Together, we scouted the plaza, following the entire perimeter and studying the ruined buildings that ringed the protective dome. They were the most solid buildings I'd seen so far. Still no windows or doors, but a few had partial roofs and interiors. Could monsters sneak up through those to launch attacks?

I hated the thought of knocking them down to create a better defensive buffer, but might not be a bad idea. At least the folks building the walls around town would have access to plenty of building materials. Imagining the town filling up, I should have brought my castle with me. I could have staked out my own spot.

The demon statues inside of the plaza looked brand new. No erosion at all. The devils varied in size and shape and specifics, but all had been carved with grins showcasing jagged fangs, and all had long-clawed hands. Not super homey, and some of them reminded me of the demons in the vision. Now the whole demon theme was making more sense.

The markings I'd noticed before really were numbers, ranging from 1 on the southeastern side of town, incrementing by 1 in a counter-clockwise pattern around the perimeter, to 40. That would make dividing the space into blocks pretty easy. I sent messages to Burns and Tony with updates on what I found so far.

Tony: "Levels 60 and above? About what we feared. Clockwork monsters, though? As in steampunk?"

Lucas: "You got it, although the flying sharks don't have armor."

Burns: "Thank Davie Jones for that, but most people can't handle monsters with levels above 60, especially if they're moving in squads."

Lucas: "Make sure expedition teams are large enough to handle it and have a strategy in place. They're made of metal, so armor-piercing attacks or overwhelming force are advised."

Tony: "How well do elemental attacks work?"

Lucas: "Not sure yet. Will test it."

Cyrus's big announcer voice boomed over the city, so loud distant crashes suggested some of the least stable ruins might have collapsed from the sound.

"Congratulations, humans from Earth! You've cleared stage 2 and reached the halfway point in your quest to defeat Queen Marisara. Well done for making it this far with style and courage. Although over 70% of your companions have perished to get you this far, those of you who remain have proven yourselves survivors."

"I'm happy to announce that your struggles and bravery have not gone unnoticed. Some of you have heard rumors, and now I can confirm that your every move, every moment, every devastating failure and, more importantly, every incredible victory have been recorded in perfect detail. Daily highlights have been shared across the multiverse and some of you plucky heroes have already started accumulating an enthusiastic following."

"That's better news than you may imagine because by reaching stage 3, you have unlocked the next phase of the game! Inducting a new world into the multiverse is extremely important, and watching trial games that determine the fates of new worlds has become one of the most popular events of all time. The highlight reels have given viewers a taste and inflamed their enthusiasm to the bursting point."

"In exactly 1 hour the video feeds will go live, allowing literally trillions of viewers to watch your every move real-time. Isn't that exciting?"

I stared up at the sky, mind racing. He'd given me so many clues, and I'd expected the first part. People were watching some of what we did, that was clear, but real-time views in the trillions? The thought of so many people watching everything I did made my skin crawl.

I thought back to my 10,000 movies experience. In there, we'd been able to move around inside the movies, watching things from every angle. Could viewers watch us like that?

"Shanghai," I muttered, then frowned. Cyrus was messing with our swears again. Was Shanghai a movie reference, or a city? I tried swearing some more.

"Marrakesh, Tulsa, Timbuktu!"

Cities, then. On the first stage, the Jumanji reference swears had been pretty lame. Changing our swears into composer names on stage 2 wasn't so bad. Now it was cities. Could be worse, though. We could be swearing children's toys, or something. Cyrus continued, dragging me out of my thoughts.

"Watching videos in the multiverse is very different than movies you're familiar with. Viewers will get to change perspectives from any angle, freeze the action, and replay it from a different perspective. Those who pay an additional fee unlock VIP access, where they can experience a moment of your life as if they were inside your head, seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling everything as clearly as you did."

Now that was invasive. Even worse than the movie experience. How could they record all of our senses? Cyrus didn't pause long enough for me to complain. He was on a roll.

"Incredible, right? And good news for you since you receive special VIP points for every VIP experience purchased of your moments. VIP points unlock reserved gear and loot options not available to anyone else. Even better, for every 10 million VIP points any of you baby humans earns, you gain an experience boost to push you to the next level. So those of you who do something exceptional will reap even more rewards."

Wow. As much as the new viewer access sounded terrible, invasive, and potentially distracting, the VIP points did sound intriguing, and potentially game-changing. Better gear and loot was always welcome, but the promise of faster leveling was even more amazing.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Would they sell VIP access to earlier moments? Over the past 2 weeks, I'd lived through more insane near-death experiences and boss battles than anyone. If viewers liked action movies, I might win a lot of points.

"Even more importantly, bidding is now open for sponsorship. Those of you who shine may draw the attention and backing of very powerful sponsors, unlocking even more benefits."

Sponsors? How did that work? Cyrus had made it clear someone had to pay for at least some of the loot we received. Would sponsors give us access to more high-tiered loot boxes? Why? What would they gain out of it?

I imagined multiverse commercials for breakfast cereal or spaceships interrupting the experience for viewers trying to watch us fight for our lives. That would be such a shame, but would not surprise me.

I thought the announcements were over, but Cyrus continued again.

"You'll get more details as more of you move up to stage 3. Be aware that your actions and victories will have even more impact on your success and progression than ever before. Not only through gaining viewers and followers and favorites, winning VIP points, and even securing a sponsor, your contributions result in the calculation of your placement among the ranks of all other Earth humans."

"Top performers will be celebrated and win bonuses at the end of each stage. To help motivate you to do your best, I'm thrilled to reveal the current leader board. The top 10 leader board will remain publicly accessible in your menus and will be shared periodically."

"Without further ado, here are your current Top-10 Earth players!"

A huge, glowing blue screen appeared in the air. A long list of names filled the screen, written in bright, golden letters.

"Earth Top-10 Leader Board"

Elizabeth Maberly

Team: Pride & Prejudice

Class: Kingpin Diva

Level: 50

Burns Turner

Team: Pirates of the Caribbean

Class: Power Line Drill Sergeant

Level: 51

Lucas Altan

Team: Jumanji

Class: Mystic Reaver

Level: 38

Sam Sternberg

Team: Lord of the Rings

Class: Luminary Brewster

Level: 52

5.Sally Rogers

Team: Avengers

Class: River Toggle Wrangler

Level: 52

6.Tony Waldau

Team: Avengers

Class: Penthouse Foundry Sensei

Level: 51

Paul MacDonald

Team: Great British Baking Show

Class: Confection Cabinet Cheerleader

Level: 51

8.Jerry Alexander

Team: Seinfeld

Class: Seismic Warp Brawler

Level: 50

Steve McDonough

Team: Jumanji

Class: Storm Legion Foreman

Level: 50

Evan Burrows

Team: Lord of the Rings

Class: Potato Salad Shaman

Level: 50

That was quite a list, but it didn't add up. Some of the placements seemed strange. First, it was obvious level wasn't the only consideration since my level was only 38. Of course, as a tier-1 human, I probably should have been at the top of the list if raw power was the only factor.

Given my tier-1 power and all of my unique accomplishments, how were things calculated? I didn't know enough about the vague bonuses promised to know if I should care about hitting number 1. It was great to see Steve made it to number 9 and gave team Jumanji two representatives. No doubt, Ruby was already plotting how to catch up. The thought made me smile.

So how did Elizabeth snag the top spot? She was an epic-level plotter and owner of the popular Expanse night club, but probably more importantly, she was also now Port Royale's mayor. Did political power factor in? It must.

Did my nearly 2 council seats worth of experience count? I'd lose half a seat's worth of extra experience once stage 2 collapsed in a couple days. If political power played a big role, shouldn't Paul have been listed higher? His class level was high and he'd been mayor for most of our existence on Arasha.

For the lower numbers on the list, level seemed to play a decisive factor. Why not for the top spots? There had to be a lot more going on behind the scenes that Cyrus hadn't explained.

Which of course meant a lot of folks who already resented me for being the AI's buddy would see my placement high on the list as another example of favoritism. My level looked way too low, despite the fact everyone knew I was strong. I sighed. No doubt I'd hear more grumbling and vicious rumors about that.

On a fun note, Evan the Tatermancer made it onto the list! Ha. His new class, Potato Salad Shaman, sounded interesting and suggested he'd doubled down yet again on his potato-themed class. And why not? It seemed to be working so far. Cyrus liked creative classes and interesting builds.

Only Sam had kept his same class name when he hit level 50. Did that mean he hadn't permed a new spell, or that he'd kept so focused on his core competencies that even with the new permanent spell, he didn't change enough to need a new class? I'd have to ask. If not all classes evolved to something new, that was good news. Class changes introduced all sorts of new risks along with the new opportunities.

As I re-read the announcements, I noticed something about the VIP points I'd missed earlier. "So 10 million VIP points for a baby human to get a level. That means tier-0."

"Right you are, Lucas," Cyrus said. "For you, and for anyone else who eventually evolves to tier 1, you need 80 million VIP points to get a level."

My earlier hopes fell. "That sounds like a lot of points."

At least it wasn't a full 10-times increase, but I'd hoped for less than an 8-fold multiplier.

"It is. Most folks won't earn anywhere near that many VIP points because most folks are not interesting. You are. It will be fun to see how many points you can win."

Before I could ask another question, Cyrus's voice again boomed with an announcement for everyone.

"With the opening of a new stage, you again win a sneak peak into the life of Queen Marisara, the ultimate stage-4 boss, the powerful being you must figure out how to defeat. You'll have 7 days on stage 3 to defeat the stage bosses, reach level 50, and complete any additional quests that might be required in order to ascend to the final stage and take on the great queen herself."

Eva's voice boomed as loud as Cyrus's had. "New Quest! Discover and defeat the stage-3 bosses."

Nothing more, not even a hint telling us how many stage bosses we might run into. At least we'd get an extra loot box out of the deal. Cyrus spoke again, voice shaking the world.

"Don't slack off, humans. It would be a shame to see you fail in the eleventh hour."

"Not encouraging," I muttered as my mind was swept away in another vision.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.