Monster Hunt NYC 3 (Chapter One)

 (Note: Everyone can read this first chapter and it is LONG. After that, the patrons will get the following chapters. Enjoy! This book will be out on May 30th!)

Chapter One: Cash Rules Everything Around Me

Rather than stick around and watch our Proxima bank account dwindle as Iris took over the Dojo remodel, I lifted my finger and logged out.

The tone sounded, the Proxima galaxy disappeared, and I was back in Iris’ studio apartment, my counterpart lying next to me on her bed, her NV Visor still strapped to her face.

I placed my hand on Iris’ arm for a moment, just looking at her.

She was lifeless at the moment, as if she were in a deep sleep, but she’d be herself again once she logged out.

Ignoring some of the messages on my iNet dashboard, I ordered an Uberyota rideshare to my apartment and eventually made it outside, only to be told via a flashing icon that the vehicle would be a few minutes late.

I sighed, looking up at the dark sky, which was blotted out by gray clouds, the moon a blurred orb.

I was disappointed about our discovery in the Steeple of Litur and Industria. Not that I was expecting something big, but to get all the way to the top and find nothing? What a let down. Then there was the surprise attack on our Dojo from the man named William, who was out to get us for some reason.

I felt more annoyed at this now than I felt angry. Who would do something so petty?

But Iris would at least deal with some of the destruction he caused through the remodel, and we would get William back, eventually. 

It was only a matter of time.

I sat on the stoop that led up to Iris’ flat and activated the Monster Hunt app out of sheer boredom.

“Poor pathetic little Chase,” Aya said as her form took shape next to a trash can. The dragon woman narrowed her orange eyes at me, and took a step forward, her armor clanking against her broadsword. “He needs to lick his wounds a little in his own world.”

“I think it’s cute,” Lady C. said. She was in her warrior get-up, her hair tied tightly into a thick braid that draped over her shoulder. “It’s good to brood sometimes.”

“Of course you do. You probably find Chase’s morning bowel movements cute as well.”

I started to laugh. “You’re just too much sometimes, Aya.”

“Some people think I’m not enough,” she said as her ghost limbs lifted her into the air.

“Don’t mind her.” Lady C. sat next to me and placed her head on my shoulder. 

“Chase, I like you, really, I do,” Aya said, still hovering over us. “But if you are going to let that armored buffoon attack our guild and do nothing about it, I may be forced to find a new Alpha.”

“I won’t leave you,” Lady C. said.

“Like I said before I logged out, we’ll figure out what to do with William.”

She shrugged. “Thuleans have a saying about giving someone a taste of their own medicine.”

“Yep, we have the same saying,” I told Aya as she continued to hover.

“So Americans like poisoning people too?” Aya flashed the ‘okay’ sign at me. “Good to know! And you are sure that you’re okay with little Iris fixing the guild? I told her not to dare touch our cabins, aside from repairing them. I hope she doesn’t make the place too girly.”

“Time for bed,” I said as the Uberyota lowered onto the street in front of Aya’s apartment.

“Do not go to sleep without brushing your teeth,” the Thulean reminded me. “I will be there to judge you if you do.”

“I know, I know.”

I felt her ghost limb fall onto my shoulder as I moved past her. 

“Promise,” I said as I let Aya and Lady C. get in first, which must have looked strange to the man in the front passenger seat who was getting dropped off somewhere in Bushwick (according to the flashing words on the inside of the vehicle’s windshield).

But the other passenger didn’t say anything, and the trip was relatively quick anyway, especially with the fact I didn’t live so far from Iris.

I just didn’t feel like walking home.

The Uberyota eventually lowered onto the street, Aya continuing to comment on the guy in the front seat. 

I was glad he couldn’t hear us.

As usual, my roommate Alex was asleep on the couch, a local magazine open over his chest as he snored.

“There’s a Thulean animal that is like this man,” Aya said as she walked by. She unsheathed her sword and slowly lowered it onto his head. “Too bad,” she said once it passed through.”

“Which Thulean animal?” Lady C. asked.

“A fat dragon.”

“So there is a particular Thulean dragon that is fat?”

Aya gave the Metican warrior a snooty look. “Yes, a gunsyakhai. I’m sure you have heard of this.”

“Umm… ” Lady C. stopped, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “Yes! I know what that is. A Unigaean warrior named Oric Rune once slayed one in Tritania.”

“Then he got lucky.”

Once we reached my bedroom, I ignored their conversation and ducked under the pipe in my room, heading straight for my toothbrush. 

By the time I finished brushing my teeth, both Aya and Lady C. were in my bed, Lady C. curled up, her eyes shut, and Aya sitting with her legs crossed, her armor now removed and replaced with a tight tank top that showed her nipples and barely covered the green skin of her chest. 

“All my other sleep clothes were dirty,” she said with a huff. “No touching.”

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The next morning came faster than I would have liked. Aya was snoring, her hair a mess, her tank top hiked up and exposing her midriff. I moved to the right hoping to find Lady C., and when I couldn’t, I slowly moved to the edge of the bed.

The Metican warrior now sat on the floor, The History of Mortem and Chrono Magic open in her lap. She wore a dark blue blouse that I’d never seen her wear before, and her hair was down for once, her bangs nicely framing her face.

“Morning,” she said as I slowly moved away from Aya, careful not to wake the beast.

My iNet screen came alive as messages from Iris and a weather update. 

This was followed by advertisements, McStarbucks and Krunkin’ Kronuts both having some sort of fall special that involved pumpkin spice in some shape or form.

I mentally swiped away all the clutter, focusing on the video message from Iris.

“Chase, I’ve redesigned the place, so, um, I hope you like it.” She looked away for a moment. “Also! One more thing, and don’t hate me, but I just want you to know now that I spent all the money on repairing the place. But even so, the architects hooked it up. Check the bill. We can do some hunting to recoup some cash.”

“All the money, huh?” I whispered. I focused on the Monster Hunt app until my bank account information appeared.

Proxima Dollars: 1,845,000,000

Spent: $167,670

Loan: 0

A bill from Miles, Yards and Peter Meter popped up, replacing my bank account numbers in an instant. 

In a way, Iris had fleeced them with her 22k discount. I still didn’t know what RCD meant, but after working through a couple of iterations, I figured it meant Repeat Customer Discount.

Either way, I was interested to see the dojo, but didn’t quite feel like logging in at the moment.

“Wait,” I said aloud, my blurry mind mentally swiping the bill aside and moving back to the our Dojo’s bank account:

Proxima Dollars: 1,845,000,000

Spent: $167,670

Loan: 0

Over a billion Proxima Dollars?

It had to be some sort of mistake; there was no way, no way, we had that much money. 

Thinking of the exchange rate changed the Proxima Dollars into US Dollars almost instantly.

“Fifteen million dollars?” I asked aloud.

“Shut up or I kill you,” Aya said, who still rested next to me.

It has to be some sort of mistake, I thought, my hands suddenly shaking.

I dropped down next to Lady C., firing off searches about sudden deposits in someone’s Proxima bank account. 

There wasn’t much, just a few random stories about someone forgetting they’d traded gear for dollars the night before, or that they’d lost money after they were robbed in EverLife, which was apparently something that happens in Kingdom Ignis.

“Why the troubled look?” Lady C. asked, cocking her head to the left.

“Not troubled. It’s just so much… no way. There’s no way.”

“What are you talking about?”

I went for my glasses on the nightstand, took a deep breath, and checked the numbers again. “We’re rich? Yes. I believe we’re rich.”

“In that case,” Lady C. said as she shut her book, “We’re still going shopping today, right?” Her book disappeared, leaving behind a small cloud of sparkles.

I recalled then that Dalton the ink shadow had gotten us a gig in Kingdom Sana, and there was a big shopping district there as well...

“What do you think, Mr. Rich Guy?”

“Quiet… ” Aya growled from the bed.

“I don’t know if it’s our money or not,” I started to tell the Metican warrior, my voice raising in volume.

“Shhhh, you’ll wake Lady Aya. It’s just you and me right now, which it should have been last night. Why did you call both of us?” the Metican warrior asked, giving me a pouty face.

I ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t know, I guess I just needed some company.”

“Am I’m not enough?”

“You know that’s not the case.” 

Iris’ face appeared on the bottom left hand corner of my pane of vision. “Chase, I’m at your place now. Did you get my message? Are you awake? I have coffee!”

“Iris is here,” I announced.

“Can’t she wait outside just a little bit longer,” Lady C. asked, sighing miserably. 

I stepped out of the room, noticing that Alex was now gone. “It’s cold out there,” I called back to the Metican warrior.

The digital weatherman was right. As soon as I opened the front door, a breeze slipped in, kicking a few brown leaves into the living room.

“It’s so windy today.” Iris was in a turtleneck sweater, a bomber jacket, cut-off jean shorts, leggings and a pair of old DisNikes. “One latte for Chase… ”

“Iris, have you looked at our Dojo’s bank account recently,” I asked her, still mentally refreshing the numbers just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

“I told you I spent it all. You got my message, right?”

“Iris… just take a look.”

She nearly dropped the latte she was handing me, but managed to save it just in time. “How did… whose money is that? Wow!” 

“No idea… ” I started going through the messages I had ignored last night and found one was from someone I didn't recognize.

“Ray Steampunk? Does that name ring a bell?” I asked Iris.

She nearly shoved me. “Why would Ray Steampunk... Wait, you really don't know who that is?”

“How am I supposed to know who this guy is?”

“What are you two going on about?” Aya asked as she entered the living room, her orange hair a mess. “And where is your fat roommate? I was going to tickle him. Or kick him. Maybe kick him.”

“The message is from Ray Steampunk,” I told Iris. “It says... No, this is impossible. I'm forwarding this to you. It can't be true.”

Iris’ eyes flashed for a moment as she read the message that I just received.

“Holy shit…”

“Shit cannot be holy,” Aya told Iris. “And I am disappointed in your use of colorful language. Now someone tell me what is going on?”

The message from Ray Steampunk congratulated me for discovering the secret of the Steeple of Litur and Industria, that it was related to chakras and music. For being the first to discover the secret, I was awarded the equivalent of fifteen million bucks in Proxima dollars, I would also be given real estate, which would be discussed as soon as I met with Steampunk’s lawyer.

There were no strings attached. 

I was free to do it the money what I wanted, and only I, or people I approved would have access to the steeple. The last line also caught my attention:

Perhaps it would be a great place to form a Dojo, or perhaps you would like to sell it.

“Chase, I don't think… no, I do think you understand. Don't you? Do you understand what this means!?” Iris asked, her voice suddenly shrill.

“I get it, I get it.” I gulped. “I’m… rich.”

“Yes, you are rich!” Iris jumped forward and gave me a hug.

“Ooo, how cute, better not let Lady Cassandra see that,” Aya muttered.

“What should I do with this money?” I asked Iris, a weird feeling in my stomach.

“I really don't know what you should do about it. Maybe cash half of it out? I'm assuming you're going to get a letter from Ray Steampunk's lawyer relatively soon. And I don’t know about the property part.”

“What am I supposed to do with this much money?” I asked, suddenly feeling confused. “What about taxes?”

“Maybe you can start by getting a nicer apartment,” Aya suggested. “And only a fool would pay taxes. There are good accountants in Ultima Thule who can make sure you don’t pay a dime.”

“Chase is getting a new apartment?” Lady C. stepped out of my bedroom and plopped down on the couch. “I'm so glad your roommate is gone; he was snoring way too much last night. Why does he always sleep on the couch? Doesn't he have a bed?”

“Wait, are you advocating tax evasion through a digital accountant?”  Iris asked Aya.

“Of course I am! What the government doesn’t know won’t hurt them… ”

“Yeah, no,” Iris said, “you’ll have to save some of that for taxes. Shit. It’s New York State.”

“So half?” I asked, still looking at the number on my pane of vision. “I have no fucking idea.”

Iris placed her coffee on the table. She sat next to Lady C. and massaged her forehead. “Damn, this is crazy.”

“Chase is rich now,” Lady C. told her. “Cool, right?”

“And the first thing you are talking about is taxes?” Aya laughed so hard she nearly fell over. “Chase, worry about taxes next year, you fool! Spoil yourself, spoil us. No… spoil me!”

“She really is the devil on your shoulder, isn’t she?” Iris asked.

“And I’m the angel,” Lady C. chimed in with a sweet smile on her face.

Aya rolled her eyes. “Please, Lady Cassandra, you are making me sick over here.”

“I guess… I guess we could start by getting all the gear we want. We could also get your Juno-60 repaired,” I finally said.

Iris started to laugh. “You get fifteen million dollars deposited into your bank account and the first thing you worry about is music?”

“I… ” I shrugged. 

Taking my first sip of caffeine helped, but I was still under the impression that someone would take the money away from me sooner than later.

Aya stepped over to me. “Chase, you worry too much. I’ll make this simple for you. First, you spoil yourself in this world; second, you spoil us in ours and third, we use the money to make William’s life hell.”

“Plus you have a tournament to get ready for,” Iris said.

“About that…”

“What’s that look supposed to mean? You’re still going to take part in the tournament, right?” Iris asked me. “I mean, that’s kind of why we went through all the trials and tribulations to begin with.”

“Does it really matter anymore if we’re the toughest Level Four players in EverLife?” I asked honestly. “The main reason we were doing this was for money and now… ”

Iris’ eyes darted away from me.

“I’m just saying, that’s sort of why we were doing all this in the first place, you know, for funds. And now we have funds.”

“And we’re not having fun with our funds,” Aya pouted. “Look, Iris, sweet nerd musician. How do you musicians say it? Ah, I remember—let’s play it by ear. We can start with spoiling ourselves, and then go from there.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t more interested in the tournament,” Iris told her.

“I’m interested, but I’m also interested in going to a spa in Kingdom Sana and getting pampered. Thuleans love being pampered. We may have rough edges, but they can be smoothed out,” she said, with a little wiggle of her ass.

“And there are some pretty good book stores there,” Lady C. added. “Also, Chase probably wants us to get some different outfits. We always wear the same things.”

“I’ve noticed,” said Aya, looking down at her armor.

“We shouldn’t start spending any of the money until we get confirmation from Steampunk’s lawyer,” I said. “And I don’t care what you wear.”

“Okay,” Lady C. said, starting to take off her clothes.

“Wait,” I said, Iris’ laughter meeting my ears. “You know what I mean.”

As if the famous game developer’s lawyer was listening, a message came to me from a man named Thomas Baker, who just so happened to have an office in Midtown, not far from Bryant Park.

“Well, it looks like we’re going on a ride,” I told the three. “Steampunk’s lawyer just contacted me.”

“Good, get us a nice vehicle this time,” Aya said as she started fixing her hair. Eventually, she gave up and just put her cap on. “Something nicer than the cramped rideshare we took last night.”

“We’re going to meet a lawyer?” Iris asked. 

“Yep… ” I said with a shrug.

“Um, sure, yeah. Just let me finish my coffee.”

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So I splurged.

We took a convertible aerosSUV, Lady C. and Aya in the back with me, Iris up front. The vehicles seats were made of an incredibly soft leather, the seats heated, our asses warm as we brought the top down and let the wind whip all around us.

Goodbye, Clinton Hills, I thought as I looked down at Brooklyn, which grew smaller by the second. 

“This is an amazing ride,” Lady C. said, hugging my arm.

Aya stood, and lifted her sword into the air, crying out Thulean. “Aye! Aye!”

“Simmer down back there,” Iris told them. “Dou want me to put the top back on?” she called out over the sound of the wind beating in our ears.

“Not in the least bit,” I called up to her.

“It’s cold but…”

“Screw it, right?” I called to her.

“Yeah, screw it!”

“Yes!” Lady C. shouted, standing as well.

We quickly made our way to the Upper West Side, buildings along the horizon poking at the clouds above, Manhattan endless, moving up the coastline to Harlem, Yonkers, Connecticut and beyond. 

There was so much to explore New York, so many places to call home, and in that moment above the city, I wished that I’d spent more time exploring my hometown.

And maybe I would...

It was a cloudy day, but the sun was there as well, peeking through a few of the gray clouds, glazing the sleek surfaces of the buildings with tangerine light.

“Chase, if you truly are a rich man now, this is how you will travel with us in your world.”

“Let’s not count our eggs before they hatch,” I reminded Aya.

“Nonsense, we will make scrambled eggs with those eggs if they dare hatch. If you’re lucky, I will make something that taste like dragon wings.”

“Dragon wings?” I called to her over the wind.

“We Thuleans do not eat dragon wings, which are fried wings of baby dragons. So the substitute them, we use chicken wings.”

“So like the chicken wings we have here?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “I do not know what you have here. But we do not eat our own kind.”

“I get that.”

“Would you eat a monkey or pig?” she asked me.

“I would eat a pig.”

“Then you each her own kind,” Aya said, laughing, baring her teeth as she threw her head back. She almost lost her hat, which she quickly caught, giving me an annoyed look.

I was glad that her blade wasn’t real; it was currently tucked between her legs, which made me question her swordsmanship for a moment.

“There are so many cute restaurants around here, I can just tell,” Lady C. said as our vehicle started to land.

“What makes you say that?”

“There are always good restaurants in the nice parts of the city,” she said, looking around. “That’s why you should take us to the nice parts more often. Instead of just Brooklyn. Well, I guess some parts of Brooklyn her nice. But wouldn’t you prefer to take us to a place like this?”

“Yeah, Chase, wouldn’t you prefer to take us to a place like this?” Iris asked in a mocking tone, turning around and looking at me. The vehicle beeped, the top coming up and over on its own.

“And, goodbye,” I said to the two huntresses as I closed the Monster Hunt app.

The aeroSUV settled and a soft tone told us we were now allowed to exit. I got out first opened the door for Iris, smiling at her she stepped out.

“Thank you,” she said as we turned and looked at a building, spotting a digital placard floating before that listed the various businesses inside.

“Seventeenth floor,” I said, tapping my finger on Thomas Baker’s name.

We entered the lobby, only to be greeted by two men with thick accents, the building’s doormen.

They didn’t say anything to us, but one of them did look at me curiously for moment, wondering why a guy wearing a loose military jacket, jeans and a band T-shirt was in such a nice office.

He didn’t say anything though as we took the elevator to the seventeenth floor, where we were greeted by a male receptionist with a perfectly styled haircut.

“And you are here to see… Mr. Baker, correct?” he asked.

“That’s right,” I told him, watching his pupils flash for a moment as he cycled through some options over iNet.

“Great, this would only take a minute. Please, take a seat, and let me know if you would like anything, like a bottle of water, or a latte.”

“I’ll have a latte?” Iris asked, looking to me for approval. 

I nodded. 

“Make that two,” she said.

“Remind me about this Ray Steampunk I again,” I told Iris as we sat down in the lobby, the only two people there aside from the receptionist.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, so I don’t look like an idiot.”

“Ray Steampunk was one of the early developers of the Proxima Galaxy,” Iris explained. “He died in a car wreck, but as soon as he died, his RPC respond in one of his favorite worlds, and active steampunk world called, well, Steam.”

“RPC?”

“Reborn Player Character,” Iris explained. “Similar to an NPC. People pay good money to live forever in the Proxima Galaxy after they die. Basically, all of the details are downloaded into an NPC, who takes on that person’s persona and continues their life. Haven’t we been over this before?”

“If we have, I’ve already forgotten about it,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Steampunk is still active in the Proxima Galaxy, and he was one of the people that helped develop EverLife. My guess is he put the Steeple in as an ultimate quest, and no one was able to solve it until you did.”

“I wondered why it took so long for him to get back to me though,” I said. “I mean, we got to the top. There was nothing there. Just a white room. You think the room would have told us something... ”

Iris nodded.

“ Mr. Baker will see you now,” the receptionist said as approached us. He led us down a narrow hallway to a back room.

This lawyer was definitely living it up. A corner office, a great view of the city, updated furniture, a mahogany desk, it was very clear that this lawyer had some money to play around with.

“Mr. Knowles?” he said, standing. He shook my hand and encouraged me to sit in front of him, gesturing for Iris to sit in the other seat.

Thomas Baker wore a pinstripe suit, a tie with a tie clip that matched his cufflinks, his eyebrows perfectly manicured, a small amount of gel in his hair creating a natural part. His authority apparently came with his ability to dress well and the degrees on his wall, which he proudly displayed on a bookshelf near the door. Yale, Columbia, Harvard: the man exuded East Coast elitism.

“I’m his friend, just in case you were wondering,” Iris said.

“I figured as much,” he said, “that or his girlfriend.”

I exchanged glances with Iris and she shrugged.

“No, friends,” I said. “Well, bandmates.”

“I see you are a musician,” Baker said, the look in his eyes telling me that he was checking into my details over iNet. “And the fact that you are a musician led you to discover the secret of the Steeple. So congratulations,” he chuckled, “you have finally made playing music a profitable enterprise.” 

“Excuse me?” Iris asked.

“Do you know any musicians who are rich?” the lawyer asked in a jovial way.

“I mean, maybe some famous ones,” said Iris.

“Exactly. But were not here to get into that, we’re here to talk about the money and property you’ve been awarded.”

“We still haven’t been briefed on the property,” I started to say.

“Yes, the Steeple. Did you not read about that in the message Ray Steampunk sent you?”

“It just said you would talk to us about it… ”

He laughed again. “You know, I advised Mr. Steampunk’s RPC not to do something like this, but it’s his money and it it is his idea.”

“Do something like what?” Iris asked.

“Just give this stuff away. The money, the property. You do realize how much that property in EverLife is worth, do you not?”

“I have no idea what it’s worth,” I told him. I caught Iris’ eyes lighting up behind her glasses, indicating that it was worth a considerable sum.

“You are fast,” the lawyer told her. “As your friend here has probably already found out, the property is worth more than the money you’ve been awarded.”

“This is just…” Iris said, wide-eyed now.

“Too much?” The lawyer asked. “That’s what I told Mr. Steampunk, but it’s his money and we’ve been confirmed with his RPC that this is what he wanted to do. In fact, that was why it took us so long to get to you, or, to schedule the message that he had already dictated.”

“Because you had to check me out?” I asked.

“Exactly. We knew that someone had cracked the secret, none of us on his legal team or anyone in his inner circle really knowing what the secret was, but we had to do a background check on you to make sure that you didn’t do so in a cheating way. Which you didn’t. At least not that we can tell.”

“I actually did not cheat. I wasn’t even really… ” I shrugged. “Well, I wasn’t actively trying to solve it, but it was mostly just, I don’t know, an idea that came to me. Actually, we both kind of solved it, she was the one that helped me dig deeper into the chakras, and the keys they responded to.”

“So you would like to split the prize then?”

I looked to Iris. “Sure.”

“No,” Iris said. “Absolutely not, Chase, this is yours. You earned this.”

“I mean… ”

“I don’t really care what you do with it,” Baker said, “but you know what? To save me some time, I’d be glad if you signed these documents now. If you decided to give her some of it, you can do so later. You can hire an attorney to take care of this for you, or you can contact our office and we will set it up.”

“Okay… ” 

“Also, you should know that New York taxes are going to hit you hard for this, so just save a little bit of it for that. Otherwise, you will end up owing taxes that you can’t afford. In fact, I can put you in contact with one of my tax guys, he’ll tell you what you’ll owe in the future. So just set some of that aside.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling overwhelmed with information.

“You could also set up in a trust. You are on universal basic income, are you not?”

“I mean, I guess I was?”

He nodded. “Exactly, you were, but as of today you are no longer on UBI. Because you clearly don’t know what to do with this kind of money, I would have fun with the cash, sell the property, and put the proceeds of it in a trust fund or something, and set to pay you out over the next fifty years. That way you won’t spend it all on a Lamborghini aeros, or some overpriced instrument. You get the picture.”

“Yeah,” I told him. 

I didn’t like the tone he was taking with me, but it wasn’t bad advice. Not that I would go out and buy myself an expensive sport car, but given this kind of money, maybe I should preserve it.

“Is that all you have to say?” he asked after a long pause.

“And I can’t really think of anything else. Iris?”

“Um… no, nothing to say.”

Baker raised an eyebrow as he looked from her to me. “Would you like to arrange a meeting with Mr. Steampunk?”

“Yeah, of course, if he’s up to it. Does he ever visit EverLife?”

“He will be at the tournament. You are still participating in the EverLife Tournament, are you not?”

“I…” I glanced Iris to see her nodding. “Someone from our group will be there. I can definitely say that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“The only reason I was doing all of this was for money, and now that I have it, I really don’t know if it’s what I want to do. I might just play music in the Proxima Galaxy, that’s more my style.”

He frowned. “It appears your bandmate here doesn’t have the same opinion…”

“We’ll figure it out,” Iris told him, a thin smile coming across her face. “Now about that paperwork… ”

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

“Chase, just stop for a second,” Iris said as we exited the elevator.

“What’s up?”

“Look, I know you feel like you have a lot of money now, but I don’t think you realize how much that property is actually worth.”

“It’s our money,” I reminded her. “And our property. I wouldn’t even be where I was if you hadn’t given me the code.” I paused for a moment, looking deeply into her eyes. “I mean it.”

“It’s your cash to keep.”

“Iris, I can’t keep all this… not with all the help you’ve give me. I mean, I wouldn’t have used the Monster Hunt app if it wasn’t for you.”

“We can discuss that later,” she finally told me as we stepped around a potted plant. “But back to what I just said: have you looked up how much the Steeple is worth?”

“No, but I’m assuming it is worth more than that cash given to me.”

We passed a doorman attempting to look busy, but actually trying to burn out the clock.

“We’re talking more money than either of us have ever even considered before,” Iris said.

“All right,” I stopped near the building’s exit, waiting for iNet to fire up on my pane of vision. As it did, I took a seat in the lobby, Iris plopping down next to me as I mentally keyed in the term ‘EverLife’ on a Proxima Galaxy real estate site. 

Once I was given a basic spread of the land and the twelve kingdoms, I quickly zoomed in on the center of EverLife, a red outlying appearing around the Steeple of Litur and Industria. I focused on this and the price popped up.

“Do you see?” she asked.

“Holy… ”

“Exactly.”

“I’m going to have to sell that,” I told her quite frankly. “I mean, we are. And I’m giving you half of that money. I really don’t want to be in the center of EverLife anyway, too busy, too many people vying for our attention. I prefer where we are now on the outskirts of Kingdom Lume.” 

The number flashed away and I couldn’t help but shake my head. At least a hundred million dollars? And not Proxima dollars, actual dollars… 

“On the even brighter side, we can really pump up our dojo now,” I finally told her.

A hopeful look painted across her face. “So you’re not going to quit the Monster Hunt app?”

“Who said I was going to quit? I’m just not interested in playing the same way I was playing before, you know, for money. It’s just not as big of a concern of mine. So anything that would help me catch creatures that are worth more money, or tournaments, or Brawls, those types of things are less interesting to me now.”

Iris puffed her cheeks out as she thought this over. “Yeah, I guess I can understand that, but don’t leave me hanging at the tournament.”

“I won’t, okay?”

She glanced around, offering the doorman a quick smile. “Look, since we are in Midtown, I wanted to check out Mood Fabrics.”

“You’re into sewing now?” I asked her.

“No, nothing like that. I’m just looking for buttons, really. this place is famous, and it is been here for like two-hundred years or something. Well, maybe not that long, but definitely for over a century.”

“Should we walk then?”

“Do you really want to take an UberLyft just to travel a few blocks?”

“Good point, I guess this money really is burning a hole in my pocket,” I told her as we exited the building, heading west on Thirty-Ninth Street. 

Eventually, we reached Seventh Avenue, and even though I had been to Times Square countless times, I couldn’t help but feel the urge to turn right instead of left on Seventh, walk a few blocks down and see the crowd.

It was always something to see, and sometimes I wondered how NYC accommodated so many tourists at once. But rather than head toward the lights and sounds, we turned on the Thirty-Eighth Street, a typical nondescript Street in Midtown, one that looked like any of the others, lined with buildings, storefronts on the bottom, the architecture gothic and famous.

Many of the large cities around the world were known for their architecture, and New York was definitely among them. There were iNet apps that merely gave me information on buildings, who had designed it, when it was built and other interesting facts about structure. I had tried this app out before, but it became too tedious at some point, considering almost every building in New York had a history. 

“Are you sure it’s around here?” I asked her as we continued toward Eighth Avenue.

She nodded. “I have been here before, but it’s kind hard to find. It doesn’t really have a storefront like the others. You have to look for… ” Iris pointed to his location on the right-hand side of the street. “There it is.”

“You think they would have a sign,” I told her as we entered the building and found another doorman, this one a brown-skinned humandroid. He stood by the elevator in front of a placard that listed Mood Fabric as being on the third floor.

Once we stepped up, he asked us where we were going and keyed it in on the elevator.

We reached the third floor, and I nodded to two white leather chairs pressed up against the wall, telling Iris I would wait outside for her. 

As she entered Mood Fabrics, another elevator opened up and more women stepped out, followed by a guy wearing a silver dress.

The place was pretty lively for a hidden fabric store, people coming in and going out quite frequently. As I sat there, I took in the paint style of the room, black and white pinstripes, an stared for a long while at an old painting of a French bulldog on the wall.

I wanted to cross reference the information I had seen on the real estate site, to make sure that the Steeple was worth as much as the estimate. Over the course of the next several minutes, I checked a few of the other Proxima realty sites and found out that it was indeed worth the amount listed, maybe even more.

An incredible sum, really, something I still couldn’t quite get my head around.

I was rich. This was it. 

What so many people had hoped for, what so many people had misinterpreted as the American dream, had actually happened to me, and I wasn’t even trying for it to happen. I didn’t even know why I solved the mystery of the Steeple, aside from the fact I just found it interesting, I want to try something else, I was just…

Playing the game.

That’s exactly what I was doing, playing the game. 

And this made me smirk. 

Sometimes the game just hooked you, and there was nothing you could do but give in. 

And I guess there was nothing wrong in that. 

I stood, realizing that I was starting to sound like a philosophical asshole in my own head.

Smoothing my hands over my pants, I took my glasses off, cleaned the lenses, and turned to the fabric shop, figuring I would try to find Iris and see these buttons she was so interested in.

It took me a while to locate her, considering the shop was so packed full of fabrics, buttons, patterns, sewing goods and customers.

The only other place I’d seen so densely packed was a Chinese supermarket in Chinatown, which practically required a map to navigate.

But I eventually found her, Iris ducking down slightly, moving quietly through the aisles.

“Hey,” I told her.

Iris jumped back. “Chase, hey!” she said, embarrassment coming over her face as a heavy Hispanic woman wearing a neon jacket squeezed past us. “Ummm… ”

“What’s going on?” I asked, noticing that we are in the silk aisle. “This isn’t buttons.”

“Yeah, I was just looking around… ”

Iris glanced left quickly, and nodded her chin.

I snorted. “Hold up, are you hunting right now?” 

“...Maybe?”

“Seriously?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she hissed, “are you going to join or what?”

I gave her a playful sigh as I activated the monster Hunt app, Aya and Lady C. taking shape almost immediately. 

Lady C. had both her blades out; Aya’s buster sword was sheathed on her back, the Thulean striking a cool pose while also giving me a skeptical look.

“What?” I asked her.

“Less talk, more hunt, Chase,” Aya scoffed. 

“You’re the one standing there with a grin on your face… ”

“It is a pre-hunt grin.”

“What are we hunting anyway?” I asked Iris as I moved closer to her, hiding a bit behind Aya.

“It’s called a brigantia, a sort of goddess of sewing,” Lady C. explained. “The reason Iris wants her on the team is because she can heal, but she’s not Class Sana like a normal healer. She also has a defense spell. Definitely helpful!”

“Okay, and is she worth any tokens?” I asked Iris.

“Not much, but I think she’ll make up for it in usefulness.”

“This seems like a bad place to hunt… ”

Aya brought a finger to her mouth as she looked behind me, the Thulean warrior slowly drawing her sword.

“Are you going to stand there, or will I have to cut you down as well?” she asked me.

I stepped aside, letting her pass, her buster sword at the ready. 

Lady C. wasn’t far behind Aya, both her sharp blades now at her side as she glanced left and right. 

The Metican warrior was in the same outfit that she wore back at the tournament, a short skirt, armored top that was a little too revealing to be taken seriously, and in that moment I remembered that I had promised them we would go shopping, and we still had a gig with Dalton the ink shadow that night.

That was something definitely wasn’t going to stop doing. It didn’t matter if I was in this world, or the Proxima Galaxy, playing in front of people that were cheering me on was the way to go. 

Aya tiptoed up to the end of the silk aisle, gesturing with her eyeballs that the mythcrea in question was near, that she could see her. 

The Thulean still wore the cap had picked up after one of our brawls, but this time it was backwards, her red hair spilling out the sides.

Lady C. moved past me again, pressing just a little too close, and offering me a flirty smile as she went around the other way, to try to cut off the mythcrea.

Even though I had seen them worked together before, I still found something fascinating about the “years” of training that they had, and how they congealed together, Aya’s tactics more brash and brunt, Lady C. with her magic and quick swordplay.

Because the Metican warrior was on the other aisle, I couldn’t quite see what spell she had conjured up, but when I noticed bits of snow swirling around, I knew that it was probably her Bomb Cyclone.

“Chai dokavani!”

Aya sprung into action, crying out as she tried to strike the mythcrea with her big buster sword. I pressed past a Mood Fabric attendant, probably looking like I was either crazy, or that I needed to use the restroom.

Once I caught sight of Aya, I saw her form dipping in and out of the swirling snow, the clink of swords more grunts from Aya and Lady C, both of them now engaging the Brigantia.

The brigantia’s stats appeared on my pane of vision.

I didn’t have much time to look at them before Iris shouldered past me, a web of light moving around her hand as she got into position to catch the creature.

Iris slipped, taking down a barrel of rolled up fabric with her, the fabric falling into the aisle and some of it rolling in the opposite direction. One of the bundles caused a man to slip and catch himself by grabbing onto a swath of satin, which brought down an entire rack of fabric.

“Shit!” I said as I moved over Iris, the web of light now forming in the palm of my hand.

Lady C.’s wintery cyclone had started to clear, allowing me to see the action taking place.

I knew that the mythcrea wouldn’t be able to hold up for long against to trained Huntresses, but she was doing pretty well so far. A broadsword in one hand, her other arm turned to stone, the brigantia engaged Aya in the front, and Lady C. at the side, alternating between both of them.

“I’ve got this,” Aya shouted to Lady C., the Thulean warrior lunging forward with her big blade and narrowly missing a swipe from the mythcrea. 

An annoyed look on her face, Lady C. stepped aside, allowing for Aya to fully engage the woman without distraction.

The Thulean feinted a swipe, causing the mythcrea to stumble forward some. Aya changed the way she held her buster sword, and used its broadside to shove the mythcrea to the ground, quickly bringing the tip of her blade to the woman’s chin.

“Finish this, Chase!” Aya hissed, the mythcrea cowering before her.

“Got it!” 

A web made of light burst forth from the palm of my hand and wrapped around the armor-clad woman, her form instantly disappearing.

“Sweet,” I started to say, just as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to find the Mood Fabrics manager, a large, black woman with a huge pair of breasts.

“I don’t know what the hell the two of you are doing in here,” she said, smacking gum, her eyes narrowing on me, “but I’m about to call the cops.”

“That’s okay, you don’t have to do that,” I told her, lifting my hands up. “I’ll pay for any damages.”

“You better,” she said, nodding Iris over.

“Sorry,” Iris said, trying not to laugh.

“This is all your fault,” I told Iris under my breath as the manager led us to the front counter.

In the end, the manager only charged a couple hundred dollars for some rare fabric that was ruined by touching the ground.

We left Mood Fabrics as quickly as we could, Iris without the buttons she’d come for, and the Huntresses back at the dojo. The two of us took the elevator down to the first floor, and stepped outside, back onto Thirty-Eighth Street.

“Well, that was something,” I finally said.

“But it was fun, right?”

I shrugged, but I that did nothing to stop the smile creeping across my face. “I guess. So what now?”

She bobbed her head for a moment, as if she was listening to music. “Okay, I have an idea. Have you ever wanted to stay in one of those big hotels in Manhattan, like the fifty floor ones with glass walls? You know what I’m talking about… ”

“Yeah,” I told her, and image coming to my mind of what one of these hotels would look like. 

Of course, that image sparked GoogleFace advertisements, one of which let me know that there was a particularly popular hotel on Forty-Second Street, with views of the Financial District.

“Done,” I told Iris as I booked as suite that had two beds and a terrace as well. All hotels came with an optional Proxima package, so I went ahead and booked one of those two, knowing that we would probably end up diving later.

“Seriously? Tonight?”

“Why not?” I asked her. “You have class tomorrow, right?”

“Just one,” she told me.

“Good, then that should give us plenty of time. Besides, we did make some promises in EverLife, or at least I did. Let’s order room service, and then login.”

“Sounds like a date,” she told me as she looped her arm in mind, both of us turning toward Eighth Avenue.

“Date? Sounds like the best night ever. Also, next time you decide to go hunting in a fabric store… how about letting me know beforehand?”

“Deal,” she said with a big, goofy grin on her face.