You’ve critically succeeded at a persuasion check! This critical success has also allowed an automatic success on empathy! You gain 250xp and gain a level!

 

That was the message that greeted me when I finally opened my notification. A tiny +1 Persuasion skill floated up out of nowhere and just as quickly disappeared, along with another +1 Empathy. Eric Joel and I were about to tough it out along the corridors of my former apartment building and seeing that level up notification made me realize that I might need to be a bit more buff. I selected the notification. This would have to be quick.

 

I immersed myself in the character screen and, well, I was somewhat less than enthused. I had two points to spend on my abilities, and that was it. But, on the plus side, 250 xps leveled me. So maybe this was a quick level system and that would make up for them being so stuffty.

 

I noticed that there was another notification. I pulled it open.

 

WELCOME TO LEVEL TWO. YOU HAVE RECEIVED A CARD!

 

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Level 1 (UnCommon)(1CP)

 

Activate to add an additional 1 - 4 charm bonus to your intimidation and empathy rolls over the course of the next ten minutes. 1 hour cooldown.

 

‘For most it takes a lot of time and experience to know when to talk nice and when to show some muscle. But you — You’re a natural, kid.’

 

 

 

Learn Chance 63% Would you like to study this skill now? Y/N

 

I mentally chose yes and then watched numbers fly about in the center of my vision. They settled onto a 31%.

 

Good Cop, Bad Cop successfully learned!

 

The physical card materialized in my hand just like before. I contemplated it.

 

It didn’t seem like too powerful of an ability. But it was just one card point and at present I had plenty of room to spare.

 

I plugged it in and watched the blood-colored card point indicator tick down to 12(14).

 

Then I switched back over to examining my abilities.

 

I put one into Intelligence, making it now a solid 14. I couldn’t help but think those intuitions or insight or whatever the system had called them would be very useful in the future. And I wasn’t sure there was a connection, but it seemed like a logical connection for there to exist. Plus I’d have an easier chance at learning new skills. So I went ahead and made it so.

 

Plus I had a better understanding of what the Learn Chance was from character creation and how it applied here. It looks like there was a chance that after I got a card I’d lose it. I need to make a certain roll percent. But I could fudge those numbers if I upped my intelligence. Get a +1%.

 

Enough of those and I guessed that learning card skills would have to be something to worry about any longer.

 

I looked over the rest of it, my other ability point waiting patiently for me to decide.

 

 

Well, I had no idea about half of it. But on gut instinct I figured that hit points were always a good thing.

 

Poison resistance too.

 

I mentally zoomed in on the stat, noting that my base hit points were now 69, and that my total hit points had gone to 80.

 

I popped my other point into Constitution, bringing me to 14. My hit points swelled to a mighty 83.

 

Yeah, it’d get there. I checked around but I didn’t get any skill points. But I did see that the skill points that I had in my skills screen had experience bars on them. And, unlike during the creation screen, there was a max limit indicator.

 

Ostensibly I could level them up forever.

 

I swiped away the screen and nodded at Eric Joel.

 

“Alright, I’m good. Let’s go.”

 

The three of us moved out of the study area, heading back down the hallway from which I had come. Knocking at the door there produced a scream. And playing with the controls a bit showed that the door was locked.

 

Eric waved me and Patches back.

 

“I gotta pop the panel. Stand back. It all might get a bit dangerous in a moment.”

 

We watched him as he bent forward, keeping a little distance between his torso and the panel as he popped it open. He produced a switchblade and cut a few wires, then skinned off their rubber coating before twisting them together.

 

There was a loud pop, and an explosion of sparks showered over Eric.

 

“These dodgy apartment controls are always made on the cheap. An easy lock to pick,” he said, showing his sharp teeth in a lazy smile. He stuffed clawed fingers between the cracks and pulled the doors aside.

 

Within was a futuristic apartment much like my own. Unlike my own, however, the residents had piled up a barricade composed of any loose items they had been able to collect within the apartment.

 

I caught the eyes of one of them. A kid just 8 years old I guessed.

 

Reminded me of another place I’d been in a life long ago. A place a bit dustier and much lower tech, but the situation had been similar. Roving death squads had been through to take care of ‘traitors’ and the ‘unclean’.

 

I put out a hand, keeping that moment in my mind.

 

“Eric, Patches, you two stay back. I’ve got this.”

 

I worked myself through the gap in the half-opened door, then stood to my full height and showed them my hands, palms out. “I’m here to help,” I growled softly. “I’m not one of the baddies.”

 

Some muttering and whispers followed from behind the barrier.

 

“What’s that monster?” a girl asked. I hadn’t seen her yet, but the lilt in her voice indicated older, probably thirteen. A flash of motion in the barrier brought my eyes to her dainty little hand, pointing a finger through a gap in their stockade directly at Eric.

 

Crud.

 

“He’s here to help,” I said, a hollow pit in my stomach telling me that I was not at all doing this right and that I was also wasting time . . . and probably letting others get killed because of that fact.

 

I mentally glanced at my side panel and selected Good cop, bad cop.

 

Confidence flowed through me, and suddenly the concept of what to say and how to say it was that much clearer.

 

“He’s one of the good monsters, kids. He’s here to help me get you all to safety before the bad monsters come back. And yeah, he might be dirty, and he might smell bad, but he’s a cat. You like cats, don’t you?”

 

The kids wavered a bit, but I could feel the pull of my words. One by one they exited from behind their barricade. There were three of them in total; the thirteen-year-old girl, the eight-year-old boy, and a really little guy who looked to be about five.

 

“What are your names, kids?” I asked. I shared a glance with Eric. We’d have to keep them with us for the time being, at least until we got some adults to go with them. “Where are your parents?”

 

“I Jimmy,” the littlest one said. The thirteen-year-old girl picked him up and cradled him against her.

 

“I’m Jen,” she said.

 

“And I’m Tom,” the last one stated. The two oldest looked skittish and wary, but their actions spoke to their desperation. As did their lack of answers about their parents. I decided not to pursue the question.

 

They followed us as we walked over to the next unit. “Well, Jen, Tom, and Jimmy. I know things are strange. Different and scary even. But if you keep with us, we’ll figure out a way to get you all, us all, and everybody else somewhere safe.”

 

I felt awkward talking to them. It was almost exactly the same speech I’d given back when I was deployed overseas. And I never knew how to end it.

 

So I just waited for them to nod and then we went on our way. The next four neighbors didn’t present any difficulty, and the second of them had a younger college-aged couple that I deemed responsible enough to get the kids down to the first floor and put somewhere safe.

 

Assuming any part of this place was safe.

 

But everything went to hell as soon Patches, Eric and I ran into the fifth.

 

Approaching the next apartment, I was faced with a toad-faced giant of a woman, with a smooth round face and a glower that could suck all the sour out of a lemon. Apparently, the Prestige nano gray goo hadn’t taken care of the smells, because the stench of cigarettes and coffee breath came rolling out of her mouth in a thick wave.

 

“What in the hell are you doing here?” she barked.

 

“There’s a mob boss who’s sent his goons to kill you,” I said. “I’m here to rescue you?”

 

That sounded lame, even to my ears, and in my periphery, I failed a Charm check.

 

“Psshhh! Fake news!”

 

“Uh… I’ve seen it with my own eyes?” I tried. Jesus, I was a security guard. I should have been doing better than this. But the woman’s voice had drilled its way effortlessly into my ears and poisoned my brain.

 

“Get the hell out of here, and don’t come back!” she yelled, and brandished one of those phallic coffee makers at me like a rolled-up newspaper.

 

Screw it. I activated my shock spell thing and gave her a quick uppercut to center mass. Then I watched in smug satisfaction as her eyes bugged out in stunned surprise. She jerked a couple of times as if I’d tazed her.

 

I watched in awe as numbers came off of her. I’d just done 12 damage to her, if the red tallied dice rolls were to be believed.

 

Then she swung back, knocking me in the chin for 4. Not a lot, but to be honest I wasn’t expecting any resistance at all.

 

I slugged her twice, watching the numbers roll off of her.

 

She, in turn, vomited on my tattered jeans, before slapping me along the face.

 

People were a bit more durable here it looked like. Her health bar was low, though, I could see that.

 

In fact, now that I was apparently in combat, I could see the health bars of everyone around me. Eric’s and Patches’ were colored with blue, presumably meaning that they were my allies.

 

And hers was a demonic crimson red.

 

I stared at that health bar, wondering if I’d actually kill her if I knocked her down to zero.

 

No matter how ghoulish a person she was, I didn’t want to chance it. I blocked another slap, arching an eyebrow at Eric.

 

“Can you bind this one?” I asked. He shrugged, grabbed her in a full-on bear hug that pinned her arms against her sides, and started walking her away from it all. Presumably to the elevator.

 

“Patches, you stay with him. And both of you, come back here ASAP. I might need you again!”

 

Eric popped off a wave and patches trotted off with him, hanging to his poop-stenched side. I turned to my notification.

 

Encounter defeated. +15 XPS.

 

I chuckled at the notification and moved on to the next apartment. There was still work to be done.