MatchlessMinion returned, and reported that SaltySiamese had immediately contacted Justin the Grey. "But he told her that he would have to consult with people, who probably can't log on for a day or two, in order to commit to such a large expense. So, we should just sell it," he announced.

"You did tell her it's just a condensed power source, and he still considered buying it?" Danika questioned.

"Yup," MatchlessMinion replied cheerfully. "But come on, if it's," he waved his little hands and wiggled his fingers, "a solidified chunk of the energy that's all around us, it's like we're holding onto a nuclear bomb right? Even if the wizard doesn't know what his guild would use it for, he probably doesn't want his rivals to have it."

Danika hesitated, but MatchlessMinion ruthlessly posted the stone for sale online. Then he announced that he was messaging Shrubbery, and asking her to log in.

Danika glanced at s.h.i.+nichi worriedly, but he just reached over and patted her hand, and a few minutes later the dryad logged on. Shrubbery didn't give any indication that she'd been avoiding the little Chinchillamin, and the two of them argued good-naturedly as MatchlessMinion caught her up on the current situation.

Shrubbery looked up to see ZipZing hovering worriedly, and shook her head, smiled, and then shrugged. Danika didn't quite know how to interpret that, but once Shrubbery understood the situation, she not only didn't clear up the noxious fluid, she planted poison needle thorned brambles. She had ZipZing use her plant growth spell on all the seeds, while she saved her own energy to carefully encourage the young plants into entangling the entire lot.

Shrubbery also insisted, "Match, turn the stone over to our guild NPC. If it's worth that much it'll take you forever to transfer the funds to the guild won't it?"

Danika was a little surprised when MatchlessMinion didn't argue, but replied thoughtfully, "I guess if Song Solvin handles the actual transaction, then the funds will go directly to the guild, but she'll have to be protected until it's finalized."

"I can help with that," s.h.i.+nichi volunteered.

"You're pretty low level now," Shrubbery reminded him doubtfully.

"I have a few tricks I can use, plus, I don't intend to fight alone," s.h.i.+nZing stated a bit cheekily as he flourished his tiny legendary sword.

Danika didn't argue either, when s.h.i.+nichi firmly insisted that she should sleep instead of staying up to fight with them. He gazed at her with a slightly incredulous expression that made her giggle as she admitted, "I have to meet people at the airport really early in the morning, so I really shouldn't play all night."

After he very thoroughly kissed her goodnight, he didn't stay. He went home, and got his dad and the other members of Underneath to log on with him.

--

When Danika woke up and checked for messages, she discovered that they had all stayed up half the night and protected Song Solvin, their guild hall tree, and the stone from dozens of murderous a.s.saults and attempted thefts.

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The Philosopher's Stone had sold for eighteen million coin. It was a bit less than it had appraised for, but still an astonis.h.i.+ng amount from a sudden night auction. Endless Song didn't hold onto the stockpile of coin for long though, because once the current guild upgrades and t.i.tles were paid off, ZipZing could approve the upgrade that would let the guild hold a second property. The guild would be able to officially buy the plot in Tianxia from Kit now.

All of the guild members who had partic.i.p.ated in the impromptu auction defense were red flagged for PK, even Kit and Ryullusion.

The final touch was the mission that MatchlessMinion had left on the guild board, for the bard Melodias and his friends to complete, while everyone else laid low. It was a list of players who had defaced the guild hall property, and Logical Heart's instructions on how to use his map to locate them, so that the bard could "curse" them with the most annoying and repet.i.tive theme song buff that he could come up with.

When Danika met Lin Hao at the airport, he greeted her with, "You know, when you suggested handing over the guild leaders.h.i.+p to that kid, I thought it was just because of your own insecurities. But he might actually do pretty well if you really want to push it onto him."

Danika stared at him blankly and said, "h.e.l.lo to you too? MatchlessMinion or Ai- I mean s.h.i.+nZing?"

Lin Hao laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "I meant Match."

"Did you stay up all night killing people too?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course not," Lin Hao replied virtuously. He spoiled it by adding, "I ran out of battery after only about an hour."

Danika laughed and then said, "Speaking of my insecurities, even though you had me a.s.signed as team leader because I'm a resident here, I'm not actually leading am I?"

Lin Hao replied, "Of course you are. I'm no good at talking to bureaucrats, but since you were going to be in the support division, you'll do fine. Just think of them as idiots who are running a modded client and want a refund."

Danika didn't think that his advice was very reliable, since they would apparently be meeting with both law enforcement and a legal team from the company that was renting out the site where the illicit copy of 'Living Jade Empire' was running.

Chen Zing, and the rest of the recovery team arrived within a few hours. After only a brief meeting in a rented conference room, the Starcraft Technologies recovery team set off to meet with the local authorities.

--

Danika couldn't help feeling like any of the other team members would have been more qualified to lead the team. She was certain that they were only supporting the facade of her leaders.h.i.+p because she was the only conveniently local citizen they had, especially Chen Zing, with his expressionless observations. But not only did her own teammates continue the charade, but the people they were meeting with all treated her as though she had every bit of the authority, that she felt like she was pretending to have.

They met with cooperative, but pessimistic law enforcement officers, who were doubtful that the software could be recovered. The Starcraft Technologies team had decided to leave out the details about which game had been stolen, and that it was merely a copy.

They met with the uncooperative legal staff of the company that owned the facility where the game was being housed. They met with bored officials and attentive investigators, who provided them with more information about the site, and the people who had possession of the game.

And every single person they met during the day took Danika's position as the team leader as a matter of fact. The fact that she was in a chair got more commentary than her apparent authority. By the middle of the afternoon, Danika finally realized that as far as any of them were concerned, she was just doing the job that she was there to do.

It wasn't until the end of the day, when Lin Hao asked tiredly what time she thought they ought to try to start in the morning, that she realized that her teammates weren't just politely carrying out a charade. They too were simply expecting her to do the job she had been a.s.signed, and apparently none of them had felt that there was anything wrong with the decisions she'd made along the way.

Danika felt completely worn out, but weirdly elated when she returned to her apartment. She laid on her familiar floor and stared up at her ceiling for a few minutes before preparing for her bath. It was strange to think that when she quit work tomorrow, she'd be living with s.h.i.+nichi, and this room would be empty.

Before she slept, she checked her messages. She hadn't expected to get to attend Underneath's return concert with everything that was going on, but she was a little regretful when she looked through the snapshot videos Mei had sent her. The concert hadn't actually started until she had been finis.h.i.+ng up, but it would have been nearly impossible to get into it, even if she'd taken s.h.i.+nichi's offer to have security take her back stage against his manager's advice.

A message arrived, and she closed the image of Underneath, and laughed. s.h.i.+nichi had sent: "Want to go out for an early breakfast? I think we'll be done here in time for that, and I'll need to meet the moving crew at your place by nine anyway."

She replied quickly: "Yes. What about sleep?"

His reply was a little delayed, but he sent back: "If I'm asleep when you get home tomorrow, just crawl in with me?"

She was sure she had a silly grin on her face as she replied: "I will."