Chapter 61: People

Lue didn’t say anything for several seconds after Jaxir finished explaining what had happened, and for a brief moment Jaxir wondered if the call had dropped. Then Lue started swearing so violently that Jaxir pulled the Kinext away from his ear and stared at it, listening as his old friend somehow found enough different ways to call him an idiot that it became impressive.

"You inherited the Divinity of a dead goddess, pissed off a Minor God, got yourself banned from an entire province, and now there’s a Level 30 Epic Set hanging over your head?" Lue barely stopped long enough to breathe. "What the fuck are you doing over there, Jax?"

Jaxir couldn’t help himself and started laughing, which only made Lue’s rant get worse. Somewhere between another accusation that Jaxir had lost his mind and a creative insult directed toward the Minor God of Gravity, Jaxir decided that keeping the lawyer’s visit to himself had definitely been the right choice.

If this Lue was anything like the one Jaxir remembered from when they were younger, and so far he seemed almost exactly the same, learning about the Chance Corporation would only end with him doing something stupid. Lue would start asking questions, digging through things that weren’t his business, or putting himself directly in the path of people Jaxir still didn’t understand well enough to predict.

That wasn’t something Jaxir could allow.

People were already willing to move over a reward worth a few tens of thousands of dollars, and that was only for a bounty inside a video game. Once the Chance Corporation became involved, the scale changed completely. What would they do when billions of dollars were hanging in the balance?

Jaxir leaned against the basement wall while Lue continued venting in the background, his smile fading as he thought through the problem properly. The Level 30 Epic Set almost certainly wasn’t coming from the Golden Fleece Guild, and he doubted whatever faction Rin belonged to would spend that kind of money just to inconvenience someone who hadn’t even reached Level 10.

The church, though, made far more sense.

The bounty had appeared on every temple mission board under the Minor God of Gravity at the same time, shortly after Jaxir inherited the Fractured Divinity of the Goddess of Light. Clearly, this reward wasn’t coming from a guild, but maybe the god himself.

Rin, though, created an entirely different problem. She thought the Chance Corporation mattered to Jaxir, and if she decided to start spreading accusations about him abusing inside information or company secrets, his uncle and the board wouldn’t be able to ignore it forever.

A former heir running around Divinity under his real name was inconvenient, while a former heir creating a public scandal around the corporation’s most important product could start affecting money.

Once billions of dollars were on the line, Jaxir didn’t trust those people to stop at damaging him inside a game. His parents’ deaths had already taught him that lesson.

Jaxir stared at the pod for a few moments before deliberately dragging his attention away from the thought. There wasn’t anything he could do about his uncle from the basement right now, and sitting around imagining every possible way things could get worse wouldn’t make him any safer.

"So, if I survive all of this, does that technically make me famous?" Jaxir cut into the first gap in Lue’s rant, smiling again when the other end of the call went silent. "I feel like having an entire province know my face has to count for something."

"You’re unbelievable."

"Thank you, I’ve been working on it."

"That wasn’t a compliment, Jax." Lue exhaled slowly, and when he continued, most of the anger had finally drained out of his voice. "I’m serious, though, you need to be careful."

"I know, and I’ll figure it out." Jaxir pushed himself away from the railing and started toward the pod. "Besides, it’s just a game, what’s the worst that could happen?"

Lue immediately started protesting again, which was exactly why Jaxir had chosen those words.

"I’ll call you later."

"Jax, don’t you fucking—"

Jaxir ended the call with a grin, though it didn’t last long after the basement went quiet again. His gaze hardened as he looked toward the pod, and whatever amusement Lue had managed to pull out of him settled beneath the much simpler reality that the longer he remained outside Divinity, the more time everyone hunting him had to move.

He climbed inside.

**

The forest returned around Jaxir in a wash of color, scent, and distant noise, and he found Nick waiting almost exactly where they’d separated. The man had his back against a tree with his arms folded, though the moment Jaxir appeared, he pushed himself upright and looked him over.

"Morning. You sleep in?"

"I have a life outside this game, believe it or not." Jaxir started walking before Nick could respond, though the snort behind him told him exactly how convincing that had sounded.

"You don’t look like someone with a life."

"Neither do you, or else you wouldn’t be trying to chat to psychotic, spell flinging priestesses, so I guess we’re both struggling."

Nick protested, and they continued through the forest without much reason to talk. The next few hours passed quietly as they moved toward Glimmer Village while staying away from the more heavily traveled roads, something Jaxir appreciated considerably more now that he knew every follower of the Minor God of Gravity could potentially have his face sitting on a mission board.

Eventually, the trees began to thin and Glimmer Village appeared beyond them.

Its layout reminded Jaxir of Twinkle Village even if the details were different, with a broad ring of forest surrounding the settlement before giving way to a wide stretch of open grassland. That prairie created a natural buffer around the walls, leaving anyone approaching the gates exposed for a long distance before they reached them.

Nick stopped near the tree line and looked across the open ground. "I shouldn’t be long, especially when you only need the more common pieces. They’re not exactly rare if you’ve got enough money."

"Get all six if you can, and don’t let anyone convince you they’re suddenly worth ten times as much just because I need them." Jaxir leaned one shoulder against a tree while Nick started toward the village. "I’d like to remain only moderately robbed."

Nick waved without looking back. "I’ll do my best."

Jaxir watched him cross the prairie until the distance swallowed most of the detail from his figure, then settled farther into the shade beneath the trees. There wasn’t much reason for him to move any closer when he had no idea what would happen if someone recognized him from the walls, and he wasn’t particularly interested in testing whether the church bounty included people firing arrows at him from half a kilometer away.

For the first several minutes, Jaxir occupied himself by considering the most obvious worst case possibility.

Nick could simply take the money and leave. He could also walk into Glimmer Village, report exactly where Jaxir was waiting, and return with enough players to collect the bounty himself.

They hadn’t known each other for long, and a reward worth more money than most people made in years was more than enough reason for someone to decide a new friendship wasn’t worth very much.

Jaxir thought about that possibility for longer than he expected, then found himself shrugging.

There wasn’t any way to trust someone without first giving them the opportunity to betray you. A few weeks ago, that alone probably would have been enough reason for Jaxir to avoid relying on Nick entirely, but he’d started realizing that the cost of never trusting anyone was considerably higher than he’d once convinced himself it was.

Meeting that brat who tried to kill him had already forced him to think about it, and Lue had only made the lesson harder to ignore.

The most fun Jaxir had experienced in years had come from talking to another person.

He’d spent so long believing the only thing capable of making him genuinely smile was one of his own stupid jokes that he’d almost forgotten laughter didn’t have to come from himself. Lue had made him laugh without trying particularly hard, and somewhere along the way, Nick had started doing the same thing.

There were moments now when Jaxir forgot he was supposed to be miserable.

Sometimes he would only realize it afterward, when the conversation ended or the fight settled and he noticed that he’d been enjoying himself without needing to force anything. That feeling was unfamiliar enough to make him uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough that he wanted to give it back.

Sometimes, you just had to give people a chance. Whatever choice it was that Nick made, Jaxir would just take it in stride. In the worst case, he’d just go farm the set the normal way.

Jaxir folded his arms and continued watching Glimmer Village through the branches.

The first ten minutes didn’t bother him, and neither did the next five. Once twenty minutes passed, though, Jaxir pushed himself away from the tree and started paying much closer attention to the distant gates.

By the time the wait approached half an hour, nothing had changed. The gates showed no signs of anyone he recognized walking through, and the silence of the forest around him weighed heavier.

Jaxir remained beneath the shadow of the trees, staring across the empty prairie toward Glimmer Village while the person he’d just decided to trust showed no sign of coming back.