. He loved dramatic entrances. It was the second one Billy had seen him perform.

"Charlie?"