The orcs had been the ones to win. After Nathan and co had gotten out of the mini-dungeon, they'd immediately received a quest-failure notification, mentioning that the orcs had been the victors. As it turned out, despite the general lack of wisdom, a bunch of highly disciplined, highly focused orc soldiers were actually capable of speedrunning the dungeon at an immensely fast pace. Nathan didn't particularly mind. The important part was that it hadn't been humanity who'd gotten the win. If humanity had wont, that would've meant they'd be the only ones to reach the next circle.

  With that, they were down to one final quest.

  "I didn't even know you had a house." He opened the door and stepped inside.

  "I mean, I don't really advertise it. But during my downtime I like to stream from here and just talk with the viewers."

  Nathan glanced around at the interior of Chad's home. There was a thick layer of dust on the front table, indicating that it probably hadn't been used in ages. There were a few small decorations like houseplants and framed paintings. Bizarrely enough, Chad had somehow gotten his hands on multiple anime figurines and displayed them prominently in a glass case in the corner of the room. Nathan genuinely had no idea how this was possible. Had he custom-sculpted them or something?

  Against the wall, there was a desk that looked a little bit more well used. There was a laptop plugged into a portable generator sitting on top.

  "How did you get a hold of that?" Nathan asked.

  "Some student had it in their backpack. Turns out he was a pretty major gamer and the whole laptop is stocked with stuff to show off on stream."

  Chad stepped over to the desk and maneuvered his stream window on top of it. He touched some controls and the screen of the laptop flashed into existence on the stream window. He then hit the screen and made it so that it was just showing Nathan and Chad.

  "So all you're going to do is just… stream? Without stopping? That's really going to attract attention?" Nathan asked.

  Chad shot him a thumbs-up. "Yup. I haven't done a subathon the entire time that I've been streaming here in the Nine Circles. Not only that, but this is the first time that a lot of people, including my viewers, are going to have a few hours to actually talk to you. Under normal circumstances, when you're not fighting against world-ending threats."

  If he was honest, Nathan still didn't really understand the appeal. Actually, he didn't really understand why people watched Chad at all. If he were in their shoes, he would never want to watch the streams, knowing that there was a decent chance Chad could just die on stream. But then again, that was him. Nathan supposed that somebody like Mara was probably a huge fan.

  Nathan nodded at Chad. "Boot it up."

  Chad reached out and clicked the go-live button. Instantly, millions of individuals started streaming in. Chat lit up like a house on fire.

  Nathan squinted his eyes.

  Was that all supposed to be the same message?

  MANUALBOTS <> ROLL OUT

  MANUALBOTS <> ROLL OUT

  MANUALBOTS <> ROLL OUT

  Nathan's eyebrows shot up in alarm. "I think that you might be hacked, Chad. Look, everybody's just saying the same thing—"

  "No, Nathan. That's just spam."

  "Spam? Like emails?"

  "Kind of. Everybody thought it was really funny how you roasted the Manualbot and so they've become kind of a meme overnight."

  Nathan was getting more confused by the second.

  "A meme? I thought a meme was when you had a funny image and then you had text on the top and the bottom."

  Chad was expressionless for several seconds. Nathan had no doubt that the sunglasses were doing an immense amount of work in hiding the expression on his face at the current moment.

  The chat had finally changed from the same repeated message into a new litany of insults against Nathan.

  This man is secretly an 80-year-old grandma in disguise

  I've never seen such Boomer energy from someone under the age of 40

  hey guys are we gonna talk about how hot his sister was

  Nathan raised an eyebrow at that last one.

  "Right," Chad said. "So I had announced earlier that I was doing a special subathon event to help advertise something for my buddy here. He has something that he needs to tell you all."

  Nathan perked up. He was supposed to talk now, right?

  "H–hello? Is the microphone on?" He leaned in next to the camera, giving himself a rather unflattering look due to his close proximity. "Can you hear me?"

  your muted

  muted muted muted muted

  They're lying, you're not muted.

  can someone please remove this man from the stream I think I'm dying of secondhand cringe

  "I can't tell if I'm being trolled or not," Nathan muttered. "I'm just going to assume that everybody can hear me."

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  Chad made a circular motion with his hand, indicating for Nathan to continue. Nathan sucked in a deep breath.

  "I know this is kind of an unconventional way to make this announcement, but there's no one I know with as much reach as Chad," Nathan said. "So basically, there's an important thing that you all need to know."

  Nathan's mouth felt dry. It was more than a little scary to realize that he was in front of an audience of millions, even though he wasn't seeing them face-to-face. He glanced over at the top right of the window and noticed that the number had increased.

  By… a lot.

  Had it always said three hundred million?

  Based on the slight creases around Chad's eyes, Nathan was suspecting that this was an unusual number.

  "Okay, so basically," Nathan said. "We managed to figure out an alternative way to get to the next circle."

  Chat had already been going quickly before. As soon as Nathan said that, the messages became unreadable due to the sudden influx of questions and comments. Nathan took his eyes off the chat box and returned his attention to the camera.

  "But it'll require your cooperation," he said. "I contracted some really awesome people who can help in this matter, but I need everybody to attach to a soulbound town as quickly as possible. Get inside of it and hunker down. Find the top ten, they'll take you in. If possible, get to me and my towns. I have plenty of room to spare."

  Nathan bowed down formally, feeling it was the right thing to do. "I apologize for the inconvenience, and I know many of you are probably trying to level up and get ready for the next circle. You can still do that, just make sure you're ready to get into a soulbound town as quickly as possible for when I give the word. Tell all of your friends about this announcement, make sure everybody knows. I don't want anybody to be left behind."

  The chat had ceased to be a chat box and was more just a vague streaming white line. Nathan reached up and scratched the back of his neck.

  "Think that worked?" he asked.

  Chad shrugged in return. "We'll only know over the next couple of days. No way to know for sure right now."

  With that done, Nathan stood up from his seat and stepped outside of Chad's home. One more thing to take care of for the day.

  “A stream? I’ve heard of this technology from the younger fish, but I’ve never seen it for myself.”

  The Golden Realm was a safe place, but it wasn’t particularly hospitable. When Nathan had shown up to his meeting with Greg, table in hand and a small plate of biscuit cookies, Greg hadn’t made a peep of sound. Perhaps he understood what Nathan was going for. Either that or he was too confused to say anything.

  “I certainly hope your plan works,” Greg said. “It would be a great victory if that were to happen.”

  “I agree, but we need to figure out next steps.”

  The reason why Nathan had asked for another meeting with Greg was to figure out what they were going to do about their final opponent. Thalassa had her own plan, he knew. But it wouldn’t hurt to go over some extra stuff with an outsider and see what they could come up with.

  “As you’re well aware,” Greg said. “Beating a creature like the Mother System is a trial in the impossible.”

  Nathan nibbled on his biscuit cookie. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve gotten this whole explanation from someone else, we don’t need to go in-depth with it.”

  “Were you not the one who led us into this battle? Shouldn’t it be you who comes up with a way out of it?”

  Nathan winced at the reminder of responsibility. He thought for a few seconds before he let out a sigh.

  “Look, I have some vague ideas—" Read: none "—but I’m just looking to hear from someone else. Does that make sense?”

  Greg remained quiet. His fins were eerily still in the air.

  “The biggest problem is the nature of our enemy,” he said.

  When he spoke, Nathan felt the air rush out his gut from relief. “Nature? Like, the fact that we’re fighting an eldritch horror?”

  “Yes, but not only that,” Greg said. “Remember what we face—a system. An alien being with alien thoughts and alien bodily processes far beyond anything we could ever hope to understand.”

  “I managed to kill a system in the past, though.”

  “Do you think you’d be able to replicate that feat?”

  Nathan wanted to respond with yes, but even he knew that such a statement would be a bald-faced lie.

  “No,” he said. “That whole sequence of events was pretty much pure luck. I wish I could say otherwise, but it just wouldn’t be the truth.”

  Greg held up a fin. Nathan suspected it was supposed to be a firm-looking gesture, but it mostly looked ridiculous given the sheer size of his body in comparison to his fin.

  “Peace, Nathan,” Greg said. “I’m not trying to blame you. The fact that a system died is still an achievement to be proud of, even if there were extenuating circumstances. My point is that something needs to fundamentally change in how we approach the coming battle. We need a way to close the gap, and to do that, we need information on the specifics of the Mother System’s nature.”

  “How would we do that, though?” Nathan tilted his head. “I mean, it sounds like a nice plan, but I’m not sure where we would find someone with that kind of knowledge. We’d need a system, someone like B32, and that guy’s dead as a doornail—ignoring the fact that he’d never help us anyway.”

  “But if we were to ask for someone’s help, B32 would be the optimal person.”

  Nathan wasn’t sure how to feel about this hypothetical. He stopped chewing on his biscuit.

  “Um,” he said, eloquent as a baby elephant stepping on its own trunk. “Okay, why would B32 be the optimal person? And let’s just ignore the fact that he’s, you know, dead.”

  “Because he has a reason to fight alongside us,” Greg said. “Think about it. The Mother System would never accept him back into the fold after his failure. He’d be slaughtered and ground down into his essence. He wouldn’t be able to run—not for long anyway. It would be his only option to try to find a way to kill the Mother System, and he may be the only one we know with such a chance.”

  “Because he’s a system.” Okay, Nathan was starting to see the logic. “The only problem with this is that he’s dead.”

  Greg didn’t respond.

  The heat of the air turned up by a few degrees. Nathan’s shirt clung to his chest in an uncomfortable way.

  “Greg?” Nathan said. “What’s with the lack of response?”

  “Systems don’t die, Nathan,” Greg said. “Not without extreme effort. They’re multidimensional beings, after all. Their nature is fundamentally different from that of mortal creatures like us.”

  Nathan held up his hand. “Are you saying that he faked his death?”

  “No. I’m doubtful of that. Instead, I’m suggesting that the state he’s in is more akin to a coma than any sort of full death.”

  Instantly, a memory flashed to life inside Nathan’s head.

  B32 had said something like that, hadn’t he? That this would be a long rest, almost equivalent to death? But it was still a different process.

  “Let’s say this is true,” Nathan said. “And that B32 really isn’t dead and that he’s our best shot of killing the Mother System. What are you suggesting?”

  Greg said nothing.

  Nathan could fill in the gaps.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Nathan awkwardly smiled. “This is some kind of fish-people humor that I’ve never heard of? Say psyche, please.”

  “Psyche.”

  “You don’t know what that means, do you?”

  “No.”

  Nathan trailed his fingers down his face. His stomach rolled at the thought of what Greg was implying.

  “You’re seriously suggesting that we bring B32 back,” Nathan said. “Really?”

  “You know,” Greg’s tone turned thoughtful. “Now that you’ve brought it up—”

  “I didn’t bring anything up, that was clearly what you were implying.”

  “You make a good point, Nathan. As much as I detest the idea, B32 might be our only option.”

  “I didn’t say that. Stop putting words in my mouth.”

  “If we were to revive him, he really would have to be on our side by default. There would be no way for him to ever do his old role.”

  Nathan grimaced. Greg was making an uncomfortably good point.

  I can’t believe I’m seriously about to let myself get talked into this, he thought.

  “I’ll consider it. Anything else?”

  “No, that’s all. All I’m asking is that you consider it.”

  The conversation continued on for a little bit longer, but in the back of Nathan’s mind, he could hear the question repeating in his head. Would he be willing to revive one of his greatest enemies in order to face down someone even stronger than him?