Terraforming in Progress…

  Dungeon Seeds Recalibrating…

  Resource Level Audit in Progress…

  Welcome to Phase Three

  Objective: Occupy Viable Territory (0/1)

  Time Limit: Three Weeks

  Voril had a lot on her mind.

  Phase Three was a big part of it. The previous two phases had intentionally created conflict in the occupants of the Tier Six Death World known as Earth.

  Phase One was about creating tension between the pre-existing communities that had entered the planet’s Integration together. Minor factions squabbled amongst each other before being eaten by larger ones. The expected death rate for a Tier Six world was around ninety percent in Phase One—but Earth and its Homo sapiens had somehow done significantly better. Almost impossibly better.

  The Consortium had modified Phase Two accordingly. Solemnus Six was officially a resource world—but everyone knew it was still a Tier Five Hostile World, with occupants that, while not as bloodthirsty and feral as a Death World’s, made up for that with their longer connection to the System. The orcs, trogs, and other monsters that occupied what was left of the surface of Solemnus Six following the Consortium’s mining operations should have gotten things back in order.

  They had. The eight billion Earth had started with was down to just under an even billion, and dropping. Most of those deaths hadn’t been inflicted by the Solemnus Graft, though—humans had inflicted them on each other as they developed ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups: clans, tribes, communities—nascent civilizations.

  And that was Voril’s main problem.

  Voril had overseen three hundred forty Integrations—all the way from Tier One and Tier Two planets whose people Integrated quickly, smoothly, and without unnecessary violence, down to over three dozen Tier Six Death Worlds. And Death Worlds always followed the same patterns. Massive death. Massive chaos. Complete societal collapses by the end of Phase Two. Typically, those Integrations were finished by Phase Three, and the Grafted worlds took over their new hosts as Tier Three Resource Worlds.

  There was, in fact, massive death.

  But chaos? No. Societal collapse? No.

  She’d had a couple of hours to think about it, since meeting with the Orderman and the rest of the Consortium’s higher-ups, and there was only one conclusion to draw.

  Earth, for all that every indicator argued otherwise, was not a Tier Six Death World.

  A blue screen activated in Voril’s meditation chamber, and the hairless, purple-colored head of the Orderman himself appeared. “Voril, we’ve discussed your report, considered your analysis, and have come to a conclusion.”

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “The Voltsmith in your region is on a dangerous path—both for him, for the Consortium, and for the Universal Order as a whole. The combination of knowledge and power he’s accumulating is a threat. As Integration Manager in this area, you are to begin the process of eliminating him—without allowing him to figure out he’s being targeted.” The Orderman coughed.

  Voril didn’t say anything. She kept her face completely impassive. But inside, she was screaming. Her analysis hadn’t been listened to at all. More than that, it had been ignored.

  “Do you understand, Voril?”

  She nodded slowly.

  “Good. See that he doesn’t survive this phase, and we can get this Integration back on track. I have a few dozen other managers to give specific orders to. Dismissed.” The Orderman’s head disappeared, and the blue screen vanished.

  Voril stared down at Chicago—and at the three civilizations below her that had, against all expectations, survived Phase Two.

  The next three weeks were going to be hell for them—and for at least a few dozen others whose managers were receiving similar orders.

  Voril closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got to work.

  The beacon kept firing over Museumtown as Phase Two started.

  I stared up at the beam of energy. It threw a purple glow over the entire city—and it was a city. Tents still covered the grass between the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium, but pressed against the marble buildings were rows of makeshift houses that, after a month of Integration, were starting to look less makeshift and more like homes. Someone, living right next to the Field Museum’s ramshackle fortress, had even put up a carved wooden sign. I read it. “'Bless this Mess,’ huh?”

  Tori snorted. The teenage telekineticist reminded me more and more of my sister, Beth, with every passing day. For a moment, my mind drifted from Chicago’s skyline—now forever changed by the planet-wide Grafting with Solemnus Six into a hodge-podge of skyscrapers and sandstone cliffs—to a very different place. Mom and Dad were still on the farm in Cozad, Nebraska. They’d held it together, because that’s what they did. The small town was thriving, or at least surviving, Integration. It had to be.

  Then Tori started talking, and my mind snapped back to Museumtown. “You’re going to get started right away, huh, Hal?”

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  “With what?” I asked.

  “With…Hal, you’re messing with me!” Tori’s brow furrowed—reminding me of Beth, too—and she started stomping away. Then she turned. “With the beacon!”

  “Sure, it’s on my list of things to do for Phase Three,” I said, trying not to stare at the fortress blocking the way into the Reliquary of Bones, the dungeon inside the Chicago Field Museum. That was where the Waypoint Beacon itself sat, marking that we’d succeeded at Integration’s second phase. “But before that, I’ve got to push to Rank Two, and I’ve got to—“

  “Hal!” Tori interrupted. The whining in her voice had only gotten louder. “What do you mean, Rank Two?”

  “Remember when we were racing against the Fireborn Crusader, just before we fought him in the Hand That Feeds?” I asked. She nodded, and I continued. “When I broke the dungeon, it also broke my System for a while, and one of the side effects of that was—“

  “You hacked the game,” Tori said. She shook her head. “Unbelievable. I’m playing with a cheater, and he’s not even sharing his hacks with me!”

  I shrugged, then sighed. “Tori, you know my plan is to cheat the entire time we’re in Phase Three, right?”

  “Sure, but that’s cheating that helps me!”

  She looked so serious that I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Anyway, just before the fight to secure the beacon, I got a System message. I’d reached Level [System Error], and it triggered the Rank Two Trial—“

  “Twenty levels early. This is such bullshit.”

  “I don’t see how—“

  “Bullshit,” Tori repeated.

  I shrugged again. “I’m going to get started on my bullshit, then. If anyone needs me, I’ll be at Cindy’s Garage. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can move the beacon over and start tinkering with it.”

  “Whatever,” Tori said. She rolled her eyes at me, then winked. “If there has to be a cheater out there, I’m glad they’re on our side—and that they’re not Bobby.”

  Chicago, surprisingly, felt pretty much the same as it had before Phase Three.

  That was a welcome change from the transition between the first two phases of Integration, when the entire world had Grafted with a different planet. Chicago had transformed from a maze of concrete and steel into a maze of concrete, steel, sandstone, and brambles. All of that was still very much present as I walked the familiar route from Museumtown to my pre-Integration mechanic’s shop.

  As I went, I pulled up the last System message I’d gotten, just as Phase Three started.

  Congratulations on surviving Phase Two: The Graft!

  Phase Three will begin after a few short messages.

  [Three hundred twenty] Waypoint Beacons were discovered during Phase Two of Integration, and of those, [Two hundred fifteen] were successfully activated. [Earth’s] population sits at [921,572,390] as we move from Phase Two to Phase Three.

  With [Earth] and [Solemnus Six] successfully grafted, the time has come for expansion.

  To pass through to the final three phases of Integration, the remaining [two hundred fifteen] safe zones must secure territories capable of providing for their occupants and defend them against both other factions, the [Solemnus Six] native species, and various new, deadly monsters.

  Tier Two, Three, and Four Dungeons will continue to operate in all contested areas, but defeated dungeons will no longer respawn.

  The Consortium wishes all remaining [Homo sapiens] luck with Phase Three.

  There had been over eight billion people on Earth. Now there were under a billion. Worse, everything about Phase Three felt built specifically to create conflict—especially when combined with the second half of the Phase Three message.

  Terraforming in Progress…

  Dungeon Seeds Recalibrating…

  Resource Level Audit in Progress…

  Welcome to Phase Three, [Hal Riley]!

  Team: Hal Riley, Tori Vanderbilt, Calvin Rollins, Museumtown Safe Zone, The Rat’s Nest Safe Zone, The West Side Safe Zone

  Objective: Occupy Viable Territory (0/1)

  Time Limit: Three Weeks

  It wasn’t much time, and as I strolled through the brambles and concrete, my mind raced. The best thing we could do, in terms of finding ‘viable territory,’ was either move west and southwest, into the heartland of Illinois or push north toward Milwaukee. I knew for a fact that the city was empty; we’d visited it just a few days earlier, and driven through it three times since then. But if viability meant productive land like the farm back home, the farmland was more likely to work.

  It also meant conflict—and I knew the Fireborn Crusade’s remnants to the southeast were still active in what was left of Gary, Indiana. Someone had taken control there and gotten them through Phase Two, even though their leader was dead. I was happy for them—as long as they didn’t come to Chicago again. If I never fought another fire mage, it’d be too soon.

  Jessica Silvers—Tori’s stepmom, paleoanthropologist, healer, and co-leader of Museumtown—would probably have opinions on the best move we could make for Phase Three. So would Calvin Rollins, the veteran and homeless man-turned reluctant commander of Museumtown’s dungeon-clearing folks. I’d meet with them later, once I’d gotten started on the beacon.

  As for me? I’d just as soon leave Phase Three to them.

  The sign over Maggie’s Garage stuck up over the building, and I slipped in through the front door and walked past the display tires. The break room was…clean. Cleaner than it had been at any point since I’d started working there. I ignored that. Instead, I stepped into the mechanic’s bay. I had work to do.

  One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Enhancement, Rank Two)

  One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Rank Three)

  One [Voltsmith’s Laboratory] Upgrade Token (Rank Two)

  I’d gotten all three when I broke the system at the end of Phase Two, but the finish had been chaotic, and I hadn’t had time to upgrade my facility—or see what parts might come out of a Rank Three Supply Box.

  I started with the Laboratory Token.

  [Voltsmith’s Laboratory] Token requires [Three] slots to install. Slots already used by a [Voltsmith’s Laboratory] Token do not count against this number.

  Available Slots: Zero (Three)

  Total Slots: One

  Use [Voltsmith’s Laboratory Token?] Yes/No

  I selected ‘Yes.’

  Once used, this item will disappear, and the [Voltsmith’s Laboratory (Rank Two)] will be installed. Please confirm choice: Yes/No

  I selected ‘Yes’ again, and the token slowly shimmered out of existence. The room didn’t change as much as I’d expected it to. It was still, at its core, Cindy’s Garage. But a whole set of new tools—the big kind that required their own berths around the room—had appeared. Hoses connected to gigantic Charge batteries. Steel clamps and massive, diamond-tipped saw blades. A full-on forge in the corner, complete with a furnace that glowed bright orange as Charge moved through it, and whose heat I could feel from here. A real trip-hammer sat next to it, ready to smash steel down into uniform plates.

  Voltsmith’s Laboratory (Rank Two): This upgraded Voltsmith’s Laboratory allows a seasoned Voltsmith access to their Rank Two Trial, and to additional Rank One materials. Its Charge level has not increased, but the number of machines and the versatility of its functions have. Any attempt to drain Charge from this building will cause the Laboratory to fail for three days.

  I grinned like a kid with a new toy. Everything—the Lab, the Principles of Voltsmithing I’d learned, and even the materials I’d collected from the Hand That Feeds dungeon—was coming together just in time for the Rank Two Trial.

  Then I cracked my knuckles and got started. After all, I had big plans.