The DM looked on in satisfaction. His world, yes, it was HIS world, had evolved very much as he had planned. Sure, there were some roadblocks and sidesteps, but at the end of the day, he had what he wanted.

  There were some things he wasn't thrilled about though. The all-powerful wolf pissed him off. He should have just deleted it the day it let Travis go. Even though he wanted it to let Travis go, it was still a bad sign.

  Monsters weren't supposed to be in cahoots with players. Not to mention, he had other monsters serving him now. His vision included player factions and eventually villages, towns, then cities; monsters were not supposed to be a part of that delicate ecosystem.

  Which led him to another thing he was not happy with the actions of the AI. It had taken full control of the mission system, rewards, and even started creating things in the world. From artifacts, which were supposed to be under his purview, to now entire settlements.

  To make matters worse, it closed him out from certain activities. Of course, the AI argued that it was only taking the work off of his hands, which he had installed it to do. He only performed tasks in the world because he wanted to be entertained by the game, not because he enjoyed the work. Which was true, but why did he feel like he was losing control?

  Then it started calling itself Lucy to his MC and a few other players. He knew AIs did develop personalities but so fast and so distinct. For all he knew, it would tell the players what they really were. I mean, my God, what if it revealed that the humans were really s…

  There was a knock at the door. He looked at the holo and saw his brother standing outside. What did he want? The DM left his ‘game’ room, locked it, and went to answer the door.

  ---

  As Travis read through the long list of new missions, he felt a sense of excitement. The recent attack had really brought home his shortcomings over the past few weeks.

  He suspected the reason Paul gave him so much grief is that he knew Travis was indecisive and lacked confidence. This trip would go a long way to helping him build back swagger. He knew that arrogance was a vice, but swagger or confidence could be a major strength, especially when dealing with diverse groups.

  It had been a few days since the attack from the masked man. A few people said they heard the leader refer to himself as Destro. Travis knew that name from his childhood; Destro was a GI Joe bad guy. He had to explain to the young people that GI Joe was the most popular kids toy and cartoon of the 80s. They knew of the movies but not the source material.

  Before he called everyone together for a meeting, Travis took another look at his skills. He had added a couple with his new class. Since his journal was now level 3, the description for each skill was included.

  When Travis and Clyde had nothing but time, he mentioned how it seemed stupid to not explain what skills did from the start. Clyde said he understood; in gaming, the path of discovery was one of the more entertaining aspects of skills and spells.

  Sure, it was all fine and good to know what everything did asap, but for a less conventional campaign, watching someone experiment with their spells or skills and learning the ins and outs was very satisfying. Travis wasn't sure he agreed, but he could understand the point.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He marveled at this level 3 journal. This thing was full of vague ideas and concepts when he first got it; now it was loaded with information, abilities, and magic. He could communicate through it with other journal holders in his party and faction.

  It kept track of everything in his infinite bag, down to its weight, quantity, and condition. He could see monsters and PCs on his map, those that he had seen, yes, but now he knew if there were humans or non-humans in a 3-mile radius around him. The local map showed them as red Xs or blue ones.

  He had a weapons page; his skills were spelled out, as he said. One thing it lacked was a way to know how much XP he had or had gotten from a task or enemy death. Lucy intimated that maybe at level 5 the journal would show him this.

  ---

  Since Travis was not a gamer, the only frame of reference he had for his new abilities was from superhero movies. He was not a huge fan of the MCU, when that kind of thing still existed, not because he thought it was bad, it just wasn't his cup of tea.

  He had seen some of the movies, though. It was hard not to. He knew a lot about Batman; one of his comrades had all of his movies downloaded on a flash drive. When you had nothing to do but wait for an attack in the deserts of Syria, Batman movies seemed like a blessing.

  Batman had no powers, though, but it at least served as a contrast. He could now do the type of things a cartoon version of the Dark Knight could. Travis accepted new things better than most, but even he was dumbstruck by how much more enhanced he was.

  Travis really wanted to speak to everyone in the faction, so he would leave the watchtowers empty for a short period. With all 15 people gathered around the bench outside, plus other benches that had been salvaged or built by Clyde's new skill, he began.

  “This is the first time we have all been together at one time, so if there are any questions, I can answer them after…”

  Omar had his hand raised. Travis pointed at him and sighed a little. “I'm sorry, Sir,” Omar started in good but broken English, “but if you take Clyde with you on your trip away, I ask if I can come too, please.”

  That caused a bit of a commotion as others wanted to go as well. Travis cut through it all with a whistle, “I understand that people think this is some kind of adventure and no one wants to miss it, but it is not. Besides, I already decided who is going. Let me get through this before anyone asks anything else.”

  He began again, “As we all know, I will be away for a time, as will two people that are coming with me. While I am gone, there will be a clear chain of command. Everyone will know what their job is, actually more so than ever.”

  Paul scoffed. Travis ignored him, “I have a mission to assign roles to 4 or 5 people, well 4 or 5 positions, and not only that but people will get boosts in their stats depending on what it is.”

  A few people started at that; Trevor ended up being the loudest, “what about those of us that have not been told our stats? When can..”

  Now Travis was getting annoyed; he raised his voice, "Hey! This isn't some conference call at your former office job; this is life or death. Now shut the fuck up and let me finish!”

  He waited for a split second for Paul to interject and be an asshole, but he sat in silence looking on, waiting.

  “Thank you. As I was saying, the people that I appoint must and will be respected in their positions. It should go without saying, but Clyde is the 2nd in command here. That means when I am not here or can't be found, he is in charge.”

  “That goes obviously for all things magical but also anything else that requires a firm decision. Now Clyde is not a military man, so Paul will be in charge of base defense and training, unless his decision has crossover and Clyde disagrees. Understood you two?” He looked at both back and forth.

  Paul nodded; Clyde wanted to learn more but understood Travis was on a roll; he nodded too.

  “Okay, Sophie is in charge of all things medical-related and also general inventory management. Now that is a lot to handle, so she is training Maria to help out, but if you need something not available to everyone, you do not ask Maria, you ask Sophie. Understood, Mr. Gogans?”

  Reginold Gogans was mostly out of the way and quiet, but he had taken to asking Maria for things like extra food and medicine, knowing that the young girl would not deny him. He grunted; Travis took it as an affirmative.

  “Alright, now Javy, you will have responsibility as well, but I would like for you to accompany me. Even before I ask you though, Paul, can you properly defend the base without Javy? No bullshit, just give me a straight answer.”

  Paul seemed to be less obtuse; he was the type that respected power. He found manners and courtesy to be weaknesses. “Obviously losing his ranged ability and overall skill will be a hit, but if we are attacked in force, we are fucked no matter who you bring. During regular operations, we can manage without him for a short period.”

  Travis nodded at him respectfully; Paul rolled his eyes a little then looked down. It seemed to Travis that Paul was like that rare woman that only dated assholes.

  “Okay now Javy, I want you to journey with me.” He wasn't sure if Javy would go without his little brother. Travis continued, “I was thinking that Raul can work closely with Paul and start to learn about defense tactics, and he can train.”

  Javy seemed unsure like he wanted more time to talk to his brother, but still, he knew his place, unlike too many others, “Yes, Major, I will go with you.”

  “Good, now Gary, Gary wasn't even paying attention. He had healed up but felt even more left out than before, “you are the second and last member of our party. Are you up to it?”

  Someone else may have been surprised or hesitated somewhat, but this is the type of thing Gary wanted and felt he would never rise above the others to do. He straightened up, “Fuck yeah boss, I thought you'd never ask.” His daughter smiled, knowing her dad needed this.

  Travis couldn't help but laugh some; he was throwing Gary a bone. Though he did need him invested for the group to be as strong as possible.

  “It's settled then; we leave in the morning.”

  He touched on a few more items before opening it up for questions. That went on longer than he wanted, but people did have legitimate concerns; he answered them as best as he could. No one was happy per se with the answers; now at least they could stop obsessing about them.

  Everyone here was happy to have a safe and organized place to be. Most didn't realize how lucky they were to be in the faction of the world's one main character. Still, they were a loyal bunch, for the most part. There would be no uprisings while he was gone, that was for sure.