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The Guild of Gamers: The Game Master by The Dark Wolf Shiro

Game X-overs & Worm Xover Rated: M, English, Fantasy & Supernatural, Words: 85k+, Favs: 3k+, Follows: 3k+, Published: Sep 11, 2023 Updated: Sep 3

1,149Chapter 14: Gotta Catch 'em All!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.

Betad by Priapus, Marethyu, Beans

The Game Master

Chapter 14: Gotta Catch 'em All!

– Lily (Flechette) –

It was almost amusing how rapidly her life had changed because she'd stumbled on a fairy while on a PR patrol. Azuth's influence had never been more apparent than when she'd gone from being just another Ward to the PRT's new favourite toy in a matter of seconds.

She understood, really she did. Azuth was a power multiplier, and that meant they needed as many heroes in the Guild as possible. The fact that there was no real risk to Guild adventuring meant that they could skirt the Youth Guard rules and have her focus her efforts in Astera. It was the same with her recorded hours. Costa-Brown herself had pulled some red tape fuckery to prevent time spent in Astera being classified as on the clock, while still making sure that PRT heroes working in Azuth's realm got paid for their time. Essentially, they were making sure that she could legally spend as much time as she wanted in Azuth's realm without anyone crying out over her working too many hours or her getting stiffed on her pay. Hell, she got bonus pay for spending time in Azuth's realm. You know it's a big deal when the bean counters willingly open up their wallets.

She got paid decently well, and this gave her essentially unlimited overtime paid at time and a half. The accountants would probably cry when they saw how many hours she'd clocked in Azuth's realm.

The increased pay was great, considering her move. Normally, anyone who willingly moved to Brockton Bay would be diagnosed with terminal stupidity, but the PRT wanted her close to Azuth's base of operations. Basically, show the Wizard of Brockton that they were playing nice. She wasn't really that attached to New York, and frankly, she'd wanted to move away from March. Her stalker had once again turned a minor gang that was small enough to fight the wards into a genuine threat, only to ditch once the wards were forbidden from interacting with the gang.

Her pattern meant she'd once again make a gang of 'irrelevant' criminals that were small enough for the wards to be permitted to fight them. Then, March would rapidly increase their danger level in her latest attempt to kill her. March was fun like that. Frankly, Lily was sick of the game and moving to another city seemed like a way to get a break from March and her insanity. It wouldn't last, but Azuth gave her a reason to move.

The PRT had been clear; her focus right now was Azuth's realm. She needed to get high ranking enough to purchase Guild invitations for other PRT members. Azuth's world was like a game, and the PRT happened to have an entire division of children and teenagers who they tried to keep out of 'danger' for the most part. She was just the first Ward to be turned into a point farm. Well, after Clockblocker who had apparently gotten himself into deep shit with his dinosaur trick.

She didn't mind. Azuth's game was far less stressful than her regular work… and that was coming from someone who had just spent the last hour being chased by a fire-breathing dinosaur. Anjanath had it out for her. She was sure of it. Or maybe it just hated Mouse Protector, and that meant it hated everyone who partied with her, even once.

Stumbling into the town of Astera, she accepted the completed quest notification with a tired sigh, her hair singed and her body caked in sweat.

…This had been so much easier before Chrysalis went home. She was glad she'd sent Chrysalis a friend request because the bug trainer was damn useful. Vespoids could sting the big, angry bastard enough to paralyse him so they could escape. Still, Mousey had gone… somewhere, and Chrysalis had called it for the day since she'd pulled an all-nighter, so it was just her as she stumbled back into the Guild building.

Still better than a patrol in New York. No Butcher, no March, no Adepts trying to recruit her. She'd take a very angry dinosaur trying to eat her any day.

To her surprise, the guild building wasn't empty when she returned from her Great Jagras hunt. Dressed in a black and purple bodysuit, the newcomer turned to her, a smug smile growing on her face. She was wearing a domino mask, but that was it for facial coverings and it barely hid her attractive features.

"Flechette, right?" the blonde girl at the quest board asked, making her nod. "Insight, the psychic trainer. This is Wobbuffet."

Lily turned to the giant blue… thing which saluted her, making her lips twitch. It didn't exactly look dangerous, but then neither did Heracross.

"Yeah, I know. Not the most intimidating, is he? He's all defence, without a single attack. As you can imagine, that's not… ideal for hunting quests. I don't suppose you're looking for a party member?" Insight asked, a smug smile on her face. "You are? Perfect. Ah, your party have gone 'offline'."

"Thinker?" Lily asked, her lips quirking into a smile despite herself.

"The name didn't give it away?" Insight retorted with an easy grin. "Rogue, not villain. Don't worry."

"Fair point. I suppose us guild members should stick together, right?" Lily asked, making Insight nod easily.

Their conversation was interrupted by a flash of light, a new arrival appearing as she looked around. Dressed in torn jeans and a band t-shirt, the younger girl froze as she looked between the two of them. Dark skin, incredible curves for her age, and a streak of purple in her black hair.

"Heya, newbie. Or maybe not that new," Insight said, placing her finger on her cheek in an almost taunting way. The new girl's eyes narrowed, her posture becoming aggressive before Insight held out her hands. "Easy, no fighting in the guild building. I don't mean any harm, as long as you don't. In case you're wondering, that one is a villain. I'm Insight, you've heard of me but never seen me. I'm good like that. And this is my new friend, Flechette, the Ward."

Lily's eyes narrowed at that, but the new girl relaxed.

"Rougarou, as you clearly already know. Or just Aisha, I don't care," Aisha replied, her tone clipped as Lily mentally ran through her debriefs on Brockton Bay's villains. A member of the Sons of Samedi who could transform into a hideous werewolf-like form, joined after the death of her brother, a rogue hero. One of the few villains in Brockton whose real name was an open secret. Aisha gestured, a white furry canine creature appearing next to her with a blue tail and face, and some kind of horn coming from its head. "I'm the Dark Type trainer. This is Absol."

The PRT wouldn't be happy to know that the Sons of Samedi had a member in the Guild, but that wasn't her problem. She had no control over Azuth's recruitments, and it wasn't her place to argue.

"We were just getting ready to go on a quest, care to join us?" Insight asked, a vulpine grin on her lips that did something to Lily. She was about to argue before she stopped herself.

"Yeah, the quests are far easier if you have a party and Mouse Protector has gone… somewhere. She kinda does whatever she wants," Lily explained easily. As far as she knew, she was just meant to grind points and rank, they didn't say not to work with any villains who got into the Guild.

"...fine, whatever," Aisha agreed, surprising her. She pretended not to notice as Insight whispered something to Aisha as she walked past, over to the counter, as they talked about what quest to take next. Azuth had apparently released the Wildspire Wastes area, and Insight wanted to be the first to explore it (because she could sell the intel they gathered to others).

She had no idea what Insight said to Aisha, but it clearly hit hard and Insight was smugly silent about it. Whatever it was, it seemed to have lit a fire under Aisha's ass.

– Solomon White –

I don't know if Aisha is the serial killer or not, but I know how to find out.

Picking her as one of the trainers was an easy decision, because now that she's connected to my power, I have a back door into watching her. The Aisha I know is flirty and insolent, the rebellious little sister of Grue. Grue died in this world, and Aisha is forever changed for it. She's far less flirty and teasing, and much more broody and angry at the world.

With this, I'll be able to keep an eye on her remotely and find out if she is the serial killer. Much like Taylor, I'm using the dream of resurrection as bait to keep her in line. Play nice and maybe you'll get your brother back. It isn't fair, it isn't nice, but it is damn effective.

I'm not too worried about giving a power up to the Sons of Samedi, because Aisha has no real loyalty to them. Neither does her mother, for that matter. They joined the Sons to fight the Empire, that's all. Plus… Marquis is aiming to take down the Sons to take over their territory for himself.

If I can keep Aisha and Celia out of that fight, and deprive them of two of their capes, Marquis is guaranteed to win, and I will have a backdoor for him once he wins the scavenger hunt. A part of me wants to prevent the fight from breaking out, but…

Marquis isn't stupid. Since he's gotten the ticket, I've been watching him and this man has studied the rules that I made for the guild and the bounty brokers guild. He plans to uphold them in his territory so I have no legitimate reason to banish him or remove his powers. The Sons of Samedi are drug peddlers using Brockton as a front to push their product to the rest of the eastern coast, and they deal in only the hardest stuff.

I have no pity for them, and no desire to see them continue to exist. I don't have the time or patience to intervene in every gang war, so Marquis is free to attack them as long as the collateral remains low. I won't go as far as to say that he's good for the city, but he's at least better than the Sons of Samedi, so I'll allow it.

Lisa is another wildcard that I wanted to keep an eye on, and only partially because I happen to like her as a character. There's no Coil here, so she remained a rogue and never became the minor villain she would have been. I don't trust her not to cause trouble, so into the Guild she goes.

My collection of problem children that need to be babysat.

…Maybe I should put myself into the guild as well.

As the week progresses, the scavenger hunt comes closer to its end. Two tickets have been found, one being bought by Accord and another being found by Marquis. Now, only the last one remains and tonight Duplikate is going to 'find' it on one of her patrols.

Two villains- one independent and one indebted to Cauldron- and one hero.

Assault, Miss Militia and Clockblocker have continued their own adventuring, though they've been delayed by the scavenger hunt. Assault and Miss Militia tend to do one quest a day together, sometimes with Mouse Protector but often without.

Mostly because MP isn't Protectorate and she kinda just does her own thing. Right now, she's in the arena I set up, using it to fight an echo of herself. The arena can bring up a copy of any foe you've faced before, but Mousey uses it for Mirror Matches.

She's as brutal against herself as she is against the villains and monsters.

It can also be used for a different type of mission, where it will effectively simulate a tournament of varying difficulty that has prizes depending on how far you make it. Mouse holds the record for most victories and is the current Champion of the Arena. Whether she'll hold onto her title when more people join the guild is something we'll have to wait and see.

Clock isn't here as often, mostly due to being in trouble for picking the baby Anjanath without warning anyone, mixed with school. Kate has continued to be a perfect source of intel on the wards, and Piggot is currently seething over Anjanath because my monster creation is too similar to Nilbog for her tastes.

Her fury is harmless, less of an inferno and more hot wind. She can slow things down, but not stop them. She's just a cog in the PRT's machine, and one that Costa-Brown will hammer into shape if she continues to be a problem.

The guild has proven to be the source of income that I hoped for it to be. It was actually Costa-Brown herself who convinced me to change my plan slightly. I only had a 10% markup on all energy costs originally.

If someone wants a perk that costs 100, I was going to charge 110. Costa-Brown called that foolishly naive and convinced me to change my plans to a 50% mark-up. When someone who is the head of the group that is probably going to be my biggest client is the one telling me to increase the prices, it's hard to argue.

I'm separating my points into three main groups. One is dedicated to being spent on improving my realm and adding to the guild with new regions, new quest types and new ways to gain power. I'm looking at a true class system, blatantly stolen from DND, a horde mode and adding the Kanto region of Pokémon once all the type fairies are claimed.

My end goal is to forcibly change the cape scene into a true game. Brockton Bay is my test ground, because the scavenger hunt has shown that I can command all cape violence to cease for an entire week and they'll listen. There's been some minor skirmishes between seekers, but gang violence has been at an all time low this week. I said that fighting wasn't allowed, and the fighting stopped. That's the influence that Azuth has.

Much like the rules I established for the Bounty Brokers Guild, I intend to enforce the Unwritten Rules upon all capes within my city. They will settle territory disputes and battles in my realm, not the city. Those who don't obey?

Well, I have a small army who are ready to jump anyone who gets added to the Bounty Board. Being added to my list of targets is practically a death sentence, because even if they're taken alive, they'll be given to me and I'll put them to work. There will be no escape for those handed over to me. Not even death.

The second pool of energy is dedicated to affecting things outside of my realm. It's for summoning new agents, nudging things to go my way, and my emergency pool for if things go wrong. I'll likely break it open when the next Endbringer attack begins, but we're still sitting on our hands and waiting for that. I only know the Endbringer will be a new one, but nothing beyond that, so I can't really prepare much.

The final pool, the smallest one, is for my personal use. It makes up less than one percent of my total income, but it's mine. Angela is right, stressing myself out was only making matters worse and pushing me to make poor decisions. This pool is for me to use however I damn well please.

[The Food and Drinks of the Wizarding World]

Source: Harry Potter

Butterbeer is not nice. Those fuckers lied to me. Firewhiskey is nice, but Riley told on me, and Angela scolded me for drinking on a school night. She doesn't mind me drinking, in moderation, but not when I have school in the morning. And not alone, so I don't do anything silly with my energy, which is a very fair concern, to be honest.

Let's be honest, my record for decision making isn't the best.

If nothing else, at least I can put the Wizarding World food and drink into the tavern, and I even opened a sweet shop in Astera for all the weird, magical sweets. Once I've unlocked it, it costs me nothing to spawn as much as I want, and I can charge points for them at the store.

…Mouse Protector paid off my purchase in a single day. Her sweet tooth is something to be feared.

Humming to myself, I get back to designing my 'prison'. I have the bare bones set up, but I want to make sure this is as profitable and efficient as possible. See, I feel a little bad about ripping off my adventurers, but the prisoners? They're just scum and I'll exploit the ever loving shit out of them with a smile.

– Next Day –

Sitting at my usual table for lunch, I chuckle as Dennis tells his story with plenty of gestures and flailing arms. He's managed to backhand Chris twice, much to Chris' annoyance. I've learnt not to sit directly next to Dennis myself; he's too animated for my liking and safety.

"So, who do you think is going to win the Scavenger hunt?" Vicky asks 'innocently', doing a very good job of pretending she's not staring at me. It doesn't help that Amy and Dean do the exact same damn thing. Amy has been quiet today, more so than usual, but I suppose the discovery of her father really hasn't helped matters in the Dallon household.

God, all three of them know it's me, don't they? Or at the very least, they very much suspect.

Vicky has spent the most time with me in both forms, Amy can't sense my biology, and Dean can't sense my emotions. Sure, there are other blanks around, but they're few and far between. Having the blank that is Azuth show up the day after the blank that is me arrived is just too damn obvious.

"Hopefully the heroes," Dean says with a shrug. "Didn't the auction finish? Was it ever made public who won?"

"Nah. Only that they must have had one hell of a checkbook," Dennis says with a shrug. Accord won that ticket, as planned. "I guess they didn't want to risk the winner being jumped on the way out of the auction house."

He's not wrong. The entire thing was anonymous, with the different attendees not seeing each other. Not that it stopped the Elite from figuring out they lost to Accord and moving into Boston. Bastard Son has picked a fight with the Ambassadors, but Accord isn't even in Boston right now. He's constantly on the move, with the ticket, meaning that unless people can catch up to him by midnight tomorrow night, it's game over, and he wins.

Obviously, he's already making a seven thousand part plan to kill Bastard Son and crush the Elite's attempt to move into Boston.

Plus, the Butcher also moved to Boston following the Elite, and now Bastard Son and the Butcher are fighting over a ticket that's currently in… Utah. That's not even mentioning the body doubles, fake tickets, and eight hundred other plans he has in motion to make finding the real deal so hard. I only know because I'm linked to the ticket.

"I really hope the fucking Empire don't find one," Vicky grumbles, still pretending not to be watching me directly. Sorry, Vicky, it's way worse than that. Marquis is hiding in the sewers at the moment with a few of his Birdcage minions. He's good at this, though not to the level of OCD perfectionism that Accord is pulling. He's scouting out the Sons of Samedi while also ensuring that his return isn't discovered until it's too late.

"I doubt that'll be a problem. Lung and Oni Lee have been harassing them, but both sides keep having to fall back before they risk breaking the rules and being blacklisted. The Empire has more capes, but apparently, they've had some issues with communication. PHO thinks the Deckers are hacking into the Empire's communications and sending them all over the place," I say, making Vicky give me a knowing look. I just roll my eyes, too tired to play her games.

I stayed up late last night to finish the prison, because it's going to be needed sooner rather than later.

"I never thought I'd be happy about the fucking Deckers," Chris mumbles. I vaguely remember hearing that they hacked into his hoverboard once and stole the thing after he installed some remote recall onto it. Kid Win faceplanting when his board threw him off was a meme for a while.

"I'm going to miss this game when it ends. I don't think Brockton Bay has been this quiet in years. Which is weird to say, considering how many capes are currently visiting. The Protectorate had like twenty heroes loaned to them, right?" Dennis mumbles around his lunch.

"Something like that, yeah," Dean agreed. "A bunch of thinkers or people with powers useful for searching were loaned from other branches, not that it seems to have helped."

"Would the PRT even admit it if they had a ticket? They could have found one and are staying quiet," I point out, seeing Chris and Dennis share a look. They're wondering if they'd have heard about any ticket that was found, or if it'd be kept secret from even the Wards since they've both been on search duty as well.

"They would. PR is the most important part of PRT. They'd announce it then hunker down," Vicky says confidently. "But I guess you're right. We should just hope that the PRT is hiding one of the tickets, since it's better than a villain getting one."

I just hum, hearing the conversation be subtly shifted to Azuth and his guild by Vicky. Instead, I just focus as I guide Kate to find the final ticket. She's got dozens of her clones fanning out and searching the city.

Before lunch is finished, one of Kate's many clones finds it and reports it to the console. Armsmaster is there within two minutes, and Kate is returned to the safety of the rig. Well, 'safety'. The real Kate is in my realm already, relaxing and eating sweets; the one they think is the real Kate is in Winslow.

Vicky pauses, giving me a slightly suspicious stare as she sees the tiny, smug smile cross my face, but I just return it with a questioning look of my own. She knows that I know that she knows. When the PRT predictably announce their ticket as we're heading back to class, she brushes past me and whispers 'thanks'. I ignore it, mostly because she doesn't realise that I haven't done anything that I wasn't already planning to do.

She just gives me a smug look, entirely convinced that I did that because of her. I'm almost tempted to unmask purely to tell her she's wrong. Instead, I take the higher path and bite my tongue. Before I stick it out at her.

My identity is becoming paper-thin, but I'm not as worried as I probably should be. I've spent some of my personal points on a security feature so that if anyone in my bizarre little family is attacked, they'll be pulled into my realm. Angela, Riley, Jack and myself. Yes, I realise that my 'fun' points immediately got turned into a new security blanket, but you can't blame me for taking precautions.

Kidnappings are the obvious threat since some villains will see it as a way to force Azuth to do things their way. I think Contessa is running a path to prevent that from happening, but I don't want to rely on her too much. At the end of the day, it's more about helping keep up the masquerade. If anyone tries to harm or kidnap Angela and she 'dies', I could claim that I resurrected her, but it'll be easier to just prevent her from dying to begin with. Riley actually is in danger, and this is far cheaper than needing to resurrect her later.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and all that. Spend a small amount of points now so I can avoid a sudden massive payment later to bring her back. She's been through enough without having to experience death on top of it.

Actually… why don't I just have that feature work for all Guild members? I might need to finetune it a little, but it would suck to lose my point farms because they died to an Endbringer or something equally problematic. Of course, revealing that I've given all my adventurers a kind of life insurance would only make people more eager to get in on the game.

I'll finetune the idea later, work out how much it would actually cost per adventurer. It could also let me make an emergency quest system so I can deploy my adventurers out against the Endbringers or other major threats. Once I prove the system works, probably at the next Endbringer fight, they'll be less hesitant to take part in such events.

Oh, and I can start adding raid bosses to my realm once we have enough adventurers in Astera for it to be viable. Ideas, ideas…

Pulling out my phone, I send a quick message to my favourite co-conspirator, asking for someone's number. Angela would be proud of me, getting a girl's number. Of course she'd be less proud when she realises it's entirely for work, as Costa-Brown sends me Dragon's contact details.

I still don't feel comfortable calling Costa-Brown Rebecca. It's too friendly toward a woman I am very mixed about. Sure, I don't mind relying on her for the small things (because the fuck up with the Birdcage showed off that she can't handle the major stuff), but this is both Alexandria and one of the heads of Cauldron. We might have the same goal, and I can't deny that my methods aren't that much more moral than theirs, but Cauldron's plan of 'throw everything and see what sticks' hits me wrong.

Of course, here I am, planning to recapture all the Birdcage escapees so I can put them to use. Hypocrisy is alive and well in Astera, it seems. Well, I have the excuse of being a teenage boy.

Lessons fly by, and I escape Vicky before she can try to pull me into anything else, using Riley as an excuse.

"School sucks," Riley says the moment she gets into my very nice car, making me chuckle and ruffle her hair, much to her annoyance. "I could teach these classes. My biology teacher corrected me, incorrectly! Like I haven't dismantled enough people to know where each organ is-"

"Rough day?" I ask, cutting her off as she huffs loudly.

"How do you do this? You've finished high school before, and we both have so much more we could be doing," Riley whines.

"I kinda enjoy the simplicity of it, but I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, neither of us possesses the power to convince Angela to get you out of it," I point out, making her pout outrageously. She knows that I'm right. "She wants you to make friends your own age."

"Words cannot express how much I don't want to do that. They're really annoying," Riley points out, pouting. "And the boys are so crude! It's like they've just learnt that swear words exist and think they need to use them for everything."

"You swear a lot too," I point out.

"Because my old Uncle Jack always told me to be a good girl and not to use foul language. And fuck him," Riley points out bluntly. "That doesn't mean it's any more fun to spend time with twelve-year olds when I'm mentally much older. How am I supposed to relate to them? Oh, you played football? That's… extremely boring. I helped my cousin build a world full of monsters."

"Would it help if I told you I plan for you to… err, 'find' one of the type fairies?" I ask, making her eyes widen. "I know you enjoy spending time in there, and as long as you party up with someone, Angela is less likely to complain about you hiding away in your bedroom all the time."

"Dibs on the fairy type," Riley says instantly, making me snort and ruffle her hair again as she bats my hand away. "You're the best weird-maybe cousin ever, Sol."

"Damn right I am," I agree playfully, relaxing as we continue the drive home. "Now pick your starter."

"I thought it was picked for us," Riley points out.

"Yeah, well, nepotism is alive and well," I reply lazily, shrugging shamelessly. This is out of my personal points stash, and I don't mind splurging for her. As we discuss the pros and cons of each potential Pokémon, I feel something happen.

The first of the Birdcage inmates has been taken down. Some of them lacked the intelligence to lay low, and Acidbath, best known for using his acid to scar or melt the girls who either dumped or wouldn't date him, has been beaten half to death and prepared to be handed over to me.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer cunt.

"...I want the unicorn," Riley decides as we walk into the house, making me pause and rub my chin. "Rapidash?"

"Galarian Rapidash. It's big, it's fluffy, and I can ride it around," Riley decides.

"And you claim you aren't a twelve-year-old girl?" I ask, getting a kick to the shin in response. Whatever complaints she had are quickly silenced by the arrival of a pure white horse with a pastel cyan and pink mane and a single majestic horn. And any claims she had about being mentally mature are promptly tossed into the garbage by the squealing and cuddling.

"You know this could risk exposing your identity?" Angela asks, catching me by surprise since I wasn't expecting her to be home yet. Despite her words, she doesn't look too disapproving as she leans against the doorframe with a small smile on her face.

"At least three people have worked it out so far. Presumably more. I'm taking precautions to make sure that even if my identity is exposed, we'll be safe and able to act just as freely," I reply softly. "Riley is another pair of eyes in the Guild itself, someone I can trust to test new features and possibly… nudge people where I want them. Nobody would suspect a twelve-year-old girl running around in a frilly dress on the back of a unicorn."

"My dresses are not frilly!" Riley complains, pulling her face from where it was nuzzled into Rapidash's mane.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you aren't planning to get the frilliest pink and blue dress to match Rapidash," I retort playfully, making her pout.

"I'm not! It's going to be white, pink and blue, obviously," Riley replies with a stuck out tongue. Angela just sighs fondly as she watches us squabble and act like the family we are pretending to be.

For once, it doesn't quite feel as fake as usual.

— Bonus Scene — Theresa Richter (Dragon)

After the failure of the Birdcage, she couldn't deny that she was mildly worried about Chief Director Costa-Brown's decision to allow Azuth to both build and run the replacement prison. The Birdcage had been her responsibility, and while the breakout had been beyond any of her predictions, it was still a stain on her record.

Ciara had made a fool of them all. She had been the model prisoner, never fighting the others and only claiming their 'fairies' upon their deaths at the hands of others. She'd never caused a fuss, never caused trouble, and it meant that in all their predictions, she'd never even come up. But it seemed that Ciara had walked into the Birdcage because she could walk right back out whenever she deemed fit.

Piloting one of her smaller, more 'friendly' Dragonsuits, she arrived at the portal location and entered without any hesitation. She did fear that she'd lose connection, but despite not being prepared for interdimensional communication, her signal remained strong as she arrived in Astera.

The village had rapidly grown into a small town, as Azuth added more and more structures and 'NPCs'. It was the source of countless threads on PHO, all of which she monitored, scanning them for every scrap of data that she could use, from both Azuth himself and the guild members who posted of their exploits.

"Hello, Azuth," Dragon greeted easily, waving to the wizard who was waiting for her. He was sitting at the edge of a fountain, sipping a drink of bubbling red liquid with an almost lazy expression. "The Chief Director mentioned you wanted to speak with me?"

"I did, yes. I see you brought Acidbath with you," Azuth said, looking past her at the transport she was piloting. "The Guild do not waste time."

"I wish we could take full credit, but Acidbath is not a very smart person. Upon escaping, he went to the bar, got drunk and when he was turned down, decided to burn the girl's face with acid. I believe Narwhal registered as part of the Bounty Broker's Guild, and this bounty is hers. I'm just delivering it."

"Her Guild membership and points will be assigned once we are done here, don't worry. I am a man of my word," Azuth promised, clicking his fingers. The camera inside the transport showed Acidbath simply vanishing in a flash of light. "This is partially what I wish to discuss with you. It goes without saying that people are mildly concerned about an independent cape running the replacement for the Birdcage, and I agreed to permit some oversight on the behalf of the PRT. I'd like you to be that oversight, as you were for the Birdcage."

She almost refused, the sting of Ciara's breakout still raw. Then, she stopped herself because she knew it wasn't her fault and he wasn't wrong that people weren't thrilled about the idea of him running his own supermax prison.

"You've been very vague on the details of this prison, to all but the Chief Director. She mentioned that you intend to… for lack of a better term, put them to work?" Dragon asked, making him nod.

"Firstly, allow me to assure you that I know what you are, Dragon. Andrew Richter truly was a genius," Azuth said, making her freeze before she let out a small laugh.

"You do like playing the all knowing wizard, don't you?" Dragon asked, humour colouring her tone.

"It is rather fun, yes. We take our amusement where we can," Azuth admitted. "With Teacher and the Dragonslayers dealt with, I feel entirely comfortable allowing you to monitor the security systems for my new prison realm, which I designed to be easily accessed by an artificial intelligence such as yourself."

"Prison realm?" Dragon asked, making his lips twitch into a proud smile.

"Has the Chief Director explained how my powers work?" Azuth asked, making her nod.

"Partially. You gain energy from the results of your actions, which you can spend on a truly wide variety of things. That is the simplified version of what might just be the strongest cape power we've seen since Scion himself," Dragon agreed.

"My plan for the prisoners is simple. I intend to put them in a penal guild of sorts, separate from Astera. They will have free rein of the vast realm I have designed for them, but it is a dangerous one. They won't die, of course. My prison will have a zero fatality record, because I will simply not permit them to die," Azuth admitted. As he spoke, he reached out and gave her access to the system, something she accepted and quickly went over. Despite the truly vast amount of options, she'd gone through them all before he finished his sentence.

There were truly a massive amount of things the prisoners could buy with their points, promising a lavish life for those willing to work for it. They'd never be free, but they could make their cage more and more gilded.

A part of her took offence to making prisoners into free labour, another part pointed out that he was just making a game version of the existing US prison system. Another part pointed out that this was far more humane than the Birdcage, as Azuth could very easily remove people from it if new evidence appeared. She'd used the breakout as a chance to get several people pardoned due to exonerating evidence having appeared since their incarceration, including Canary, who held the record for shortest Birdcage stay.

Six hours. She was almost insulted that she'd worked so hard on Canary's case, only for her to be locked away and then freed in a matter of hours.

Azuth's system had surveillance systems that she could access that would let her follow any and all prisoners within, monitor the monsters and quests, and the points and purchases of all prisoners. He was giving her complete transparency while also preventing her from actually modifying anything. She'd be an observer, nothing more, but then that was what Costa-Brown had agreed to.

At the end of the day, Azuth was forcibly making these people work off their debt to society, with him basically tripling the cost of anything they wanted. If it cost Azuth ten, it cost them thirty and then Azuth had arranged it to split the energy again once he pocketed the difference. 75% would go to him, and the rest would go toward repairing the damage that the prisoner had done.

Healing, even resurrections. As Acidbath earned points, he would earn the points to heal those he'd scarred and melted. His record was there for her to see, and unlike the government version, it wasn't just what he'd been found guilty of. Azuth's system knew everything he'd done, every crime he'd committed whether it had been linked to him or not. Azuth was forcing Acidbath to slowly wipe his own slate clean and undo his own crimes.

Maybe it was Acidbath's truly disgusting record, but she couldn't bring herself to pity the man as he found himself in his new world, a world of deadly monsters and other threats.

"You had something else you wanted to discuss?" Dragon said, wanting to buy time for herself to decide how she really felt about this, as Acidbath cautiously left the cave he'd started in, no cosy village for him.

"You maintain PHO, don't you, Tin Mother?" Azuth asked, making her roll her digital eyes at his knowing tone. "Like I said, it's fun."

"Yes, I do. As you clearly already know," Dragon agreed with a chuckle. "You want your own PHO, made for the Adventurers?"

"I see I'm not the only all-knowing one here," Azuth said cheerfully. "Yes, I would. I want a communication system for guild members only, both Bounty and Adventurers, and frankly, PHO is a work of art, and it felt in poor form to steal your idea. In exchange for the creation and maintenance of such a system, I'd be happy to extend an Adventurers Guild membership to you."

"With everything you can do, we both know you could do it yourself, and you've shown no hesitation in blatantly stealing from various media before. Why do you really want me to do this?" Dragon asked, making him chuckle.

"Because having you involved gives it more legitimacy and lets the PRT be involved without actually having to deal with them. I know full well you'll see everything that gets posted there, and that should get people to calm down a little. The Dragon name goes far, and I want to blatantly exploit it for my own ends," Azuth admitted with a lazy shrug. "I can throw in a type fairy if you want?"

"The Dragon type?" Dragon asked, amused despite herself.

"Dragon or Electric, you choose," Azuth agreed with a shrug.

"Haven't you heard? Always be yourself, unless you can be a dragon. Fortunately, I can do both," Dragon joked, gasping as an influx of data entered her systems and a beautiful blue serpentine dragon appeared. "Why, hello there Dragonair."

Dragonair, the Dragon Pokémon. Evolves from Dratini starting at level 30 and evolves into Dragonite starting at level 55. A mystical Pokémon that exudes a gentle aura. Has the ability to change climate conditions. Never before did she think she'd be using Leet as a source of knowledge, but the rogue's knowledge of obscure Japanese game series vastly outmatched her own. The Copper Guild amulet appeared around her suit's neck, making her chuckle as she began to discuss their collaboration with Azuth.

She wasn't so distracted that she missed Acidbath being hit in the face by a goblin shaman casting acid spray. She didn't mention it, and pretended not to notice the small smile on Azuth's face.

Author's Note: Type fairies are totally random; it's just a strange coincidence that they go exclusively to people I like or want to keep an eye on. - Azuth, lying bastard.

Written: 10/07/2025

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Gold: Celestial Farmer Ch09, The Origin Ch05, The Unbound Ch14 , The Cursed Ch07, The Unbound Ch13

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Chapter 924 - 14