Chương 157: Chapter 156: Extension Packs

Meno showered quickly and put on whatever Vivi had brought him without wasting thought on the individual pieces. The shirt fit, the pants fit, and the light jacket somehow made the outfit Streamline-party ready without making him look like he was attending a corporate fundraiser. Good enough. Vivi had changed too. By the time Meno came out, she was wearing an orange dress that matched her hair closely enough that his first thought was that she looked like an orange. He kept that inside his head.

They left the suite and headed down the Pearl's hallway toward Rina's room, which sat on the opposite side of the communal bar area. Meno had almost reached her door when several neighboring rooms opened at once and Honeygrave's entire party spilled into the hall. Apparently, Rina had been placed almost directly beside them. Honeygrave came out first in a dark suit and waved when he saw Meno.

Merry followed, her long curly brown hair falling around hoop earrings so large Meno briefly wondered whether they could be used for target practice. She was almost exactly Honeygrave's height and wore a fitted black dress that wrapped tightly around her body. Three men emerged behind them, all in suits. Meno recognized the names before the faces: Sway, Jammon, and Ammonia.

He had never met any of them in person, and two had nearly identical light-brown hair, similar faces, and enough shared features that they had to be twins. The third guy was completely bald and clean-shaven. Based on their usernames, that made Sway the bald one for sure. Vivi brightened beside him, focused on one of the twins, and said, "Hello! Jammon, you look good." Meno had no idea how she picked the right twin.

"Ah, hey there! Sorry, guys, but we have to rush. We've got a flight to catch," Jammon said.

"You guys are flying commercial?" Vivi asked, surprise cutting straight through the polite hallway tone. Merry answered before Honeygrave could.

"That's perfectly reasonable. I'm not letting Honey blow a hundred grand on a private jet just to save a few hours. The early part of the event is going to be dreadfully boring anyway." Vivi's attention shifted to Meno with the same pointed surprise. Meno held her gaze, failed to translate it into a useful instruction, and eventually reached into his pocket.

He had brought the pack of chewing gum he found in the suite, mostly because it tasted like lavender and he had not decided whether that was terrible yet, so he pulled out a piece and handed it to her. Vivi stared down at the gum like Meno had handed her a special drop from a dog. Meno frowned.

"What?" Honeygrave and the others had already started walking past when Vivi caught Meno by the sleeve.

"Please."

"Please what?" She leaned closer and whispered, "Invite them, idiot." Meno looked after the retreating group. Did she seriously want to turn his private jet into a bus? Still, Honeygrave was a decent guy, and Meno had spent the afternoon criticizing his party composition, so offering them a ride seemed like a reasonable balancing action.

"Wait!" Honeygrave stopped.

"You can come on my jet. It has High Capacity, so it should definitely be big enough." Honeygrave looked like Meno had just saved him from drowning.

"Really? Thanks, man!" Merry immediately grabbed the back of Honeygrave's jacket and pulled until he turned toward her.

"There's surely no need to impose, is there?" Honeygrave's face went full death screen, like he had been ganked while killing the final monster for a quest and respawned at the shrine with nothing to show for it. Meno could not stand by and watch an innocent player suffer under such tyranny. Merry was clearly an IRL Tyrant with deeply negative Karma.

"There's a huge need," Meno said.

"I got the good jet. It's going to save hours on the trip back too. If you fly commercial, you could lose half a level, maybe a full one, worth of XP. All the people who live in Skyline are basically getting free progression because of this event. We can't allow that kind of injustice." The bald guy nodded immediately.

"That's what I was saying. PBG gets it. We already fell behind. We can't waste more time," Sway said. One of the twins added, "So true." Honeygrave turned back to Merry, received absolutely no encouragement, then faced Meno again.

"Thanks, man. We're taking the offer." Merry gave Honeygrave a deeply disappointed look before transferring it to Meno, with enough dislike packed into the glance that Meno felt like he had accidentally pulled a raid boss. He had no idea what her problem was, because he was pretty sure he smelled fine.

"Just a second," Meno said.

"I need to pick up my date." He knocked on Rina's door, and it opened halfway almost immediately.

"Come in." Meno stepped through, then stopped. For several seconds, his brain did absolutely nothing useful. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Rina was still finishing her hair in front of a mirror. She wore a tiny black hoodie over what looked vaguely like the upper half of a bikini, except somebody had made it much more complicated with extra straps and little metal rings.

Her skirt was short enough that Meno was not entirely convinced it qualified as a complete piece of clothing, and thin black straps showed above its waistband in a way that was definitely deliberate. The outfit ended in black high heels that appeared to have negative Defense. Meno finally recovered enough to speak.

"Uh. Are we going to the beach?" Rina kept brushing her pink hair, watching him in the mirror like she already knew exactly what answer was coming.

"You don't like it?"

"Who said that?" Meno pointed vaguely toward her stomach.

"I just got confused because I can see that diamond in your belly button." Rina laughed, stepped closer, caught his hand, and physically pressed one of his fingers against the small diamond piercing. Meno looked down at it.

"Should I go back and change into swim shorts too? Actually, I don't think I have any in the hotel. I can take my shirt off if you want."

"You look good." Rina let his hand go and returned to the mirror.

"And thanks for the pictures. They were quite something." Then she pouted slightly.

"Although you didn't respond to my texts afterward."

"Ah. About that." Meno leaned against the edge of the dresser.

"I might have been trapped in a flooding underground cave system while feeding portals to an evil god. That's kind of what I do. Is that a red enough flag for you?"

"Not even close." Rina laughed.

"I get it. I have things where I need to focus too and can't be interrupted, although I usually don't last as long as you."

"You need more steak. If you eat enough steak, you always have energy for another round of XP."

"Yeah, and then I have to spend an extra hour doing stairs. I like the gym, but not that much." Rina finished adjusting her hair, fastened a silver chain bracelet around one wrist, then grabbed Meno's hand and laced their fingers together before pulling him toward the door. As they stepped into the hallway, Meno leaned closer.

"We're also taking Honeygrave to the event because he's poor. His girlfriend is Tyrant IRL, so watch out. She might combine whatever you say into something completely different." Rina glanced toward the group waiting near the bar.

"Don't worry. I'm used to that." Her attention returned to Meno.

"You didn't look me up, did you?"

"Of course not. I promised." Meno squeezed her hand once.

"I like the mystery. It's like a loot box. One percent chance for happiness, ninety-nine percent chance for regret." Rina grinned.

"So you already regret this?"

"I'm rank one. I always win." That got another laugh out of her. By the time they reached the communal bar, Vivi had already returned to talking with either Jammon or Ammonia. Meno still could not tell the twins apart, although Vivi clearly could and seemed very invested in whichever one she had identified as Jammon. Honeygrave's party had no such issue with Rina.

Both twins forgot whatever they had been discussing and stared, while Honeygrave's eyes widened for half a second before Merry slapped his thigh hard enough to make him face forward again. Merry's expression somehow became even more sour after that. What was her issue?

"Okay," Meno said.

"Raid assembled. Let's go. Vivi, I hope you got a big enough car."

"Should be fine." They packed into the elevator. The twins kept glancing at Rina. Meno ignored it at first, until it started bothering him, and based on Vivi's increasingly failed attempts to reclaim Jammon's attention, it was bothering her too. Meno looked directly at the two brothers.

"This is my XP. Find your own spot." Both men understood, which somehow made the elevator more awkward. They turned almost in unison and stared at the wall for the rest of the descent. Rina leaned against Meno's shoulder, visibly trying not to laugh. Outside the Pearl, a long black car was already waiting with a driver, although calling it a car felt generous. Vivi had arranged a limo large enough to fit all eight of them comfortably, which made Meno slightly suspicious.

She had told him the car was handled before Honeygrave's party joined them. Maybe she really had planned this entire ambush in her head ahead of time. They climbed inside, with Meno taking the rear section beside Rina. Merry chose the farthest seat from him, then pulled Honeygrave down beside her and gave him a look that very clearly instructed his eyes to remain somewhere safe. Meno briefly considered swapping seats until he was directly opposite her, then decided spite was not worth that much effort.

The ride toward the airport settled down quickly. Rina sat close enough that their shoulders stayed touching, and after several minutes she leaned toward him.

"You know I would've been fine flying first class. You didn't have to charter a plane."

"Cool, but I'm not fine with it at all. This thing gets to Skyline in an hour. The crappy planes take three." The bald Sway immediately perked up from the side seat, suddenly more enthusiastic than Meno had seen him all afternoon.

"That's not true. Even a good private jet takes about 2 hours. Most of the time you save is from skipping all the airport hassle." Meno looked over.

"Are you a plane expert or what? I already used it once. Definitely one hour. It's a tier three mount."

"I have a pilot license. Unless you dropped three hundred thousand on this flight, it's going to take two hours."

"How many private jets have you flown?" Sway shifted in his seat.

"I mean, none, but that's beside the point." Vivi apparently could not tolerate the conversation anymore.

"It's a Cordjet F88. One hour." Sway's eyes went wide.

"WHAT?!" He tried to stand so fast that his bald head hit the limo ceiling with a dull thump, then dropped back into his seat. Meno was more impressed that Vivi knew the mount name than anything else. He still did not understand Sway's reaction. Maybe Peace Anchor Paragon had given the man an allergy to speed after too many hours standing still. Rina leaned close enough that only Meno could hear.

"Reeeally? Those are crazy expensive."

"I didn't get it to impress you." Sway made a choking sound from across the limo, though Meno had no idea why. Rina, meanwhile, seemed pleased. That was fine. Meno was not interested in peacocking for her or anybody else, since he had already tried different versions of that and learned enough. With Aurelia, he had acted like a lost puppy half the time, and remembering it made him want to delete his own memories.

With Oxy, he had treated everything far too seriously from the beginning just because they had chemistry. Rina had very clearly dressed to knock him off balance, and it worked. That did not mean he was going to lose the plot over it or start pretending to be somebody else. Whatever happened would happen. The limo reached the private side of the airport soon afterward. A sleek metallic-gray jet waited beyond the terminal, with two stewardesses standing beside the mobile stairs. That part was expected.

The three men in suits standing nearby were not. They wore AR glasses and looked military enough that the suits did nothing to disguise it. All three carried visible weapons, and their posture had the kind of rigid awareness Meno recognized immediately. Feltforge goon squad. Meno stopped for half a second. He had expected the protection team to be invisible, because that was the entire point of protection that was supposed to avoid attention. Why could Grandpa not send rogues?

Instead, he had received three warriors with absolutely no subtlety in their bones. Several members of Honeygrave's group noticed too, so Meno decided to get ahead of the obvious questions.

"Don't freak out. Those are my bodyguards. I'm a bit too popular these days to go around without them." The statement smelled like complete bullshit. It was also technically true. Merry looked from the security detail to Meno.

"Seems like a bit much. You seem to have a rather inflated image of yourself." Meno gave her the same patience he reserved for bad healer builds.

"Healer logic. You need the damage to happen so you're useful. I would rather not get hit." Honeygrave immediately caught Merry around the waist and pulled her closer before the conversation escalated.

"Calm down, would you?" Rina studied the guards for another moment before turning toward Meno.

"You are definitely a puzzle."

"Don't try to solve it. I told you about this, remember?"

"It's hard to know when you're being serious."

"Always. One of my best qualities."

"Sure is," Rina said, catching his hand again and pulling him toward the plane. As they approached the stairs, Meno looked at the closest guard. The man had a thick black beard and the permanent face tanks made while waiting for their healer to finish typing. Meno nodded toward the weapons.

"I hope you guys brought bigger zappers than those. The DPS check might be tough." The operative looked genuinely surprised.

"Briefing said one principal, low-profile detail."

"Well, there'll be at least eleven members from Crownfall at the event. You need higher Attack Speed." The man considered that, then nodded seriously.

"I'll get the extension packs."