You'll Die Next

"So, any ideas where to check?" Silvia asked.

"Uh, could you check? I have my hands full." Seeta replied, merrily shoving her face full of Dingles.

"Damn food detours." Silvia muttered to herself, flicking through a couple of locations on her watch. "We got the Richman smoke stop, you wanna go there?"

"You think the gem is there?"

"Well, it's as good a guess as anything else." Silvia sighed, adjusting her hat. "Besides, maybe the stock isn't cleared out, and I can get myself some free cigs for the rest of the game. Ooh, or some really fancy shit. It's the closest to the edge of this joint, anyway."

And so, the two of them hung around the edge of the pleasure district, not seeing anyone else, as they were most likely at the centre checking the other places out.

The two of them got to the Richman smoke stop, a small and charming building made of wood, which seemed pretty dangerous given it sold things you were meant to burn. Maybe it represented smokers having shorter lifespans or something. Next to it was a small crater, where it looked like something exploded.

"Doors open." Seeta noticed.

"Well, shit. That plan sucked." Silvia moaned. "But hey, we're already here, so how about we check for any good shit?"

The two of them went inside, and Silvia scanned the rows of cigarette brands and lighters with pictures of scantily clad women on them, before seeing a pack of cigars on the shelf above her. She used her vines to pick it up, and then expected the contents. Ten cigars lined up neatly, all looking exceptionally rich, which made sense considering the box cost 20,000 tua. But there weren't any smilers nearby, so she took a plastic bag out of her pocket, dumped all the cigars into it, and hid it neatly underneath her hat.

"Alright, any ideas where you wanna go next?" Silvia asked calmly.

"Not really." Seeta sighed.

"Cool, what about the…Bonfire halls? That sounds good."

"So, smoke shop was a bust." Odebode exhaled. Any ideas on where to go next?"

"Judging by this map, the explosion was at the gem store, so that's out of the question?" Cyrus replied quickly. "So that leaves four more places of interest. A casino, a strip club, a dance hall, and whatever a 'gentleman's spa' is. I hate this place." Cyrus groaned.

"Any ideas where we're going?" Valentina asked calmly.

"Don't really care." Odebode shrugged.

"All of them sound equally repulsive." Cyrus shuddered.

"Right." Valentina replied, rolling her eyes. "So the spa? It's the closest to us."

Walking past a few buildings, the three of them landed in front of the spa. A metal building which had a door and a series of glass windows instead of walls, all of which were covered by black curtains. Valentina and Odebode calmly entered the door, while Cyrus took a deep breath and shook his hands before going in.

"Cyrus, it's for a few minutes." Valentina explained calmly. "You just search the halls, and we'll take over the main rooms."

"Sounds good." Cyrus replied, catching a glimpse of a gothic woman in her underwear, and looking away. Odebode walked up to the poster and took it off the wall, rolling it up and putting it in his hoodie pocket.

"Really?" Cyrus asked. "You're keeping it?"

"She looks good, dude." Odebode replied casually.

"Whatever, let's just start looking." Cyrus hissed.

Odebode entered the first room. It looked like a normal drained swimming pool, leading into a changing room. He entered it, looking for a gemstone behind all the storage lockers. All of them were locked, so he summoned his sword, slicing all the lockers downwards as to not damage the gemstone. The west and north walls had nothing of note, but the east wall contained a gem…which started to beep as soon as he touched it. Luckily nothing caught fire when it exploded, so he calmly left the room.

Valentina checked the second floor of the building, entering the first room. There was a massage table and some bottles of suspicious liquid held in bottles with the labels torn off. She checked behind the bottles for any gems, and nothing was there. She looked up, and her eyes met a woman on the poster, smiling as she was in the process of removing her shirt. She looked into her eyes, and she looked genuinely happy. But these things could be edited, naturally. What drove you into this, girl? Promises of a better life? Love of the craft? I'll talk to people like you one day, she thought. Get to the bottom of this. Her watch buzzed, and she checked the message. Odebode found a fake, so it was safe to assume that the building didn't have anything in it. She sent a message to Cyrus saying she was leaving, which immediately got a 'Thank you' in response, followed by an explosion.

'Fake gem.' Was the next message from Cyrus.

Valentina left the building, and Cyrus and Odebode were already waiting for her.

"Let's…not do that again." Cyrus said immediately, lowering his cap over his face.

"We checking out the strip club next?" Odebode asked, causing Cyrus to elbow him in the ribs.

"Or we could…not?" Cyrus asked, his voice wavering. "Maybe the dance halls? I don't anything too…scandalous going down there."

"Okay, you aren't that far gone." Odebode sighed happily. "Sound good, Val?"

"Valentina." Cyrus shouted. "Use her full name, please."

"You…you can call me Val." Valentina replied dryly. "But anyway, dance hall sounds good."

In Club Simple, Micah made his way around the poles, checking the platform for any hidden compartments.

"Hey Amber, would these have any secret areas?"

"Secret compartments? Why would I know that?" Amber replied, touching the platform for any secret switches.

"I mean, do the Rosethorns not have any clubs like this?"

"Nah, it's mostly casinos." Amber replied. "My d-ear opposition might know a few things, though."

"Anchors?" Micah asked calmly.

"Those bastards." Amber affirmed quickly.

"Hey guys, I found something." Vanessa piped in, uneasy from behind a small white box in the back. "It's a bunch of buttons."

"Press a bunch of them." Micah yelled back.

"But what if I hit something bad?" Vanessa asked, starting to panic.

"I doubt a strip club has a self-destruct button, just hit the things!"

Vanessa rapidly slammed her hands across the sea of buttons, and a series of party lights in different colours came on, followed by the platforms in the rooms all falling down. Micah removed his glasses and put them safely on his forehead.

"Did that do anything?" Vanessa asked.

"It did a few things." Micah replied, looking down at hole in the floor the platform left behind.

"Are there stairs down there?" Micah asked, looking around for any doors, while Amber just lifted the shadows from the room to make a small stairway. She got down fine, but a visionless Micah fell onto the hard platform halfway through. His glasses luckily weren't broken, and the lights weren't as bad. So he put them back on to see a sophisticated room, one with black walls, leather couches, and wooden cabinets filled with what looked to be expensive drinks.

"Anchors?" Amber whispered to herself.

"Anchors?" Micah asked back.

"This looks exactly like an Anchor meeting room." Amber replied, her voice laced with suspicion. "Did they…have something to do with this place?"

"How much of this place do they run?" Micah asked.

"Can't say for sure. The Rosethorns have some people in local governments on levels three and four, but they might have some level five guys."

"But if they run everything, how come this place got shut down?"

"I'm not sure if they have that level of clout. I know I couldn't pull something like this off."

She shook her head for a few seconds, putting her hair over her eyepatch.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence, it's not like fancy rooms are exclusive to the Anchors."

"So, if you know about the Anchors, how much of this stuff would they drink?"

Amber looked at the cabinet at the end of the room. Eurin whiskey, Illusion Rose, and Carta scotch. All things the Anchor leader loved. Not like these were just props, either. These all costed insane money. The dust didn't look fake, either.

"Okay, maybe he had something to do with it?" Amber muttered, her one eye looking uneasy.

"Hey, is that a gem?" Micah asked, moving some of the bottles. Sure enough, it was a gem, but as soon as he picked it up, it started beeping. One explosion later, and the duo were at the top floor again.

"Well, it seems there's nothing of note here. Let's inspect the casino."

"Yeah, I got nothing." Eric sighed. "Any ideas where a casino would hide a gem?"

The three of them were in the middle of a set of poker tables, none of which were hiding the gem. Parallel to the door on the opposite end of the room was a bar table and lining the perimeter of the brown wall were a series of slot machines.

"Do we have to play the slots?" Yun-Yeong asked.

"Shit, how long would that take?" Eric grumbled, scratching his head.

"Beats me. I'd say one would be rigged, maybe?"

"Fuck it, I don't have any better ideas." Eric sighed.

"How are you guys doing?"

Eric turned to see Vanessa in front of Micah and Amber.

"Yeah, we got nothing." Wendy sighed. "We're gonna see if the slot machines have the jewels?"

"Hm. You guys check the light fixtures?" Micah asked, pointing upwards.

Looking up, the chandelier on the ceiling contained a host of lampshades, around twenty in a variety of soft hues.

"Ah, got it." Eric nodded, letting the water come out of his fingernails. Letting the tendrils spread upwards to shake the lampshades. It took a few seconds, but a gem eventually came out, already beeping as soon as it fell. Before anyone could get out the way, it exploded.

"Guys?!" Vanessa yelled as the cloud of smoke surrounded her teammates. There was some coughing heard but as the smoke cleared, everyone looked fine.

Minus Yun-Yeong.

Next to her was a puddle of blood. Not just blood, either. It looked like some kind of lump was in the middle of it.

"Yun?" Vanessa asked, parasites tunnelling out of her skin.

"It's nothing. Ignore it." Yun-Yeong shook her head, almost falling over and being caught by Eric.

"Yun. Seriously, what is this?" Eric asked. He shook her a little to ensure she was still alive, only getting a small groan in response.

"Blood rot." Micah added. "Late stage."

"She's…what?" Wendy asked. "Yun's gonna be okay, right?"

"She has a couple months, at the very best." Micah replied coldly. "But…I might be able to help."

"What is it? What can you do?" Eric asked.

"Ignore him. It won't work." Yun-Yeong replied, standing up by herself.

"Simply put, your team for the finale is a man down." Micah said calmly. "Let me into your team, and I can pull some strings. Get her the treatment she needs."

"Wait, what?" Amber asked. "Micah, there are six people here."

"Unfortunate, yes. One of us will have to go, it seems. Any ideas for who it could be?"

"You."

"Excuse me?" Micah looked at the trio.

"You." Wendy repeated. "All this stuff about having to kill somebody here. Trying to get one of us killed. Hell, you probably voted off Huang to get us here!"

"I voted for Ulrich, miss." Micah explained calmly.

"The votes were me, Eric, Vanessa, and Yun-Yeong!" Wendy screamed. "And you're friends with Amber, meaning you voted for Huang!"

"So who did Huang vote for?" Micah asked, as calm as ever. "You left him out."

Wendy stopped for a second, counting the votes on her fingers.

"Ulrich got eight votes, right? So four people voted for him."

"You, Eric, Vanessa…and Huang." Micah explained. "I informed Yun-Yeong here of her predicament, and that she was in a five-man team. And it would seem she followed my advice."

"Yun…You didn't do it, did you?" Vanessa asked, parasites pouring out of her skin. "You didn't vote to kill Huang, did you?"

Yun-Yeong stayed silent. She didn't look at her. She just started tearing up. Wendy saw this, and ran up to Micah, throwing a punch into his stomach. Micah recoiled in pain, and Wendy grabbed his shirt and threw him onto the ground.

"You still voted for Huang!" She yelled, electricity leaking out of her hair. "And she only voted for him because you told her to!" She started stomping on his face until Amber tripped her up using her shadows.

"Believe what you want." Micah shrugged, wiping the blood which was slowly crystalizing from his face. "But anyway, I feel like I'll leave you to it. I'm certain the bonfire halls are hiding the jewel, anyway."

Micah walked out of the casino, Amber and Vanessa reluctantly following him.

"Seriously, what the hell was all of that?" Amber snapped. Vanessa didn't say anything, instead just breathing heavily.

"Driving a wedge between them, obviously." Micah smiled. "Yun-Yeong's going to die anyway, so why not get her out of the picture and secure a winning place?"

"You think you're gonna win?" Vanessa whispered behind him.

"Yes I am." Micah replied confidently. "I have the power to change Nova, permanently."

"S-so did Huang." Vanessa yelled through angry tears.

"I'm sure he did." Micah replied sarcastically.

"He was gonna let us out of here!" Vanessa screamed. "He had records of life before the city! It's still habitable! He was gonna lead us to a new era! And you killed him!"

"Got it." Micah replied, not even looking at Vanessa.

"I need you to know one thing." Vanessa said. "You're dying. I swear on Huang's grave, you are dying next."