During the next raid, they used “Takeshi’s” technique and created an obstacle course with the lobby and spreading out power players surrounded by lower level meat shields. Flav, Patti, and Belinda had been excused from the raid due to their regeneration time not exactly matching up with the timing of the next one.

  The three of them defended a group of players in wizard robes and hats with staves that shot lightning. Farhad took a direct hit and went down. Maxi and Daisuke fought long enough to delay the inevitable when the phalanx went for them after taking down a couple other clusters. They retreated and dragged Farhad’s body back to the elevator.

  After they had put Farhad on his chair, they both sat to heal. Maxi felt a little awkward, alone with Daisuke. She had serious questions about what happened in the subway tunnels.

  “How do they shoot lightning when there’s no magic?” Maxi asked.

  “What?” Daisuke said, looking up from his computer.

  “The wizards and their staves,” She said.

  “I’m not sure, but Arthur C. Clarke,” Daisuke said.

  “Not understood technology looks like magic, yeah, I get it.”.

  “What’s going on?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You may as well say it,” Daisuke said. “You’re radiating tension like a delivery van from Chernobyl.”

  Maxi realized that his Emotional Intelligence score was probably one of his best stats as Ambition and Emotional Intelligence were the bread and butter stats of the Sales Associates. What that meant was that he would outperform her in social skills and could out play her like a championship poker player at an office party get-together.

  He’d probably be able to tell when she was lying or be able to infer importance when she was holding back. Conversely she wouldn’t be able to see through his feints, lies, or deceptions. It was no surprise to her. In the world of social interactions, she had always been more a cudgel than a rapier. Sometimes she rubbed people the wrong way and was used it.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Maxi never was much for intrigue. During high school and college if someone had a problem with her, she’d either go to them directly or avoid them entirely. She remembered one time where a “friend” was trying to stir up trouble among her peer group by saying that one person was trying to steal another person’s girlfriend.

  Rather than see the two guys come to blows over what was probably just a rumor, Maxi had said in front of the entire group. “Raph have you been seeing DeAndre’s girl?”

  To which Raph had replied, “Naw man.”

  He said it with such sincerity and surprise that the person who originated the rumor slunk back into the shadows and left early that night. Her “friend” was never seen again, at least in social settings. While her brute force tactic for dealing with most social situations didn’t win her many friends, it seemed to have worked out.

  Being that she was a hen in trying to outfox a fox, she figured that she would go with the most direct approach. She was a cudgel. Might as well be one.

  “Are you a demonic entity from the dark dimension?”

  “What?” Daisuke said with a laugh.

  “I’m serious. Are you going to go Yancy on us, just waiting for your moment.”

  “Why are you saying this?”

  “Why were you in the server room the day of the attack?”

  Daisuke’s eyes went narrow. She could see a vein bulge on his head. “That’s my business!”

  “It seems like it’s everyone’s business when someone lets the monsters out of holding.”

  Daisuke stood up, anger pulsating from his eyes. “You know what your problem is Maxi? You have no trust. When you first started, I wrote you off as another idiot who was going to get themselves permakilled, but no, you’re so much worse than that. You’re the idiot who drinks bleach because you can’t trust a fucking label. At some point, you are going to have to realize that you’re not the only fucking person in the world.”

  “Fuck you,” Maxi said.

  “You know what?” Daisuke said. “I’m done here. There have been plenty of Sales Associate pools who have been dying to accept me.”

  Daisuke pulled out his phone and swiped through a few screens. He pressed a button, and his cubicle began to pack itself up. The walls folded over his sword rack and computer. The chair rolled to the center. Drawers began to shrink. Eventually the process of folding, shifting, and shrinking ended with a tiny cube in the middle of the floor. Daisuke picked it up and put in one of the invisible pouches he had on his person.

  While the cubicle was packing itself up, the walls closed in to accommodate the less space until it looked as if Daisuke’s cube had never been there at all. Without a word, or even looking her in the eye, he called the elevator and stepped inside.

  She collapsed into her chair, and her head hung low.

  “Great job, Maxi.” She muttered to herself.

  Flav gasped and coughed and sat up in his chair. He yawned. “What’d I miss?”